Olive Ann Burns

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Olive Ann Burns (July 17, 1924–July 4, 1990) was an American writer from Georgia best-known for her one book Cold Sassy Tree, published in 1984.

[edit] Background

Olive Ann Burns was born in Banks County, Georgia. Her father was a farmer, but was forced to sell his farm in 1931 during the Great Depression. At this point, the Burns family moved to Commerce, Georgia. Olive Ann attended Mercer University, where she wrote for the college magazine. Her sophomore year she transferred to the University of North Carolina, where she majored in journalism.

[edit] Career

Olive Ann worked for the Atlanta Journal and wrote under the pseudonym "Amy Larkin." She married Andy Sparks, a fellow journalist. In 1971 Olive Ann began writing down family stories as dictated by her parents. In 1975 she was diagnosed with cancer, and began to change the family stories into a novel which would later become Cold Sassy Tree. The novel was finally published eight years after it was begun, in 1984. Burns received so many letters pleading for a follow-up novel, that she began writing Leaving Cold Sassy. The novel was published in 1992 along with Burns's notes because she passed away before finishing the manuscript.