Product Description

Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann  Burns unforgettable story of a Georgia town at the  turn of the century, has captivated millions of  readers with its tale of Grandpa Blakeslee, his young  bride Miss Love, and the irrepressible  fiteen-year-old Will Tweedy. Throughout her long battle with  cancer, Olive Ann Burns worked passionately on a  sequel to this magical book. Only during her final  days did she realize she wouldn't complete it,  dictating from her hospital bed her wishes that the  finished chapters be published.

The result  is Leaving Cold Sassy - a  portait of the grown-up Will Tweedy; of the feisty  young schoolteacher who captures his heart; of the  town that has claimed a place in the American  imagination; and, in a fascinating reminiscence by her  editor, of Olive Ann Burns, a writer who didn't get  a chance to finish her extraordinary tale.

  Complete with Olive Ann Burn's notes for later  scenes and chapters exactly as she wrote them,  Leaving Cold Sassy is a final, loving  goodbye to Cold Sassy, Georgia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #792031 in Books
• Published on: 1994-02-01
• Released on: 1994-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This unfinished sequel to Cold Sassy Tree includes a reminiscence by Burns's editor, Katrina Kenison.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
When her long and valiant fight against cancer and congestive heart failure came to an end, Burns's last wish was that the finished chapters of the sequel to Cold Sassy Tree ( LJ 10/15/84) might reach her many faithful readers in published form. Leaving Cold Sassy honors that wish, but it represents an act of homage rather than a finished work of fiction. The extant 15 chapters are obviously in need of tightening and polishing, and the reader must depend on the editor's notes to learn of Burns's plans for the novel; the actual text barely introduces the story. Burns intended to tell, again in Will Tweedy's (her father's) voice, the fictionalized story of her parents' marriage--sorely tried by Depression poverty, incompatibility, and her father's infidelities, yet finally successful. Fans of Cold Sassy Tree will enjoy the affectionate recollections of Burns's editor and friend, which constitute one third of the text. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/92.
- Anneliese Schwarzer, formerly with "Library Journal"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
In 1984, the late Burns (d. 1990) published Cold Sassy Tree--a spirited, southern small-town rural tale with robust characters and a regional period (1906) diction that was as tangy and real as grits. Now comes this partial sequel--which continues the story of Will Tweedy and the courting of his future wife--that Burns, with extraordinary courage, worked on through her final illness. Burns's editor, Katrina Kenison, who was left with notes and letters by the author to indicate plotlines beyond the 15 finished chapters here, has contributed a tribute and personal reminiscence. The previous novel concerned the adventures of narrator Will Tweedy, then 14, of Cold Sassy Tree, Georgia, who among others wondered at the shocking marriage of newly widowed Grandpa Blakeslee and the stylish Miss Love. Now, in 1917, Grandpa is gone, and boarding with Miss Love is that ``pure-T beauty,'' new schoolteacher Sanna Maria Klein, who's infatuated with a Harvard boy--until her disastrous visit to his fancy home when bath water floods a festive board. Will's courting moves on--even through a Thanksgiving when Sanna's usually genial foster-father, snookered on moonshine, saws a half moon out of the dining-room table to accommodate his massive stomach--but there are seeds of trouble even before the wedding: Will, a county agent for the state's Department of Agriculture, speaks of farming's gamble as ``excitin','' Sanna says, ``I hate excitement...just another word for worry.'' Meanwhile, most of the Cold Sassy Tree cast is here again: abrasive Aunt Loma, who can whistle ``Whispering Hope'' so thrillingly at church but who has crazy marriage plans, as well as a mean deal for her son; Will's parents, yoked but apart; and townsfolk who have the stubborn endurance of hardscrabble lives beyond their salty talk. For fans of Cold Sassy Tree, an essential; for newcomers, a spur to read the earlier novel. Kenison's tribute to Burns, a gentle, gallant woman, comprises half of the book. (Eight-page photo insert) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.