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Anne Rivers Siddons

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Anne Rivers Siddons
BornSybil Anne Rivers
(1936-01-09) January 9, 1936 (age 88)
Fairburn, Georgia,
United States
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAmerican
Period1975–present
GenreSouthern literature

Anne Rivers Siddons (born January 9, 1936) is an American novelist who writes stories set in the southern United States.

Biography

Born Sybil Anne Rivers in Atlanta, Georgia, she was raised in Fairburn, Georgia, and attended Auburn University,[1] where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. While at Auburn she wrote a column for the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, that favored integration. The university administration attempted to suppress the column, and ultimately fired her, and the column garnered national attention. She later became a senior editor for Atlanta magazine. At the age of thirty she married Heyward Siddons,who died April 8, 2014.[2] In 1991, she received an honorary degree in Doctor of Letters from Oglethorpe University.[3] She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, and spends summers in Maine.

Career

Peachtree Road, set in Atlanta, was a bestselling novel described as "the Southern novel for our generation" by Pat Conroy. More than a million copies are in print. In 1989 her book Heartbreak Hotel became a movie titled Heart of Dixie, which starred Ally Sheedy, Virginia Madsen, Phoebe Cates, Treat Williams, Kyle Secor and Peter Berg.

Siddons's book The House Next Door was adapted for a made-for-television movie that aired in 2006 on Lifetime Television, starring Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Colin Ferguson, and Lara Flynn Boyle. The film tells the story of a woman who is drawn to a home filled with an evil presence that preys on its inhabitants’ weaknesses.

Siddons signed a three-book contract with Warner Books and her novel titled Off Season was released in 2008. Her novel "Burnt Mountain" made many best books[permanent dead link] of the year lists in 2011.

Reception

Stephen King, in his non-fiction review of the horror medium, Danse Macabre, listed "The House Next Door" as one of the finest horror novels of the 20th Century, and provides a lengthy review of the novel in its "Horror Fiction" section.

Bibliography

Novels

  • Heartbreak Hotel (1976)[4]
  • The House Next Door (1978)
  • Fox's Earth (1981)
  • Homeplace (1987)
  • Peachtree Road (1988)
  • Kings Oak (1990)
  • Outer Banks (1991)
  • Colony (1992)
  • Hill Towns (1993)
  • Downtown (1994)
  • Fault Lines (1995)
  • Up Island (1997)
  • Low Country (1998)
  • Nora, Nora (2000)
  • Islands (2004)
  • Sweetwater Creek (2005)
  • Off Season (2008)
  • Burnt Mountain (7/2010)
  • The Girls of August (2014)

Non-fiction

  • John Chancellor Makes Me Cry (1975)

Filmography

  • Heart of Dixie (1989), based on Heartbreak Hotel
  • The House Next Door (TV) (2006)

References

  1. ^ "Anne Rivers Siddons". New Georgia Encyclopedia. December 7, 2005. Retrieved 2007-04-02.
  2. ^ "Obituaries – Heyward L. Siddons". Washington Post. April 15, 2014.
  3. ^ "Honorary Degrees Awarded by Oglethorpe University". Oglethorpe University. Archived from the original on 2015-03-19. Retrieved 2015-03-06. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Sidodons, Anne Rivers (1976). Heartbreak Hotel. Simon and Schuster.