This Goodly Land

Elise Sanguinetti (January 26, 1926–present)

Other Names Used

• Edel Elise Ayers: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Anniston, Calhoun County: birthplace, childhood residence, adult residence
• Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County: education

Selected Works

• Sanguinetti, Elise. The Last of the Whitfields. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962. Rpt. University: University of Alabama Press, 1986.
• Sanguinetti, Elise. The New Girl. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
• Sanguinetti, Elise. The Dowager. New York: Scribner, 1968.
• Sanguinetti, Elise. McBee's Station. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971.

Biographical Information

Elise Sanguinetti was born and grew up in Anniston, Ala. Her father, Col. Harry M. Ayers, was the owner, editor, and publisher of The Anniston Star. Sanguinetti attended high school at a private boarding school, Ashley Hall, in Charleston, S.C. During this time, she decided to become a writer, and she wrote for the school’s literary magazine. Sanguinetti attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., for one year before transferring to the University of Alabama, where she was a student of Hudson Strode. Sanguinetti and fellow student Harper Lee were on the staff of the University’s humor magazine, The Rammer-Jammer. Sanguinetti graduated from the University with an AB. She worked for four years as a reporter and feature writer for The Anniston Star before moving with her husband to Pittsburgh, Pa., where she began writing short stories.

Sanguinetti’s first national publication was “To You, Frére Twig,” which appeared in Mademoiselle magazine in 1960. An expanded version of this story was published in 1962 as The Last of the Whitfields. Sanguinetti published four novels between 1962 and 1971. In 1977, her mother, who had been running the family publishing business since the death of Col. Ayers, died, and Sanguinetti and her brother took over the business. She also continued to publish short stories in literary magazines. In 2002, Sanguinetti and her brother, H. Brandt Ayers, created a nonprofit foundation to own and operate The Anniston Star and a program in partnership with the University of Alabama to offer a graduate program in community journalism.

Interests and Themes

Elise Sanguinetti’s novels feature Southern settings and concern the changes occurring in Southern society and culture during the 1950s and 1960s.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• Boozer, Ann M. "A Conversation with Elise Sanguinetti". Alabama English Spring. 1990: 78-84.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• Caton, Bill. "Elise Sanguinetti: Getting Better"; Fighting Words: Words on Writing from 21 of the Heart of Dixie's Best Contemporary Authors. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, . 80-87.

Reference Web Sites

• Jolly, Peggy B. "Elise Ayers Sanguinetti". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2009. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2471.

Location of Papers

• University of Alabama

Photo courtesy of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts, Auburn University.

Last updated on Oct 10, 2009.