This Goodly Land

Virginia Pounds Brown (May 29, 1916–present)

Other Names Used

• Mary Virginia Pounds: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Birmingham, Jefferson County: birthplace, childhood residence, adult residence

Selected Works

• Akens, Helen Morgan, and Virginia Pounds Brown. Alabama: Mounds to Missiles. Illus. Don Davis. Huntsville: Strode Publishers, 1962. For younger readers.
• Brown, Virginia Pounds, and Helen Morgan Akens. Alabama Heritage. Huntsville: Strode Publishers, 1967.
• Brown, Virginia Pounds. The Gold Disc of Coosa. Illus. LaNeil Wilson. Huntsville: Strode Publishers, 1975. Rpt. Montgomery: Junebug Books, 2005. For younger readers.
• Brown, Virginia Pounds, and Laurella Owens. Toting the Lead Row: Ruby Pickens Tartt, Alabama Folklorist. University: University of Alabama Press, 1981.
• Brown, Virginia Pounds, and Laurella Owens, eds. Southern Indian Myths and Legends. Illus. Nathan H. Glick. Birmingham: Beechwood Books, 1985. For younger readers.
• Brown, Virginia Pounds. Cochula's Journey. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, 1996. For younger readers.
• Brown, Virginia Pounds. Mother & Me: An Intimate Memoir of Her Last Years. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2003.

Literary Awards

• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 1976, for The Gold Disc of Coosa

Biographical Information

Virginia Pounds Brown was born and grew up in Birmingham, Ala. She attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College (now Randolph College) in Lynchburg, Va., graduating with an AB in 1937. The following year, she took graduate courses at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Brown worked as a library assistant at the Birmingham Public Library from 1938 to 1941. She decided to attend library school and graduated from Emory University with an MLS in 1942. From 1942 to 1944, Brown was a reference librarian at Birmingham-Southern College and served as the director of the library from 1944 to 1948. From 1954 to 1976, Brown and her husband owned and operated a bookstore in Birmingham.

Brown’s first book, co-written with Helen Morgan Akens, was a history of Alabama for young readers and was published in 1962. While researching this book, Brown became interested in the history of Indian tribes in Alabama. She and Laurella Owens co-wrote two nonfiction children’s books about Southeastern Indians. Her two children’s books of historical fiction explore the interaction between Indians in Alabama and the Spanish conquistadors. Brown also co-wrote a biography of Alabama folklorist Ruby Pickens Tartt and co-edited several historical publications, including Mary Gordon Duffee’s Sketches of Alabama and George Stiggins’ Creek Indian History. In 2003, her memoir Mother & Me was published. Brown lives in Birmingham.

Interests and Themes

Virginia Pounds Brown writes nonfiction for children and adults and fiction for children about Alabama and Birmingham history. Many of her books concern Southeastern Indian tribes. Mother & Me describes her relationship with her elderly mother.

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.

Photo courtesy of NewSouthBooks.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.