This Goodly Land

Anne Rivers Siddons (January 9, 1936–present)

Other Names Used

• Sybil Anne Rivers: birth name

Alabama Connections

• Auburn, Lee County: education

Selected Works

• Siddons, Anne Rivers. John Chancellor Makes Me Cry. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975. Rpt. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. Heartbreak Hotel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976. Rpt. New York: Pocket Star Books, 2007.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. The House Next Door. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978. Rpt. New York: Pocket Star Books, 2007.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. Peachtree Road: A Novel. New York: Harper & Row, 1988. Rpt. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1998.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. Downtown: A Novel. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. Low Country. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. Off Season. New York: Grand Central Pub., 2008.

Biographical Information

Anne Rivers Siddons was born in Atlanta and grew up in the nearby town of Fairburn, Ga. She attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), where she majored in illustration and earned a BAA (Bachelor of Applied Arts) in 1958. While at API, Siddons was on the staff of the student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman. After graduation, Siddons returned to Atlanta and took classes at the Atlanta School of Art. In 1959, she began working for the advertising department of Retail Credit Corp., doing design and layout. In 1961, she moved to Citizens & Southern National Bank, adding copywriting to her design and layout work. From 1963 to 1967, Siddons worked as a writer and editor for Atlanta magazine. She returned to the advertising business in 1967, working first for Burke-Dowling Adams, then for Burton Campbell Advertising.

In 1974, Siddons left Burton Campbell and signed a book contract with Doubleday. Her first book, John Chancellor Makes Me Cry, was a collection of essays, most of which had previously been published in magazines such as Atlanta and Georgia. Except for a travel guide to Atlanta, all of her subsequent books have been novels. Her first novel, Heartbreak Hotel, was made into the movie Heart of Dixie, which was released in 1989. The House Next Door, a horror novel, was made into a Lifetime television movie which aired in 2006. In 1998, Siddons and her husband moved from Atlanta to Charleston, S.C. They divide their time between Charleston and their summer home in Brooklin, Maine.

Interests and Themes

The novels of Anne Rivers Siddons feature modern Southern women coping with crises, many rooted in family issues from the past. Heartbreak Hotel is partly based on her experiences at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University).

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

• Sanz, Cynthia, and Gail Cameron Westcott. "Ring Out the Belles (Anne Rivers Siddons)". People Weekly 16 Sept. 1991: 101-102.
• Siddons, Anne Rivers. "Anne Rivers Siddons: Removing the Rose-Colored Glasses". Atlanta May. 2001: 100-102, 138-140.
• Struckel, Katie. "A Journey with Anne Rivers Siddons (Southern Novelist)". Writers Digest Sept. 2000: 26-27.
• Summer, Bob. "Anne Rivers Siddons: A Woman of Outspoken Opinions: Her Novels Chronicle 'The Truth' about the South Today". Publishers Weekly 18 Nov. 1988: 55-56.
• Walsh, William. "An Interview with Anne Rivers Siddons". Chattahoochee Review 8.2. (1988): 103-115.
• York, Lamar. "From Hebe to Hippolyta: Anne Rivers Siddons' Novels". Southern Literary Journal 17.2. (1985): 91-99.

Reference Web Sites

• Anne Rivers Siddons. 2008. Hachette Book Group USA. http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/features/anneriverssiddons/content/index.asp.
• Cary, Alice. "Anne Rivers Siddons Preserves Natural Treasures in Low Country". BookPage: America's Book Review. 1998. Promotion, Inc. http://www.bookpage.com/9807bp/anne_rivers_siddons.html.
• York, Lamar. "Anne Rivers Siddons (b. 1936)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. 2005. Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press. http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-532.

Location of Papers

• Auburn University

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

Last updated on Oct 16, 2009.