This Goodly Land

Celestine Sibley (May 23, 1917–August 15, 1999)

Other Names Used

• Celestine Colley: birth name
• Celestine Little: married name, first husband
• Celestine Strong: married name, second husband

Alabama Connections

• Mobile, Mobile County: childhood residence, education, adult residence
• Creola, Mobile County: childhood residence

Selected Works

• Sibley, Celestine. Peachtree Street, U.S.A.: An Affectionate Portrait of Atlanta. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1963. Rpt. as Peachtree Street: A Personal Look at Atlanta and Its History. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1994.
• Sibley, Celestine. Christmas in Georgia: Five Stories. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964. Rpt. Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1985. For younger readers.
• Sibley, Celestine. A Place Called Sweet Apple. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967.
• Sibley, Celestine. Jincey. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.
• Sibley, Celestine. Children, My Children: A Novel. New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
• Sibley, Celestine. Turned Funny: A Memoir. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.
• Sibley, Celestine. Ah, Sweet Mystery. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
• Sibley, Celestine. Celestine Sibley, Reporter. Ed. Richard L. Eldredge. Athens, Ga.: Hill Street Press, 2001.

Literary Awards

• Georgia Author of the Year Award, Georgia Writers Association, 1964
• Townsend Prize for Fiction, Georgia State University, 1982, for Children, My Children

Biographical Information

Celestine Sibley was born in Holley, Fla. When her parents separated, she and her mother moved to Mobile. When Sibley’s mother remarried, they moved to Hatter’s Mill at Creola, Ala., where her stepfather’s family had a lumber business. Sibley commuted to Mobile to attend high school where she worked on the school newspaper and got a part-time job at the Mobile Press. After graduation from high school in 1933, she worked full-time at the Press. When Spring Hill College began allowing women to enroll, Sibley attended classes there while still working for the newspaper. In 1936, Sibley married a fellow newspaper reporter and moved with him to Pensacola, Fla. The two worked at the Pensacola News-Journal for five years. Following the advice of the newspaper’s editor, Sibley continued to use her maiden name for her writing. In 1941, the couple moved to Atlanta, where Sibley took a job at The Atlanta Constitution. In 1944, while taking time off to care for her children, Sibley began writing a twice-weekly column for the Constitution. For several years, she moved between Atlanta and Florida, following her husband as he changed jobs. During this time, she was also writing articles and stories for magazines such as True Story.

When The Atlanta Constitution and The Atlanta Journal merged in 1950, Sibley’s job with the newspaper was expanded to include twice-yearly trips to Hollywood to cover new movies for the Sunday magazine. On one of her trips to the West Coast, Sibley began writing a murder mystery set in a newsroom. The Malignant Heart was published in 1958. In 1963, she published a history of Atlanta called Peachtree Street, U.S.A., and, the following year, she published a collection of her stories under the title Christmas in Georgia. Sibley continued to work as a newspaper reporter, including covering the trials of James Earl Ray (Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassin), Arthur Bremer (Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace’s assailant), and fellow Alabama writer Jesse Hill Ford. Sibley wrote nonfiction books, including a history of Rich’s department stores and a biography of wildlife artist Sallie Middleton. She wrote several novels, including one based on her family, Jincey. She also wrote a series of murder mysteries featuring a reporter heroine. Her memoir Turned Funny was published in 1988. After her retirement from newspaper reporting, Sibley continued to write her nationally-syndicated columns. Her last column was published a few weeks before her death from cancer at her home in Dog Island, Fla.

Interests and Themes

Celestine Sibley’s nonfiction is based largely on her life and work as a newspaper reporter in the South. Turned Funny is a frank look at her long colorful life. Her novels and murder mysteries are set in the places where she lived in the South.

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 Books

• Fleming, Celestine Sibley. Celestine Sibley: A Granddaughter's Reminiscence. Athens, Ga.: Hill Street Press, 1999. Rpt. as Celestine: A Granddaughter's Reminiscence. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2002.

Reference Web Sites

• Ashkinaze, Carole. "Celestine Sibley: Gone But Not Forgotten". The Southerner: A Magazine Online. 1999. http://www.southerner.net/v1n4_99/passing4a.html.
• Purcell, Kim. "Celestine Sibley (1914-1999)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. 2005. Georgia Humanities Council and University of Georgia Press. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1250.

Location of Papers

• Emory University

Photo courtesy of Sibley Fleming.

Last updated on Jun 03, 2008.