"Anyone can plow potatoes, you should stick with writing, " commented an admirer. Reece replied, "Yes, but no one but me is willing to plow mine."

Home

Letters
Broadrick
Dickson - page 1
Dickson - page 2

Notes for Lecture in Ohio

Notes for Sermon

Photographs
Farm
Family

Bibliography

About the BHR Digital Library

Production Notes

Faithfully, Reece

Biography

Byron Herbert Reece was born in 1917 in the isolated mountains of North Georgia. Approximately 100 miles north of Atlanta, this area remained untouched by progress until the end of World War II because of a lack of roads and the fundamental inaccessibility of the place and the people.

Reece was a very bright young man, and with his mother’s encouragement attended high school in Blairsville. In 1935 he was admitted to Young Harris College, about 18 miles from his home, but he had to leave to help out on the farm. When admitted he had already had some success publishing poetry in national publications. He attended sporadically from 1935 until 1940, but failed to graduate because of his refusal to take either mathematics or French. His time at Young Harris created several lifelong friendships, and his correspondence with them reveals a great deal of his personal life. The George Broadrick letters are an example of this aspect of his life.

He returned to the farm and wrote more poetry with increasing success in publication. In late 1943 Dutton agreed to publish a volume of poetry titled “The Ballad of the Bones”. By January 1946, the book was in its third printing and the mountain farmer found himself in increasing demand as an author. From 1946 until 1954 he published 4 volumes of poetry and 2 novels.

He was faithful in his correspondence, especially when encouraging other young authors. His letters with them deal with literary issues, and his approach to writing and the purpose of the author. Reece's correspondence with Pratt Dickson is illustrative of his encouragement of young authors.

Byron Herbert Reece's health began to fail and with it went much of his desire to write. The farm that was so central to him when he was younger became a burden, and he became ill with the tuberculosis that plagued his parents. He entered a sanitorium in 1954 to control the TB, creating additional financial and emotional hardships. He relied on Guggenheim Fellowships and other grants to writers to cover his expenses rather than farming. He turned to teaching as well, spending terms at Emory, UCLA and finally returning to Young Harris College, too ill to continue to support himself by farming.

On June 3, 1958, with his final papers graded and neatly stacked and Mozart’s Piano Sonata in D playing on the phonograph, Reece shot himself in the diseased lung. He was not yet 41 years old.

---

Updated on November 28, 2003.
Send any comments to Debra Branson March
This digital library has been prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements of
ILS655-70 at Southern Connecticut State Univeristy.