AFRICAN AMERICANS · BIOGRAPHY
Amy Hill Hearth
Amy Hill Hearth is an American journalist and author who focuses on uniquely American stories and perspectives from the past. She is the author or co-author of eleven books, beginning in 1993 with the oral history Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, a New York Times bestseller for 117 weeks. The book was adapted for Broadway in 1995 and for a film in 1999. An unusually versatile author, Hearth has published both fiction and nonfiction, and books for adults as well as children. What her books all have in common is a fascination with American history. Departing from her non-fiction work, Hearth wrote her first novel, Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society (2012), followed by a sequel, Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County (2015). Hearth's tenth book is Streetcar to Justice: How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York (2018). Written for middle-grade to adult readers, the book is the first biography of civil rights pioneer Elizabeth Jennings Graham. Hearth's most recent work is her first historical thriller, Silent Came the Monster: A Novel of the 1916 Jersey Shore Shark Attacks (2023). Source: [Wikipedia](
Both more than one hundred years old, Sarah ("Sadie") Delany and her sister, Annie Elizabeth ("Bessie") Delany are among the oldest living witnesses to American history.
— from Having our say, 1993
Most acclaimed
Miss Dreamsville and the lost heiress of Collier County
"In this sequel to Hearth's debut novel, MISS DREAMSVILLE AND THE COLLIER COUNTY WOMEN'S LITERARY SOCIETY, the characters reunite one year later (late summer 1964) to fight a large development along the tidal river where book club member Robbie-Lee grew up and where his mother, Dolores Simpson, a former stripper turned alligator hunter, still lives in a fishing shack. The developer is Darryl Norwood, ex-husband of narrator Dora Witherspoon, who returns to Collier County to assist in the battle. An old land deed, the discovery that one of the key characters has been using a false name, and a court hearing in which Jackie steals the show are just a few of the highlights. New characters include a young lawyer from Atlanta who is afraid to visit the Everglades, and the Ghost of Seminole Joe. Just as MISS DREAMSVILLE explored the ways that we can find a sense of home in other people, Hearth's latest novel shows how closely tied home is to a sense of place and the conflicts that can arise when that becomes threatened. For Darryl Harmon, the river is a place ripe for development. For narrator Dora Witherspoon (known as the Turtle Lady because she rescues Everglades "snappers") it's a place that belongs to the critters. And for Dolores Simpson, former stripper, it's a place to hide from the world"--
The Delany sisters' book of everyday wisdom
1994
Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany and A. Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany, now 105 and 103 years old, took the reading public by storm with their surprise bestseller, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. Since then, people all over the world have been writing and asking them questions. Now they offer their fans a treasury of grandmotherly good sense: memorable aphorisms, engaging anecdotes, rules for managing money, practical advice on staying active in old age, and some favorite recipes, too. It's a book filled with the secrets of living well, from two women who did it for more than a century.