Even the word “sassy” is a play on words to describe the relationship between Rucker and Ms. Love, a love that over time grew strong and, like a tree, even produced new life. The tree, apart from being the town’s namesake, is also symbolic of other concepts relevant to the novel.The sassafras tree is a metaphor for the love that grew between Rucker and Ms. The novel, much like the eponymous town, gets its name from a Southern vernacular contraction of the word “sassafras.” Prior to the town being founded, the area was full of sassafras groves ironically the same trees that gave the town its name were also the first casualties in its journey to modernize as all but one tree was cut down. What is the significance of the novel’s title? We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. I recommend that a whole new generation visit the South which Olive Ann Baker loved and wrote about so well.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Mariner Books is re-issuing Cold Sassy Tree along with its unfinished sequel, Leaving Cold Sassy. The story is lively and funny and poignant by turns and has been called the most realistic portrait of a small town in the early 1900s ever written.
Thus begins a years of an emotional rollercoaster ride for Will and his family, with all of Cold Sassy looking on in fascination and horror. When his horrified daughters protest, Grandpa remarks that while he loved Grandma for many, many years, he sees no reason to wait a year to remarry, because “she’s as dead as she’s ever gonna be, ain’t she?” and stomps off. Three week after his wife of 36 years dies, Grandpa announces to his family that he’s going to marry the (much) younger Miss Love Simpson, who works in his shop. Interesting as Will is, the real main character here is his Grandpa Blakeslee. She based the story on her own parents and grandparents’ stories. It’s told from the viewpoint of 14-year-old Will Tweedy in the colorful Southern dialect which took Burns years to get just right. A real perfectionist, she wrote and rewrote and re-wrote, looking for the perfect words with an obsession for detail.Ĭold Sassy Tree is the story of a family living in a small Georgia town at the turn of the century–1906.
People across the country loved the book, and though Burns tried to write its sequel, she died six years later with only the first 14 chapters written. Olive Ann Burns was 59 when she published her first and only book, Cold Sassy Tree, which became an instant classic in 1986.
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