author
W. H. (William Henry) Sparks
1800–1882
A lawyer, planter, and memoirist of the antebellum South, he is remembered for The Memories of Fifty Years, a lively collection of sketches, anecdotes, and recollections drawn from decades in Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. His writing offers a firsthand glimpse of political and social life in the early American Southwest.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born on January 16, 1800, on St. Simons Island, Georgia, William Henry Sparks studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut, then practiced in Greensboro, Georgia, where he also served in the state legislature. In 1830 he moved to Natchez, Mississippi, and later became known as a planter as well as a lawyer.
Sparks wrote poetry and prose, but he is best known for The Memories of Fifty Years (1870), an autobiographical work filled with brief portraits of public figures, personal stories, and scenes from a long life spent largely in the Southwest. The book remains valuable for readers interested in the people and atmosphere of the nineteenth-century South.
He died on January 13, 1882, in Marietta, Georgia. No clear portrait image could be confirmed from the sources reviewed here, so a profile image is not included.