| Intro | Author and poet |
| Was |
Writer Poet |
| From | United States of America |
| Type | Literature |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 18 March 1829, Decatur |
| Death |
21 November 1918 (aged 89 years) |
Mary Ann Harris Gay (March 18, 1829 – November 21, 1918) was an American writer and poet from Decatur, Georgia, known for her Civil War memoir Life in Dixie During the War. The book was the inspiration for some scenes in Gone with the Wind. She also wrote a book of poetry, which was quoted by Mark Twain in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In 1997 she was named a Georgia Woman of Achievement. Her home during and after the Civil War, the Mary Gay House, is a historic building in downtown Decatur, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1975.
Biography
Gay was born the daughter of William and Mary Stevens Gay on March 18, 1829, in Jones County, Georgia. Her newly widowed mother moved back to be with her family near Milledgeville, Georgia shortly after Mary was born. There she lived in the house of her grandfather, Thomas Stevens, a slave owner depicted harshly in the book A Slave Life in Georgia by John Brown. Stevens owned property around the state, including in DeKalb County, and when he died in 1850 Gay moved (with her mother and sister) to a house on Marshall Street in Decatur, Georgia.
During the Civil War she was a loyal supporter of the Confederate side, and refused to leave her house even when Union Army soldiers took over the area. Gen. Kenner Garrard occupied her house at one point, and his troops camped in her yard. Her only brother served under Gen. John Bell Hood in the Confederate Army and died in the Battle of Franklin in late 1864.
After the war she worked to preserve Confederate battlefields and raise memorials to the war as well as to raise funds for the construction of a new building for the local Baptist church in Decatur. One such project was to rebury the Confederate dead in Franklin, Tennessee, including her brother who had died there. She traveled to Texas and raised several thousand dollars to support the creation of McGavock Confederate Cemetery. The funds were enough to enclose the cemetery with an iron fence and gate, which was marked with a plaque with her name. She also successfully campaigned for a memorial to Alexander H. Stephens at his grave at Liberty Hall.
She reprinted her 1858 book Prose and Poetry and marketed it “aggressively” after the war in order to support her family. The book came to the attention of Mark Twain who quoted it “with disdain” in Chapter 21 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He wrote that the work was “after the school-girl pattern.”
Undaunted, in 1892 she published her war memoir Life in Dixie During the War based on her memories, her sister’s journal, and letters from her brother. It became her best-known work. It even influenced Margaret Mitchell’s book Gone With the Wind: some scenes are drawn “directly from Gay’s memoir”.
Gay never married. After the death of her sister in 1909 she suffered from dementia and was committed to the Georgia State Sanitarium in 1915, where she died on November 21, 1918. She is buried in Decatur Cemetery.
In 1997 she was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame.
Works
Mary Gay House
The Mary Gay House is a historic building in downtown Decatur, Georgia, which was the home of Mary Ann Harris Gay during the Civil War and afterwards. It was built approximately 1850 and is one of a very few pre-Civil War buildings in the area which are still standing. It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on May 6, 1975.
The house has been moved at least twice. In the early twentieth century it was moved eastward and oriented to face Marshall St. It was while still at this location (524 Marshall St.) that it earned its NRHP status.
In the late 1970s development in Decatur threatened the structure. While it originally sat on “several acres” of land, by 1979 the house was on a 100 foot by 200 foot (1,800 square meters) lot bordered mostly by businesses and accessible only by a narrow street with no parking nearby. The Junior League of Dekalb County preserved the structure by arranging to have it moved to its current location at 716 West Trinity Place. This location was less than a mile away in Adair Park and immediately adjacent to the historic Swanton House (which had also been moved). The group also successfully petitioned the NRHP for the Gay house to retain its historic status after the move.
After restoration, the basement of the house is the headquarters for the Junior League and the house itself is an event facility for receptions, parties, weddings, and similar events.