Celebrating Celestine Sibley
Georgia State University Library’s Special Collections & Archives is excited to announce the recent acquisition of several signed copies of Celestine Sibley’s seminal works and writings. These books were generously donated by Virginia Rickenbaker Hamby, the daughter of Hugh Rickkenbaker and Scarlett Blanton Rickenbaker, the illustrator of the 1985 edition of Mothers Are Always Special. According to Ms. Rickenbaker Hamby, “my mother first came to know Celestine through her mother, Virginia Blanton, my grandmother. Virginia reached out to Celestine sometime in the late 1940s expressing her love for her columns in the Atlanta Constitution. The became ‘pen pals’ of sort and when my mother finished art school in NYC, Celestine was instrumental in getting her a job at the Paper.”
This remarkable collection contains inscriptions from Celestine Sibley as well as notes to or from various members of the Rickenbaker family. Additionally, there are newspaper clippings about Celestine in some of the books and even a handwritten recipe for beer!
The GSU Library’s Special Collections and Archives is honored to add this important piece of Atlanta history into its rare book collection, complementing our holdings of works by Joel Chandler Harris and Eudora Welty. It is also enhances our Atlanta Journal-Constitution photographic collection. For further information about Celestine Sibley and her impact on Atlanta culture and society, please consult her entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
