This courageous journalist brought Georgia its first Pulitzer Prize...
Julia Chandler Harris
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Journalist Julia Collier Harris’s talented and courageous writing for the Columbus Enquirer-Sun brought Georgia its first Pulitzer Prize in the 1920s. The eldest child of a prominent Atlanta family, Julia Florida Collier trained as an illustrator until her mother’s fatal illness obliged her to postpone a career and see to her father’s household and six younger siblings.
In 1897 she married Atlanta journalist Julian LaRose Harris, the eldest son of famous Georgia writer Joel Chandler Harris, and following the separate, tragic deaths of her father and her two young sons between 1900 and 1904 her marriage became a professional union as well. Her husband and father-in-law launched Uncle Remus's Magazine in 1907, and she wrote book reviews and articles on the arts for the journal, often under the pseudonym “Constance Bine.” |
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The magazine folded in 1913, and the couple moved to New York and then Paris, as Julian joined the New York Herald and its companion paper in Paris and Julia leapt into daily journalism at both, writing mostly on arts and culture for the Herald Sunday edition and news syndicate.
In Paris, Harris published her first book, The Foundling Prince, a collection of Romanian folktales gathered in the 19th century by Petre Ispirescu. Working with a Romanian scholar’s French translations, Julia rendered Ispirescu’s stories in English and published them in 1917 to critical approval. Almost immediately the publisher Houghton-Mifflin contracted her to write the first biography of her father-in-law, who had died in 1908. The Life and Letters of Joel Chandler Harris (1918) was an important, highly-praised work that deepened public understanding of Harris’s career, going beyond his “Uncle Remus” tales and discussing his many years as a principal “New South” journalist at the Atlanta Constitution. |
The Life and Letters of Joel Chandler Harris by Julia Chandler Harris (1918)
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Julia Collier Harris and Julian Harris were married for sixty-five years until his death in 1963. She died in Atlanta four years later, a resident of the A.G. Rhodes nursing home, where into her nineties she continued to meet and encourage young writers. In 1996 Julia Collier Harris and her husband were inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame at the University of Georgia’s journalism school. In 1998 the Georgia Women of Achievement’s Hall of Fame, honoring “female trailblazers of Georgia,” added Mrs. Harris to its ranks, “for her considerable professional accomplishments, her gentle, thoughtful integrity, and for having the courage of her convictions.”
Source: Georgia Writer's Hall of Fame
Source: Georgia Writer's Hall of Fame
"If Julia Collier Harris were alive today she would headline any discussion about journalistic integrity and bravery." — Janice Hume, Grady College of Journalism at UGA (2019)
Julia Collier Harris was inducted, posthumously, at the 2019 Georgia Writers Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (relevant comments are between 20:10 - 27:30 in this video)
Julia's father, Charles Augustus Collier (1848 – 1900) was a capitalist, banker and lawyer. In 1887, Collier became the President of the Piedmont Exposition, which bought 189 acres of land to form Piedmont Park and the Gentleman's Driving Club. In just 104 days, Collier and his Company built the structures and prepared the grounds for the Exposition held at the newly named Piedmont Park. After that, Collier was named President of the 1895 Cotton States & Int'l Exposition, also held in Piedmont Park. Collier was the Mayor of Atlanta from 1897 to 1898. One year after leaving office he was accidentally shot and killed while searching for a burglar in his backyard in the early morning of September 28, 1900.
How & Where to Connect
There are three places (ways) you can connect with Julia Chandler Harris: 1) Wren's Nest in Historic West End; 2) Historic Oakland Cemetery and 3) the Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (online).
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WREN'S NEST
The Wren’s Nest was the home of Joel Chandler Harris (Julia's father-in-law) from 1881 until 1908. It’s believed that the house received its name from the wrens who nested in the mailbox. Built around 1870 as a farmhouse, the home was substantially remodeled and expanded by the Harrises during the 1880s in the Queen Anne Victorian style. It’s a unique example of upper middle class living at the turn of the 20th century. |
Historical marker at Selena S. Butler Park
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The Wren’s Nest officially opened as a house museum in 1913, with financial support from Andrew Carnegie, President Theodore Roosevelt, and the fundraising efforts of the kids in Atlanta Public Schools. Most of the furnishings in the house belonged to Harris and his family. In 1962, the National Park service designated The Wren’s Nest a National Historic Landmark.
Getting there...
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WREN'S NEST
The Wren's Nest is located in the Historic West End neighborhood of Atlanta. It is about a six-block walk from the West End MARTA station. Wren's Nest House & Museum
1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd Atlanta, GA 30310 Driving Directions | Visitor Info |
HISTORIC OAKLAND CEMETERY
Julia Collier Harris is buried in Historic Oakland Cemetery. You will find her grave in Block 30, Lot 3, in the Rawson mausoleum across from the Visitors Center. The west entrance to the cemetery is a three-block walk from the King Memorial MARTA station. |
ONLINE ARCHIVE (EMORY)
Papers of Julia Harris, including correspondence, diaries, speeches, articles, and photographs are part of Emory University Library's Julian Larose Harris collection. |
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