Byron Herbert Reece

Renowned Appalachian poet, novelist, and farmer, Byron Herbert Reece lived most of his life near this site. Here he composed, to critical acclaim, four volumes of poetry and two novels, Better a Dinner of Herbs and The Hawk and the Sun. Reece was a five-time recipient of the Georgia Writers Association's literary achievement award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry for Bow Down in Jericho. He served as poet-in-residence at the University of California at Los Angeles, Emory University, and Young Harris College. Suffering from tuberculosis, Reece took his own life three months before his forty-first birthday. He is buried in Old Union Cemetery near Young Harris.