Avary, Myrta Lockett

Represented are Myrta (Lockett) Avary (1857-1946), author, of Mecklenburg County, Va., and her father, Harwood Alexander Lockett (b. 1812).

Author, editor, and social worker. Born in Halifax co., Va., Myrta Harper Lockett (1857-1946) moved at an early age to Mecklenburg co., Va. She married Dr. James Corbin Avary of Georgia in 1884 and had one child, a son, who died in infancy. The Avarys lived for several years in Atlanta, Ga., where Mrs. Avary wrote for Atlanta newspapers, before the couple separated. Mrs. Avary moved to New York, N.Y., where she continued her work for several leading newspapers, including the Christian Herald. She specialized in articles on Southern history, as well as the work of metropolitan charities. In 1903 she published "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War." This was followed in 1906 by "A Diary from Dixie, as Written by Mary Boykin Chestnut" and in 1906 by "Dixie After the War." In 1908 she returned to Atlanta, Ga., where she continued her newspaper work, publishing "The Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens" (1910) and "Uncle Remus and the Wren's Nest, of Joel Chandler Harris and his Home" (1913).

Myrta Lockett Avary was the author of A Virginia Girl in the Civil War, 1861-1865 and Dixie After the War and jointly edited the 1905 edition of Mary Boykin Chestnut's A Diary from Dixie.

Myrta Lockett Avary grew up on a farm in Virginia. As author, editor and journalist she gathered information about the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period in the South.

In 1903 she wrote "A Virginia Girl in the Civil War". In 1905 while exploring for fresh material she discovered Mary Chestnut's diary, "A Diary From Dixie."