Collection of Civil War letters focus of Saturday event

The editor of a book of Civil War letters will give a reading from “Sparrow’s Nest of Letters” at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 8 in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department at Joyner Library.

Joy W. Sparrow will have a reading and signing of the work that feature letters between Capt. Thomas Sparrow and his son, George Atmore Sparrow, and their lives before, during and after the Civil War. Many of the letters were written from or mention places in Greenville, Falkland and Pitt County, including Green Wreath Plantation.

Some of the letters included in the book are from the Thomas Sparrow Papers in Joyner Library’s East Carolina Manuscript Collection. Those papers were the first collection acquired for the East Carolina Manuscript Collection in the 1960s. The late Keats Sparrow, former dean of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, encouraged Joy Sparrow to publish the letters.