Robert Hicks

Robert Hicks was an American historical novelist, preservationist and art collector born in Florida in 1951. After settling near Franklin, Tennessee, he became closely involved with the preservation of Carnton and the surviving landscape of the Battle of Franklin. His work helped restore the historic house, protect sections of the battlefield and bring wider attention to one of the bloodiest engagements of the American Civil War. Before becoming a novelist, Hicks also worked in Nashville’s music industry and developed a recognised collection of Southern art and antiques. He died in 2022 at the age of seventy-one.

Hicks drew on his preservation work for his bestselling debut, The Widow of the South, which centres on Carrie McGavock and the transformation of Carnton into a Confederate field hospital following the Battle of Franklin. A Separate Country follows the controversial Confederate general John Bell Hood during his post-war life in New Orleans, while The Orphan Mother explores Reconstruction through Mariah Reddick, a formerly enslaved midwife seeking justice after her son’s murder. His novels combine documented historical figures with fictional perspectives to examine war, bereavement, race and the unsettled aftermath of the Civil War.