Jan Cox Speas

Jan Cox Speas (1925 – 1971) is a short story writer and novelist born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1925. She studied creative writing with Hiram Haydn at Woman's College (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, or UNCG), from which she graduated in 1945. She returned to UNCG and secured her master's degree in English in 1964, after which she began teaching at Guilford College, also in Greensboro. Speas was well known for her historical romances during the 1950s and 1960s. Following her death from a heart attack in 1971, Avon Publications brought out paperback editions of her romances. By 1978 there were more than a million copies of her books in print. The author was married to John Speas; they lived in Greensboro and had two children, Cynthia and Gregory.

References

* [http://library.uncg.edu/depts/archives/mss/title.asp Finding Aid for the Jan Cox Speas Manuscript, 1954] The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.