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THESouthern NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE •FRegisterALL 2005 g THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI Katrina n ominous foreboding settled feared by its residents, but the next day inland connected us, though, to those on upon many of us who live disaster of a different nature hit—the the Coast. Jackson, 150 miles from the near the Gulf Coast during levees broke and the city flooded. Coast, was hit hard. Katrina blew with the last weekend of August. Like most Americans, those of us in Category 1 winds by the time it reached We knew that Hurricane Mississippi were transfixed with the there, causing extended power outages KatrinaA was out there, stoking its power news, watching on cable television the and physical damage. Hattiesburg, 90 on the warm Gulf waters, as hurricane agonizing scenes of suffering people miles southeast of Jackson, suffered forecasters warned that it could be an unable to escape the rising waters in massive numbers of downed trees, roof unprecedented force of hurricane New Orleans. We listened to damage, and power outages that lasted destruction for the United States. Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s weeks. Gasoline shortages soon And so it was. The Category 4 coverage that gradually revealed, in the appeared, making travel difficult. Katrina blasted ashore in south words of officials tending the storm Inevitably, those of us at the Center Mississippi, leveling buildings blocks victims, just how awfully the state’s and in Oxford began fearing for family inland. The storm surge blew away coastal communities had been hit. and friends, and we exchanged stories. houses that had survived Mississippi’s Oxford experienced pounding rains, My assistant Sally’s parents were greatest previous storm, the Category 5 howling winds, and power outages but trapped in their attic in Gulfport during Camille, in 1969. New Orleans did not nothing like the rest of the state. The the storm, feeling its frightening power. take the direct blow that had been experience of the storm’s effects this far I worried about many friends of mine in New Orleans. Two of them, Barbara and Jerry, finally called days later from Barbara’s mother’s home in Baker,

David Whar ton Louisiana, to say they had escaped but feared for their house and were unsure of their immediate future. One former student, Dannal, was away from New Orleans, but suffered some damage at her home. I saw other former students, Scott and Ursula, at a coffee shop in Oxford one morning, evacuees who had just bought a house a month before in New Orleans but now were here to wait. Communities across the nation sheltered such evacuees, and Oxford soon had between 2,000–3,000 new residents, at least temporarily. The

Algiers Ferry, New Orleans, Louisiana (continued on page 3) Southern Register D IRECTOR’ S C OLUMN Feelings of shock at the power of nature, fear for the safety of Published Quarterly by The Center for the Study of Southern Culture friends, anger at the slow government response in places, awe at the scale of The University of Mississippi destruction, and grief at the loss of life—all these emotions affected me at the news Telephone: 662-915-5993 of Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Fax: 662-915-5814 By now the story of the hurricane is no longer news, but the impact on the lives E-mail: [email protected] of the people on the Coast, the South, and the nation continues. Estimates in late Internet: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/south September were that 1.3 million Gulf Coast households had been displaced, with every state in the nation housing evacuees. Some families joined family members IN THIS ISSUE Fall 2005 elsewhere, while others went where their church networks found sanctuaries. This displacement and migration will surely rank as one of the South’s greatest 1 Katrina demographic changes. 2 Director’s Column In fact, the possible regional and cultural effects of Katrina are important. The 3 Katrina: Gulf Coast Conference character of the Gulf Coast has long included an intimate familiarity with tropical 4 2005-2006 Events Calendar storms, and the unusual number and power of them the last few years have made all 4 Living Blues News 5 Bohemia’s Last Frontier of us who live near the Coast more aware of our ties to the beaches nearby. The 7 Cotton Museum in Memphis Coast attracts tourists from around the nation and the world, but Southerners have 8 In Memoriam a special relationship to the region. The South’s predominant evangelical 8 2006 F&Y Call for Papers Protestantism may be moralistic, but our people flock to the casinos, music venues, 9 2006 Oxford Conference for the Book and sun culture of the beaches. 9 2006 Mississippi Delta Literary Tour Katrina may promote a newly intense regional identity among those on the Gulf 10 Thacker Mountain Radio Show Coast itself. Their shared experience of destruction and hoped-for recovery may 10 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Schedule nurture ties beyond state and local boundaries. President George W. Bush has 11 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters proposed a “Gulf Opportunity Zone,” which would be the basis for distribution of 12 Bercaw Attends NEH Summer Institute 12 New Southern Studies Graduate public and private resources aimed at recovery and renewal. This opportunity Students creates the possibility for regional planning on a scale not seen perhaps since the 13 Sally Graham: SST Superstar on CNN Tennessee Valley Authority transformed that economically and socially depressed 13 Student Photographs Library region in the 20th century. Exhibitions On a less grand scale, Katrina made people of the Gulf Coast appreciate parts of 14 Amy Evans on Southern Artistry Web their culture that survived. One of my favorite examples is the New Orleans Saints, Site 14 New Addition to Southern Studies who have long been one of the Deep South’s cultural institutions, their National Empire Football League games broadcast across the region. Now, the Saints have a history 15 Angel Gets His Wings of disappointing their fans; cynics might say the Saints have been the South’s latest 15 Center Gift Honors Edmonds lost cause. But those fans are diehard. In the aftermath of Katrina, the Gulf Coast 15 New Ventress Order Members embraced the Saints anew. In their first game of the season, the Saints pulled off a 16 2005 Faulkner Conference Report miraculous last-minute victory. One newspaper headline read: “One for the 17 Southern Foodways Alliance News Homefolks: Saints Give Their Battered Region Reason to Smile.” Deuce 21 Reading the South: Reviews & Notes McAllister, who scored two touchdowns in the win, was quoted as saying, “We were 31 Music of the South Conference 31 2006 Natchez Literary Celebration playing for the entire Gulf South region.” Another player, Fred McAfee, said, “All 32 Square Table: Oxford’s New Cookbook we know is that we’re playing for people from Pensacola, to Jackson, to Lake 34 Notes on Contributors Charles, and especially New Orleans.” 35 Southern Culture Catalog Items The Center’s forthcoming conference, “Katrina: The Future of the Gulf Coast,” 36 Address Section/Mailing List December 2–3, will assess the state of recovery on the Coast by then, and we will Form/Friends Information and Form also explore such issues as the special character and identity of the Coast and how REGISTER STAFF to preserve them in its rebuilding. We invite our friends to attend as we provide a forum for policymakers and cultural observers to share their ideas and dreams. We Editor: Ann J. Abadie hope the conference will fulfill the Endowment for the Future of the South’s Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee mission of making the Center a meeting place, bringing together authorities to plan Mailing List Manager: Mary Hartwell Howorth for the South’s development, even if it is in the face of disaster. Editorial Assistant: Sally Cassady Lyon CHARLES REAGAN WILSON Lithographer: RR Donnelley Magazine Group The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity in all its activities and programs and does not discriminate against anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran.

Page 2 Fall 2005 The Southern Register (continued from page 1) figures were toppled. Over half the New Orleans to lead to more flooding. Coast’s restaurants were no longer there. Still, hopes were strong that the French town government, the university, the Casino barges were lifted off moorings Quarter and Business District would be churches, and endless families came and dumped on the land. Half of its up and running in October, with together to staff shelters and arrange physicians were without offices or tourists welcomed back to help jump- activities to assist the often shell- equipment, and many of them had left to start the economy. shocked victims of the storm. start new practices elsewhere. The loss of The Center will hold its next Future The loss of life rose to over 1,000, valued artwork was dreadful. Museums of the South conference December 2-3, and the image of bloated bodies floating were damaged or worse. The Walter and the topic will be “Katrina: The in New Orleans waters will long haunt Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs Future of the Gulf Coast.” We will us. Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour survived, but nearby Shearwater Pottery bring together public policy analysts, noted that “a breathtaking amount of and the Anderson family compound mayors of affected cities, trade infrastructure” had been destroyed in holding much of Walter Anderson’s association leaders, and cultural south Mississippi, including roads, work were destroyed, leaving the family commentators to report on the state of bridges, rail lines, water and sewer searching in debris for watercolors and recovery of the Coast and also to share systems, and communications facilities. drawings to salvage. visions of the new Gulf Coast. That New Orleans had virtually locked Thoughts have now turned to region has long been one that down, with the failure of most public recovery. Governor Barbour appointed welcomed visitors and provided the services and the unprecedented total businessman and philanthropist Jim pleasures of vacation holidays. Its evacuation of an American city. Barksdale to head the Governor’s cultural resources, historical treasures, Race and class injustices became Commission on Recovering, Rebuilding, and environmental wonders have especially apparent in New Orleans, as and Renewal, which hopes to make its always been part of its charm, and we the poorest and a disproportionate report by the end of this year. New will use our Future of the South forum number of blacks were trapped on Orleans’s recovery was hampered by the to envisioning ways to recover as much rooftops and left in dangerous effects of another storm, Hurricane Rita, as possible of that charm, in the face of conditions in the Superdome and at which hit Texas three weeks after natural disaster. the Convention Center. President Katrina but brought enough rain to CHARLES REAGAN WILSON Bush noted that the New Orleans scene could be traced back to the history of racial injustice under Jim Crow, and Katrina: The Future of the Gulf Coast Conference issues of Southern history now had a disturbing new relevancy. December 2–3, 2005 The cultural and environmental The Center and the University’s Department of Political Science will host a impact of the storm on the Mississippi conference December 2–3 on the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast Coast was almost inconceivable. Historic and ideas for rebuilding. The conference will have sessions on the state of buildings were devastated. Beauvoir, economic and social recovery and will bring together a diverse group of Jefferson Davis’s home in Biloxi, was commentators to share their visions of a new Coast. We have planned the severely damaged but survived, probably meeting with the assistance of William Winter, and we hope to provide a forum the only antebellum building still for the Governor’s Commission on Rebuilding, Recovery, and Renewal, of standing on the Coast, which was one of which Governor Winter is a member. the earliest areas of the United States The conference is a project of the Center’s Future of the South initiative, settled by Europeans. Trees and shrubs supported by a grant from the Phil Hardin Foundation and matching were uprooted, creating an eerie stark contributions from Center friends. landscape. Statues to historic events and CHARLES REAGAN WILSON

High-quality unpublished poems sought for anthology Hurricane Blues: Poems on How Katrina and Rita Ravaged a Nation Edited by Philip Kolin and Susan Swartwout. To be published by Southeast Missouri State University Press in Fall 2006. Send 1 to 4 poems to Southeast Missouri State University Press, MS 2650 One University Plaza, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701. No e-submissions. Proceeds Go to Hurricane Relief.

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 3 Mark Your Living Blues News The latest issue of Living Blues magazine focuses on Texas blues and includes profiles on Little Joe Washington, Earl Gilliam, and Calendars Tutu Jones, as well as an extensive review of new music releases by Texas blues artists. A December 2–3, 2005 tribute to blues great Little Milton, who recently passed away, is also included with Future of the South Initiative comments from his friends and fellow “Katrina: The Future of the Gulf musicians. Coast” Last month, Living Blues unveiled the www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/ new Web site (www.livingblues.com), allowing users to subscribe to the magazine, February 10–11, 2006 purchase T-shirts and directories, and peruse back issues of Living Blues online. Blues Today: A Living Blues The Web site is Verisign secured and will Symposium feature contests and giveaways in the near “Blues: The Devil’s Music?” future. Furthermore, on campus, Living www.outreach.olemiss.edu/living Blues hosted a “Blues in the Grove” concert with the blues/bluestoday/ legendary “Stoop Down Man” Chick Willis on Friday, October 21, 2005, during the Ole Miss v. Kentucky football weekend. March 27–30, 2006 Mississippi Delta Literary Tour www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/

March 30–April 1, 2006 Oxford Conference for the Book www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/

May 5–6, 2006 Southern Gardens Symposium www.outreach.olemiss.edu/gardening/

June 10, 2006 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Awards Oxford, Mississippi www.ms-arts-letters.org Finally, the Fourth Annual Blues Today: A Living Blues Symposium is scheduled for February 10 and 11, 2006, at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. The theme “Blues: The Devil’s Music?” will be explored through panel discussions, interviews July 23–27, 2006 with musicians, photo displays, and live music. William Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Ferris, the Joel Williamson Professor of History at the Conference University of North Carolina, will deliver the Early www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/ Wright Lecture on Saturday, February 11. The faulkner/ symposium will also feature a day excursion to Clarksdale, Mississippi, including museum tours and live music. A reunion of the famed “Satan and Adam” Look for other spring events: guitar/harmonica duo is also in the works. Make your Conference on the Civil War plans now and please check the Web site for details and program updates or contact Double Decker Bookend Events Mary Beth Lasseter at [email protected] for further details. MARK CAMARIGG

Page 4 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Bohemia’s Last Frontier ai Whar ton David This article by Curtis Wilkie appeared in The Nation on October 3, 2005, and is reprinted here courtesy of the editors.

If the restoration of New Orleans fails as miserably as its rescue, the nation will have lost a cultural treasure as well as an important enclave of progressive values and Democratic strength in the Deep South. From the time French explorers claimed a clearing for a settlement along the massive river three centuries ago, New Orleans existed as a place distinctly different from the rest of the country. There was never anything remotely Puritanical about its early years. A strong hint of the pagan could be smelled in the air, and in modern times the city became a refreshing Horse and Airport Van in French Quarter, New Orleans detour off the Bible Beltway. While the rest of the region exercised piety, New Orleans honored tolerance. In New Orleans, wine, women, and song were in the South. The city surrendered Voting Rights Act of 1965, New Orleans not synonymous with sin; gay people without a fight at the beginning of the blacks voted in large numbers, found refuge; and racially mixed Civil War and endured its occupation encouraged by the quirky populist regime couples were acceptable at a time when with characteristic élan. Residents of Huey P. Long, which controlled there were laws against miscegenation painted the visage of Union General Louisiana during the Depression. The in neighboring states. Benjamin Butler on the bottom of their city’s black society sent out two sons, New Orleans was not without the chamber pots and dumped the morning Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young, racial tensions and urban problems that contents on the heads of Yankee soldiers who became mayors of Atlanta. By the grip other American municipalities. Its from the same balconies where their mid-1970s the black majority gained public schools had deteriorated badly, descendants would fling Mardi Gras political supremacy in New Orleans as presenting an image as shameful as its beads a century later. That was the well, resulting in a succession of black gang-infested housing projects. In the extent of the resistance. New Orleans mayors that continues to this day. days since Katrina struck, the world has did not suffer from the hard-core Disgruntled whites shuffled off to been exposed to New Orleans’ saddest Confederacy complex that still suburbs in Jefferson and St. Tammany and seamiest side: the inequities that contributes to the South’s conservatism. parishes, and their departure left the trapped the poor in neighborhoods The city got over the war and went city increasingly in the hands of blacks vulnerable to flooding, the distrust that about the business of growing as a and whites unperturbed by racial fears. troubled relations between blacks and cosmopolitan port. When David Duke, the wizard of a whites. New Orleans was always a poor The city harbored slave markets in the faction of the Ku Klux Klan, wound up place; that’s why the blues resonated so first half of the 19th century. But even in a run-off for governor of Louisiana in clearly here. Yet a dogged live-and-let- before Emancipation, New Orleans had a 1991, he was rejected overwhelmingly live spirit helped the city transcend its bourgeois class known as “free gentlemen in New Orleans, where a stunning 87 difficulties and persevere as one of the of color.” Many came from the percent of the voting population (the last resorts for romantics. Caribbean, spoke French, and supported count against Duke was 173,744 to Though a polyglot army of pirates and a network of educators, musicians, and 25,921) supported the eventual winner, militiamen fought a famous battle a few writers. After Reconstruction, African Edwin Edwards. A year the New miles down the river at the end of the Americans and Creoles gained a foothold Orleans vote provided Bill Clinton’s War of 1812, New Orleans was not in New Orleans more rapidly than margin of victory in Louisiana. known to be bellicose like its sister cities elsewhere in the South. Well before the Politics in New Orleans has been a

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 5 byproduct of a way of life that grew out Mencken’s theory could be disproved were open 24/7 and drinking was of the city’s history. While much of the in New Orleans. permitted on the street. The city South was being settled by Calvinistic The South, Mencken had claimed, actually had an ordinance requiring Scots-Irish immigrants, New Orleans was a cultural wasteland. “In all that bartenders to furnish plastic containers developed as home for a mélange of gargantuan paradise of the fourth-rate,” known locally as Go-cups. ethnic backgrounds. French and Spanish Mencken wrote, “there is not a single The celebrities in New Orleans were flags flew over the city before the picture gallery worth going into, or a chefs, men and women who enjoyed a Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Slavery single orchestra capable of playing the higher place in the city’s pantheon brought thousands from Africa. Then nine symphonies of Beethoven, or a than sports figures or political leaders came the Irish and Italian laborers, single opera house, or a single theater or television personalities. New German businessmen, Greek restau- devoted to decent plays, or a single Orleanians talked about eating like rateurs, and merchants from the Middle monument that is worth looking at.” Yet Bostonians talk baseball. Visitors might East. By the beginning of the 20th in New Orleans there were museums and have known about Antoine’s and century New Orleans stood as a largely orchestras and theaters. And the city Commander’s Palace, but locals knew Roman Catholic island in a sea of nurtured writers, from Kate Chopin and Mandina’s and Casamento’s. The Southern Baptists. A strong, stable Lillian Hellman to early Faulkner and native cuisine was Creole—not to be Jewish population provided more Sherwood Anderson and, later, to confused with Cajun—and many of the leavening. The Rev. Jimmy Swaggart Walker Percy and Richard Ford. ingredients came from the nearby Gulf. might prosper down Airline Highway in Tennessee Williams called the French There was nothing bland about it. Baton Rouge, but New Orleans was Quarter, the neighborhood he chose as Even the lesser dishes were unique: the hostile territory for the tent revivalists his home, “the last frontier of Bohemia.” gigantic Muffaletta sandwich, built and braying fundamentalist demagogues. Before the storm, New Orleans with cold-cut salami and ground olives, From its site in the deepest part of hosted two literary festivals: one linked the Po’ Boys bulging with fried oysters, the South, New Orleans acted as an to Faulkner, the other to Williams. The the Lucky Dogs that gave sustenance to anti-Montgomery, offering antithesis to latter featured a contest for those who millions of late-night drunks. (Oh, that the Southern stereotypes of redneck felt they could shout “Stella!” the Ignatius J. Reilly, the purveyor of Lucky sheriffs, moonlight and magnolias. And loudest, a slightly refined example of Dogs in Confederacy of Dunces, could it stubbornly resisted modern street theatre. see his city now. ) homogenization. New Orleans was a New Orleans could be raunchy. The As much as New Orleans loved good city of idiosyncrasies, sweeping from striptease joints on Bourbon Street food, it moved to music. Gospel. Folk. the palatial mansions along the St. were tolerated for tourists’ sake. But Funk. Blues. Rock ’n’ roll. Jazz was born Charles Avenue streetcar line to the New Orleans preferred its own kind of here, and when someone died here rundown bungalows and shotgun spectacle, using the slightest excuse for there was no better sendoff than a jazz houses in the working-class wards. a parade. St. Patrick’s Day. St. Joseph’s funeral beginning with soulful dirges Much of the architecture in the fabled Day. Anybody’s birthday. Hundreds of and ending in an explosion of colorful French Quarter either reflected a transvestites in outrageous drag umbrellas and an upbeat version of Spanish influence or consisted of marched every Labor Day in “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Creole cottages built in the Caribbean connection with an event called New Orleanians appreciated good style. Despite its name, the French “Southern Decadence Weekend.” To music—Mencken be damned. They Quarter was actually a residential tweak the wealthy barons of Uptown, were connoisseurs of the improvisation neighborhood for Sicilian families for who bankrolled Mardi Gras through or the backbeat. They knew that most of the past century, until it was their private krewes—as they called the Kermit Ruffins blew his horn on discovered by artists and writers and organizations responsible for the lavish Thursday night at an out-of-the-way antiestablishment characters such as carnival floats—commoners organized spot in the Bywater section. That Ruthie the Duck Girl, an elderly a rump parade called the “Krewe of Aaron Neville sang carols a cappella on woman who kept a duck on a leash and Barkus.” It involved several thousand Christmas Eve at a church on Rampart cadged drinks in the corner bars. hounds of all description parading Street. In Faulkner, Joseph Blotner’s through the French Quarter. Most Suddenly, the sounds are silent, the biography, the author writes of how the famously, New Orleans turned a streets still, the people dispersed. aspiring Mississippi novelist and others religious event into a bacchanal, Merriment has given way to were attracted to New Orleans after spending the two weeks leading to Lent lamentation, and no one knows when World War I. These “young artists in in revelry as boisterous as the the good times will roll again. revolt and champions of the arts” were celebrations in Venice and Rio de reacting, Blotner says, to H. L. Janeiro. Lent, when it came, was not Mencken’s scornful 1917 essay “The observed faithfully, abstinence not Sahara of the Bozart.” They felt being in the New Orleans manner. Bars

Page 6 Fall 2005 The Southern Register The Cotton Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange

In January 2006 the Memphis Cotton Exchange building on Front Street will open its main floor as a museum dedicated to telling the story of this powerful industry, from field to factory, and of how this one plant has affected so many lives and cultures throughout human history, especially in the American South. Once the economic center of this cotton culture, the Exchange floor will now house exhibitions dedicated to capturing the world of cotton, through the creative efforts of architect Williamson Pounders Architects, Design 500, Counterpoint Communications and Design, Memphis Pink Palace Museum, and the videos and productions of the The “floor” of the Memphis Cotton Exchange is a high-ceilinged room with large William Bearden Company. Highlights windows opening onto both Front Street and Union Avenue. The other two walls of the will include a restoration of the floor to room were completely covered with the “boards,” where quotations of all future markets, the 1940s era, oral histories viewed in the the current spot prices, ginnings, acreage, consumption, and any statistic necessary to the original phone booths used for cotton conduct of the cotton industry were posted. trades, the original Western Union office with telegraph equipment, a Cotton and schools throughout the area, to Cotton Museum will provide a unique Museum Hall of Fame, a mural of the educate students and the public on how opportunity to define this story for the cotton story by a leading Memphis artist, cotton has influenced many aspects of public and portray the role of the Cotton and exhibitions and films that present life in the South. Exchange as a true crossroads of this the history of the cotton industry and The story of the cotton industry is rich profoundly influential culture. Front Street, especially from the 1800s to and deep, and resonates throughout the For more information, visit the present. music, art, literature, social life, and www.memphiscottonmuseum.org or The University of Mississippi’s Center politics in Memphis, the American e-mail [email protected]. for the Study of Southern Culture is South, the nation, and the world. The MARY BATTLE currently taking part in the development of the Cotton Museum through a graduate student assistantship funded by The Story of Cotton the Museum. The work involves direct In the barbecue joints and plate-lunch cafés off Memphis’s Front Street, a mostly participation in various aspects of the hidden society exists. The view into this world is slightly opaque to all but those in the museum’s creation, from film production know, but in its glory days it wielded a measure of influence that is unheard of in to exhibit research. An advisory panel today’s world. It was a society peopled with characters and cads, the big and the small made up of professors and professionals time, the rich and the richer, the hangers-on, the anointed, the powerful, and the from the Center is also working in busted. It created empires in agriculture, transportation, banking, warehousing, and a partnership with the museum to provide hundred other businesses. And even though much of the day-to-day dealings have guidance, archival research, and the moved to manicured office parks, high-rise office buildings, and other nondescript production of temporary exhibits that locales, its influence remains at the core of the Memphis economy and Memphis will focus on specific themes, issues, society. It was the entity that propelled technological advances that changed the face personalities, or narratives that reveal and the soul of the South. It was the wellspring from which no less than modern music the impact of the cotton industry. The and much of our popular culture came into being. It triggered migrations by millions of first exhibition will feature stories and blacks and whites, changing forever the culture of Northern cities like Chicago, photographs of the Delta cotton Detroit, and St. Louis. Its allure has called out to writers, artists, photographers, and plantations that shaped the experiences, other cultural chroniclers from around the world, drawing the curious to plumb the perspectives, and creative energies of depths of its strength and energy. It spawned its own literature in the writings of various renowned musicians, from William Faulkner, Walker Percy, Richard Wright, Willie Morris, and dozens of others. Muddy Waters to Johnny Cash. After Its influence is the nucleus of what popular music, through blues and jazz and rock and being displayed in the Cotton Museum, roll, has become. This all-powerful entity is cotton. these exhibitions will travel to libraries WILLIAM BEARDEN

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 7 CALL FOR PAPERS Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha: InFriends Memoriam of the Center July 23-27,2006 “Global Faulkner” Thomas D. Clark One of the results of recent literary and July 14, 1903 - June 28, 2005 historical investigation of the United Thomas Dionysius Clark was born in Louisville, Mississippi, and after receiving States South is to reveal a world rich in his baccalaureate degree from Ole Miss in 1928, moved to Lexington, paradox. It is a world deeply conscious of its Kentucky, where he stayed for more than 75 years. He taught history at the own colonization–its defeat, occupation, University of Kentucky for 36 years and authored, coauthored, or edited three and exploitation by the North–even as it dozen books, including A History of Kentucky. He wrote scores of scholarly has been the site of a sustained period of articles and many of the entries in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia colonization by one segment of its own of Louisville, and the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, for which he served as population. It is a world that throughout its editor of the agriculture section. history has been regarded, and has regarded itself, as exceptional, and yet, as a Milburn James Crowe plantation economy, as the victim and March 15, 1933 - September 10, 2005 practitioner of forms of imperialism, as a Milburn Crowe was born in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, the all-black culture characterized by racial suspicion municipality that his father and other ex-slaves founded in 1887. He served as and racial intimacy, the South has a history commissioner for the Mississippi Delta Empowerment Zone Alliance and as that shares significant common ground Mound Bayou’s city clerk and election commissioner and manager. He was the with the United States as a whole and with unofficial historian of the town and gathered an enormous archive of the rest of the hemisphere to the south and documents and photographs documenting its history. He was a member of the to the north. Moreover, the perennial Mississippi Historical Society Board of Directors, the State Historical Records fascination with the United States South Advisory Board, and committees for the Old Capitol Museum and the planned demonstrated by countries and cultures Museum of Mississippi History. outside North and South America suggests a larger global dimension, the recognition James Earl Fisher of a representativeness even wider than we December 24, 1947 - August 23, 2005 have imagined. James Earl Fisher, or “Fisher” as he was widely known, was a descendant of The 33rd annual Faulkner and some of the earliest African American settlers in Oxford and Lafayette Yoknaptawpha conference will examine County.A fun loving person who knew no stranger, he loved gospel singing, Faulkner’s fiction in terms of its depiction of cooking, collecting antiques, buying and selling clothes, and mainly talking the South as a representative “global” about his family’s history. culture. How does Faulkner realize its apparent contradictions, and to what Shelby Foote extent does he propose their reconciliation? November 7, 1916 - June 27, 2005 Is Faulkner’s “global” understanding of the Shelby Foote, a native of Greenville, Mississippi, and a longtime resident of South a source of hope or of tension and Memphis, Tennessee, was the author of six novels and the three-volume The even tragedy within his fiction? How might Civil War: A Narrative, which the Modern Library ranked as Number 15 on this approach to Faulkner affect the its 1999 list of the 20th century’s 100 best works of nonfiction in the English teaching of his work, particularly outside language. He gained national prominence for his role as commentator in the the U.S. South? 11-hour television documentary on the Civil War, produced and directed by We are inviting 40-minute plenary Ken Burns and first shown on the Public Broadcast System in 1990. papers and 20-minute panel papers. Plenary papers consist of approximately M. B. Mayfield 5,000 words and will be published by the April 26, 1923 - June 3, 2005 University Press of Mississippi. Panel Artist M. B. Mayfield was a native of Ecru, Mississippi, where he spent the papers consist of approximately 2,500 latter part of his life. He studied art while an unofficial custodian at the words; a selection of these papers for University of Mississippi from 1949 to 1952 and then moved to Memphis, publication in the conference volume Tennessee, where he served as custodian of the Brooks Art Museum for years. will be made by a jury of the conference He became known for his paintings depicting scenes of African American life program committee. during his childhood. Later, he also painted portraits of famous figures such as For plenary papers three copies of William Faulkner, Oprah Winfrey, Isaac Hayes, and Elvis Presley. Many of his manuscripts must be submitted by January paintings are reproduced in his autobiography, Baby Who Crawled Backwards. (continued on page 34)

Page 8 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Mississippi Delta The 13th Oxford Conference for the Book Literary Tour The University of Mississippi • Oxford, Mississippi March 30 - April 1, 2006 March 27 - 30, 2006 Notable authors, editors, publishers, and others in the trade as well as educators, literacy advocates, readers, and book lovers will gather for the 13th Oxford The Mississippi Delta is the site of a Conference for the Book, set for March 30–April 1, 2006. Beginning on Thursday spring tour organized by the Center for afternoon with two sessions and a special conference edition of Thacker Mountain the Study of Southern Culture. Radio, the program will continue through Saturday afternoon with addresses, Focusing on the area’s legendary blues, panels, and readings. A fiction and poetry jam, an Elderhostel program, a marathon writers, and food—along with its book signing at Square Books, and an optional literary tour of the Mississippi Delta tumultuous history–the program is (March 27–April 1) are also part of the festivities. based in Greenwood, home of The 2006 conference is dedicated to novelist and historian Shelby Foote (1916- playwright Endesha Ida Mae Holland 2005), a native of Greenville, Mississippi, and a longtime resident of Memphis, and memoirist Mildred Topp, and will Tennessee. Ellen Douglas, novelist and friend since their days in Greenville, will include day trips to three other towns. open the conference with a talk about Foote as a fiction writer. Gary W. Gallagher, Scheduled for Monday, March 27, is a professor of history at the University of Virginia, will discuss Foote’s three-volume bus trip to the historic town of Carrollton, history of the Civil War. There will also be a panel with members of the Memphis ancestral and early home of novelist, book club in which the author participated for more than a quarter of a century. story writer, and memoirist Elizabeth The slate of speakers is not yet final, but already signed up are poet Julianna Spencer. On Tuesday, March 28, the Baggott; fiction writers Brian Keith Jackson, Jack Pendarvis, George Saunders, group will travel to Greenville, home of Michael Knight; art historians Patti Carr Black, Mary Lynn Kotz, Mark Stevens, William Alexander Percy, Ellen Douglas, Annalyn Swan; and journalists James Gill and Thomas Oliphant. Novelist, Shelby Foote, Bern Keating, Walker journalist, and playwright Larry L. King will be here to unveil his memoir of Willie Percy, Julia Reed, Ben Wasson, and many Morris, to be published in March 2006. other writers. On Wednesday, March 29, Once again, the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, the Lafayette County Literacy Council, the group will go to Sumner, where the Square Books Jr., and other collaborators will bring local fifth graders to the campus to Emmett Till murder trial took place and meet an author of books for young readers. The program is being expanded in 2006 to the scene of Lewis Nordan’s novel Wolf include a session for ninth Whistle, based on the Till case. graders with Sharon M. An easy way to attend the Oxford Conference Also scheduled are meals at notable Draper, author of The Battle of for the Book is through Elderhostel, an Delta restaurants as well as live blues and Jericho and other award- international program of educational travel for gospel performances. On March 30, after winning books. Regular panels adults 55 and older. For $444 per person, breakfast at the Alluvian–Viking Range like “The Endangered Species: everything is provided: the conference, three Corporation’s boutique hotel–partici- Readers Today and nights’ lodging at the newly renovated pants will be free to travel on their own to Tomorrow” and “Finding a Downtown Oxford Inn and Suites, all meals the Oxford Conference for the Book, Voice/Reaching an Audience” from dinner March 30 through breakfast April 2, which will begin that afternoon. are also scheduled. and local transportation to and from conference The Delta tour is $475 per person for The conference is open to activities. To register, call toll-free, 877-426- all program activities, eight meals, and the public without charge. 8056, or go to www.elderhostel.org, and refer to local transportation. The fee does not To assure seating space, “So You Love Books? Get between the Pages at include lodging. To register, visit the those interested in attending the Oxford Conference for the Book,” program Center’s Web site (www.olemiss. should preregister by number 12317-033006. For information, call edu/depts/south/). Remember to sign up contacting the Center for Center Advisory Committee member and early. Only 35 spots are available, and the Study of Southern longtime Elderhostel provider Carolyn Vance they will go fast. Culture. Reservations and Smith in Natchez, 601-446-1208, or e-mail her Group accommodations have been advance payment are at [email protected]. arranged at the Alluvian, in downtown required for two optional Greenwood. [www.thealluvian.com] events honoring conference Rooms at the Alluvian require a speakers: a cocktail buffet at Isom Place ($50) and a country dinner at Taylor separate registration and are priced at a Catfish ($25). Special registration is required for the Delta Literary Tour. Call 662- discounted rate of $145. Rooms may be 925-5993, e-mail marybeth@olemiss, or visit www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/ for reserved by calling 866-600-5201 and more information or to register for conference programs. asking for the special “Literary Tour” Detailed information about the program, speakers, and registration will soon be rate. In the event that the Alluvian sells available on the Center’s Web site (www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/) or the Square out before you get a chance to book a Books site (www.squarebooks.com). room, call the Greenwood Best Western, 662-455-5777.

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 9 Thacker Mountain Radio Grows and Grows

Thacker Mountain Radio, in its early performances, was an instant As Thacker Mountain Radio has grown incarnation, debuted on October 15, attraction, and the show quickly and developed over the years, the 1997. First billed as the Words and evolved into Thacker Mountain Radio. nonprofit show has received support Music Community Radio Hour, the show While the show was designed as a from many sources. Mississippi Public rose in the midst of a radio renaissance free community radio program for the Broadcasting moved it to the prime slot in Oxford at a time when four different people of Oxford and Lafayette County, of 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night following live radio shows were being broadcast Thacker Mountain Radio widened its Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home from various venues around town. content to attract a statewide audience Companion. Thacker has benefited from Words and Music began as a when Mississippi Public Broadcasting invaluable assistance from the Center for collaboration between Square Books began airing the program in the fall of the Study of Southern Culture at the owner Richard Howorth and two 2002. From its inception, the show has University of Mississippi and grants from ambitious local musicians, Bryan benefited from Oxford’s far-reaching the Mississippi Arts Commission, Ledford and Caroline Herring, whose appeal, which draws authors and Mississippi Humanities Commission, the band The Sincere Ramblers hosted the musicians from all over the world. This National Endowment for the Arts, and show in Howorth’s cavernous used year that appeal was recognized when the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, as bookshop, Off Square Books. The free Thacker Mountain Radio was presented well as donations from individuals and admission and diverse program, mixing with the Governor’s Award for private foundations. author readings and live musical Excellence in the Arts in Mississippi. Friends of Thacker Mountain Thacker Mountain Radio • c/o Square Books • 160 Courthouse Square • Oxford, MS 38655 I would like to become a Friend of Thacker Mountain and am including a season donation of J $10 (student) J $40 J Other $_____ (Please make checks payable to Friends of Thacker Mountain.)

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Telephone ______J I would like to have my gift acknowledged in show literature. J Contact me about having an announcement made during a show.

Exhibition Schedule September 26 - November 11, November 14, 2005 - January 13, January 15 - March 22, 2006 2005 2006 Sacred Steel: The Music and Southern Food in conTEXTS The Religious Landscape of Culture of the House of God and Amy Evans Southern Roadsides Church of the Living God Joe York Bob Stone The Gammill Gallery, located in Barnard Observatory, is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., except for University holidays. Telephone: 662-915-5993.

Page 10 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Makes Calls for Awards Nominations, Invites New Members The Mississippi Institute of Arts and membership dues start at $35 for an privately funded, self-perpetuating, and Letters (MIAL) will accept individual (students at $15). Visit nonprofit. nominations for 2005 artist awards MIAL’s Web site at www.ms-arts- Artists honored in past years include from now until January 15, 2006. letters.org for complete instructions Ellen Douglas, Walker Percy, Willie Awards to Mississippi’s outstanding about joining and about nominating an Morris, Richard Ford, Barry Hannah, artists in the categories of Fiction, artist for an award. Samuel Jones, James Slater, William Music Composition (Concert and MIAL is now in its 27th year, having Dunlap, John Stone, Gwendolyn Popular), Nonfiction, Photography, begun in 1978. Among its founders Magee, and Birney Imes III. Poetry, and Visual Arts will be were Governor William Winter, Cora Plans are under way for a day of events presented at MIAL’s annual gala Norman, Aubrey Lucas, Noel Polk, and preceding the annual awards gala at the scheduled for June 10, 2005, in Oxford. Keith Dockery McLean. Their purpose Oxford Conference Center. A tour of The awards honor the achievements of was to establish a way to support, Rowan Oak and an exhibit at the living Mississippians (current residents nurture, and recognize one of University Museum by Gwen Magee, a or former ones with continuing, Mississippi’s most important resources, former MIAL award winner and current significant ties to the state). Artists are her artists. Recipients are awarded cash member of the MIAL Board of nominated on the basis of work shown, prizes and Mississippi-made gifts. Governors, are two of the special published, or performed in 2005. The competition is a juried one, with highlights being planned. Magee’s Only members of MIAL may judges, prominent in their fields, exhibition is called Journey of the Spirit nominate. Anyone may join; chosen from out of state. MIAL is and draws its inspiration from the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Ann Recipients of 2005 MILA awards Abadie, Oxford, is chair of the program pictured here are committee planning the gala. Other (from left) Brooks program committee members are Bonnie Haxton (Poetry), Davidson, Tupelo; Sandra Shellnut, Pass Gretchen Haien Christian; Patty Lewis, Oxford; Jan (Photography), Taylor and Mark Wiggs, Jackson. Justin Sharp (Musical For additional information, contact Composition), and Margaret Anne Mitchell at 601-366- Margaret McMullan 0761 or write MIAL, P.O. Box 2346, (Fiction). Not Jackson, MS 39225-2346. The MIAL pictured are Sam Web site address is www.ms-arts- Gilliam (Visual Arts) letters.org. and Timothy B. Smith (Nonfiction). MARION BARNWELL Claiborne Bar nwell

MIAL MEMBERSHIP FORM

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Check membership dues category: J Student ...... $15 J Individual ...... $35 J Contributing (couples) ...... $60 J Sustaining ...... $125 J Institutional...... $150 J Patron ...... $1,000 Make checks payable to MIAL. Send to Margaret Anne Mitchell, Executive Secretary, P.O. Box 2346, Jackson, MS 39225-2346.

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 11 Bercaw Attends NEH Summer Whar ton David Institute at the Huntington Library Nancy Bercaw says that studying to conduct her own research, using the Western history this summer made her vast resources of the Huntington realize how “advanced Southern Library. She spent hours poring through Studies is in its thinking about region.” 19th-century medical manuals in an Bercaw, associate professor of history attempt to understand the thinking and Southern Studies at Ole Miss, behind medical researchers’ interest in spent the five weeks before the fall collecting and comparing cadavers of semester as a fellow with the National different races. Endowment for the Humanities “Historians have tended to skip over Summer Institute titled “The the time period from the Civil War Redemptive West: Nationhood and until 1890,” Bercaw says. “There’s no Healing in the Post–Civil War clear narrative for that period. It’s a American West.” Bercaw was one of 25 strange time because people are Nancy Bercaw college and university faculty from conflicted and are not doing some of around the country awarded grants to the racist things that they’ll do later, attend the institute, based at the during Jim Crow. The writings of in the South, also marked the first year Huntington Library in San Marino, doctors during the 1860s show the the government began collecting California. While there, she and the mindset of how people are dealing with bodies for research,” Bercaw said. “In institute’s other fellows spent their issues of race at the time.” 1867, the year black men voted for the mornings participating in discussions In coming months Bercaw will first time, the government issued a call led by experts in Western history, continue her research—in January for racialized body types. These were literature, and art history. she’ll spend time as a Wood Fellow at the first steps of racialized science.” “The institute made me realize that the College of Physicians in Bercaw says that exploring the Western Studies doesn’t confront such Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—before manuals, many of which dealt with the complicated issues as race in as shaping it into a book chapter collection of Indian bodies in the West, sophisticated a manner,” says Bercaw, tentatively titled “Collecting ‘Black’ and simultaneously participating in the who specializes in Southern history Bodies: Medicine, Museums, and seminar “reaffirmed [her] faith” in during the time of emancipation. Race.” The working title for the book Southern Studies. “I was glad to come “Reading Western literature made me itself is Disrupting Categories: A Cultural back to Mississippi,” she says. “Much of see how Southern Studies would History of Black Womanhood in the Age the Western scholarship ignores the fact approach problems differently.” of Emancipation. that their history is very similar to Besides the opportunity to study the “It’s amazing that 1862, the first year Southern history as far as issues of race.” West, Bercaw was free each afternoon black people started freeing themselves JENNIFER SOUTHALL New Graduate Students in Southern Studies ehLasseter Beth Mar y New Southern Studies graduate students pictured at Barnard Observatory are, left to right, front row: Emily Romines (Truman State University), Amy Schmidt (Lyon College), Catherine Barnett (University of Florida), Mark Coltrain (University of North Carolina at Greensboro); second row: Katie Stevens (Williams College), Georgeanna Milam (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Maarten Zwiers (University of Groningen, Netherlands), L. V. McNeil (University of Mississippi); third row: Natoria Kennell (University of Mississippi), Mary Margaret Miller (University of Mississippi), J. Arthur Greene (University of Washington), and Matthew Glass (Auburn University). Not pictured are Kirk Graves (Princeton University), Odie Lindsey (Art Institute of Chicago), Kate Medley (University of Arkansas), and Velsie Pate (University of Mississippi).

Page 12 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Sally Graham: Southern Studies Superstar on CNN

Sally Graham has observed and ultimately based her thesis, presidential elections in the which she describes as “an Philippines, studied in Kenya and ethnography about an African Australia, taught in the island American woman pastor and her Republic of Palau, and is currently church community,” on the starring in Rabbit Hunt, a Ichauway work. “mockumentary” about Southern Her experience at Ichauway folk art now being submitted to then led Graham to Duke film festivals. But Graham, who University’s Center for works in Atlanta as a writer for Documentary Studies, where CNN International, says that she Graham conducted interviews counts earning her master’s degree with African Americans about in Southern Studies as rewarding their experiences in the Jim Crow as any experience she’s had. South. Some of those interviews “I consider my Southern are included in the book Studies master’s degree as equally Remembering Jim Crow: African important in my personal Americans Tell about Life in the development as earning an Ivy Segregated South. League undergraduate degree,” Graham says her work in the says Graham, who received her MA program was a natural bachelor’s degree from Columbia progression for her: “I think the University. “The University of Southern Studies master’s program Mississippi’s graduate program in offers a solid framework for

Southern Studies is the most Lancy Nadia intellectual inquiry and personal comprehensive of its kind and the discovery. I grew up respecting the first program to focus on the stories of my ancestors, visiting American South. They say gravesites and Alabama imitation is the highest form of Sally Graham plantations, and asking questions, lots flattery—well, other institutions of of questions.” higher learning have similar programs And of course, as a writer for CNN but nothing beats Oxford and the intrigued with the work of a place International she’s still asking lots of faculty at the University of Mississippi.” called the Center for the Study of questions, questions she says are always Graham says that it was an article in Southern Culture.” Graham says. framed by her graduate work at Ole Southern Living magazine that turned “Finally, my mother said, ‘Let’s just go Miss. her on to enrolling in the Southern to Oxford!’ So we made a detour.” “From sharing mussels in Brussels Studies MA program at Ole Miss. She Graham liked what she saw in Oxford with the poet laureate of Eritrea to was driving across the South with her and applied immediately for the fall of visiting the slave forts of Ghana as a mother, from Macon, Georgia, to 1990. While in the MA program, she guest of Conservation International, I Graham’s birthplace of Hot Springs, participated in the Ichauway have taken the multidisciplinary Arkansas, when she flipped to an article Documentary Project, a two-year study approach to understanding Southern about the Center. of the traditional culture of a 28,000-acre culture and applied it to my work as a “The more I talked with my mother quail hunting reserve and ecological writer.” on the long drive, the more I became research site in Baker County, Georgia, JENNIFER SOUTHALL

Student Photographs to Be Exhibited in Local Libraries Forty-eight photographs made by Memorial Library in Bruce, The students whose photographs are students in last fall’s Southern Studies Mississippi, the exhibition will be included are Robert Caldwell, Sean documentary photography seminar shown in Bruce during the month of Hughes, Nathan Kosub, Andrew will be exhibited this fall and winter October and then will travel to Leventhal, Mary Margaret Miller, in the libraries of four of the towns Pontotoc (November 1-30), Water Susie Penman, Renna Tuten, and the class photographed. Organized by Valley (December 1-January 6), and Robin Yekaitis. Ann King, librarian at the Jesse Yancy New Albany (January 7-February 4).

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 13 SFA Oral History Work New Addition to the Recognized on Southern Southern Studies Empire Artistry Web Site Congratulations to Sarah Torian (MA 1997) and Bland Whitley (MA 1996) on the birth of Samuel Mason The work of Amy Evans, oral historian for the Southern Whitley on June 17, 2005. Mason is the first offspring of Foodways Alliance, was recently selected for inclusion on two Southern Studies alums. Center faculty, students, SouthernArtistry.org, a and friends are awaiting their visit to Oxford for what Streeter Kur t Web site dedicated to Bland describes as “an appropriate ‘southron’ “outstanding artists of all ceremony—baptism with the use of Elvis sweat on the disciplines that live and porch of City Grocery, perhaps.” work in the region.” Bland is now a research fellow with the Library of “This is great exposure Virginia, working with a staff that is publishing a for the Southern Foodways Dictionary of Virginia Biographies. Sarah is an Alliance’s Oral History independent consultant with the Annie E. Casey Initiative and for telling Foundation and provides research and writing support stories about food arts in for their work to benefit low-income children and the South,” says Evans, families in Atlanta. who works out of the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, where SFA is housed and where Amy Evans she received a master’s degree in Southern Studies in 2003. Text and images from Evans’s oral history work on Greek food in Birmingham, tamales in the Mississippi Delta, the barbecue of Tennessee, and more can be found on the site alongside samplings from dozens of other Southern artists, whose disciplines range from dance to the literary arts. “It’s good to know about these people who are doing such wonderful and creative work all over the South,” Evans says. “It’s nice for everyone to be recognized in one place, and, of course, it’s nice to be recognized individually.” This isn’t the first time Evans has been recognized individually for her oral history work. She was featured in the November 2004 issue of Food & Wine magazine as one of 35 recipients of the publication’s “Tastemaker Award.” That list included the country’s most “fabulously creative people” involved in the food arts, according to senior editor Kate Krader. John T. Edge, SFA director, says that all of Evans’s recognition “is a validation of her work and above all her sensitivity to her subjects. We’re especially proud since we hired her as a full-time oral historian in July.” (Previously Evans directed the SFA’s Oral History Initiative on a freelance basis.) Southern Studies alums show off their new baby, Mason Besides samples on the SouthernArtistry Web site, full Whitley transcripts and images of Evans’s work can be found on SFA’s site, www.southernfoodways.com. Complete information on the SFA and the Oral History Initiative can also be found there. JENNIFER SOUTHALL

Page 14 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Angel Gets Center Gift Honors Edmonds Mike Edmonds, an Ole Miss alumnus and former assistant dean of students, His Wings was recently honored with a $10,000 gift Southern Studies master’s program in his name to the Center’s Endowment graduate Angel Ysaguirre recently for the Future of the South. Given by joined the Boeing Company’s head- Matthew Burkley, a friend of Edmonds’s quarters in Chicago as Community and from Cambridge, Massachusetts, the gift Education Relations Specialist. At will go toward helping support the new Boeing, Ysaguirre will be charged with initiative that aims to bring together awarding grants to Chicago nonprofit leaders of the American South to organizations, including those focused explore collaboratively ways to advance on arts and cultural programs as well as the region’s development. civic education. Previously, Ysaguirre Edmonds, who received a bachelor’s spent six years at the Illinois degree in theater arts/speech Humanities Council as Director of communication as well as master’s and Programs and Partnerships. doctoral degrees in higher education Ysaguirre earned his master’s in from Ole Miss, served the University as Southern Studies from Ole Miss in 1996 assistant professor of theater, director Mike Edmonds. Portrait by Jason Bouldin after receiving his undergraduate degree of student programming, and Student in English from Florida’s Stetson Union programming director before University. He says that although his being named assistant dean of students. In 1991 Edmonds left Ole Miss to take on professional work has not been directly the roles of dean of students and professor of drama at Colorado College. In August, related to his Southern Studies he was named Colorado College’s vice president for student life/dean of students. coursework, he’s put to good use the During his career Edmonds has received numerous awards, including the State of research and writing skills he learned at Mississippi Joint House and Senate Commendatory Resolution and the American Ole Miss. “The process that one learns is Cancer Society’s St. George Medal. what I’ve used at my jobs,” he says. JENNIFER SOUTHALL JENNIFER SOUTHALL

Ward and Jim Sumner New Ventress Order Members The Center is pleased to announce that joined the Center’s advisory Jim and Ward Sumner of Jackson and committee. “I’ve had friends Michelle Oakes of Chapel Hill, North whose children were in the Carolina, have recently joined the Southern Studies Program at Ventress Order, an organization that the very beginning, and I was so administers gifts to departments within impressed with the Encyclopedia the University’s College of Liberal of Southern Culture.” Arts. The Sumners and Oakes have Michelle Oakes, a New Orleans native Named in honor of James Alexander directed their Ventress Order gifts to and Ole Miss graduate, is also a new Ventress, a founding father of the the Center. advisory committee member as well as a University, the Ventress Order Jim and Ward Sumner, who are longtime fan of the Center. “The Center encourages recognition of the College natives of Greenwood and Winona, is a center of excellence doing work of of Liberal Arts as one of the country’s respectively, have for the past 11 years great importance,” she says. outstanding centers of learning. For lived in Jackson, where Jim is a U.S. Oakes, who moved to Chapel Hill more information about giving to magistrate. Ward, who studied art last year to start her own company departments within the College of history at Vassar, said that supporting rehabilitating properties after a decade Liberal Arts, please call Josh Davis, the arts by way of the Center is working for large corporations, says advancement associate for the College important to both her and Jim, a that she gave to the Ventress Order of Liberal Arts, at 662-915-5944 or graduate of Washington and Lee and because it’s a “great way to give back”: 800-340-9542. the Ole Miss law school. “The Ventress Order is a terrific vehicle JENNIFER SOUTHALL “I’ve been a fan of the Center for a to demonstrate a commitment to both long time,” says Ward, who recently the Center and Ole Miss.”

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 15 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha 2005: “Faulkner’s Inheritance”

As a Southern writer and as a writer known for his representations of history and of characters obsessed with it, the theme of “inheritance” in Faulkner seemed not only fitting but inevitable. “Inheritance”—what it is made of, and what it means to those who receive it—had been his primary subject from the beginning, and certainly one of the subjects most studied by scholars. Particularly noteworthy, then, about the 32nd annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference was the emergence of facets of that inheritance that had scarcely been touched on before. Adam Gussow put forth a series of

Faulkner texts, including “That Evening yan Whittington R Sun” and “Pantaloon in Black,” that are “Faulkner in Oxford” moderator Elizabeth Shiver (from left) with panelists Harter surprisingly susceptible to a reading Williams Crutcher, Mildred Murray Douglas Hopkins, Dr. Ray J. Nichols, Carl S. informed by the “blues” tradition; Judith Downing, and William Lewis Sensibar explored the impact on Faulkner of his future wife Estelle’s creative work in Faulkner Contest, “The Administration the 1920s, before he had found his and the Fury: If William Faulkner Were fictional voice; Elizabeth Cornell Writing on the Bush White House.” introduced the theories of Albert Seth Berner, a book dealer from Einstein as possible background for the Portland, Maine, conducted a session on Quentin section of The Sound and the “Collecting Faulkner,” and Colby Fury; Martin Kreiswirth proposed a new Kullman moderated “Faulkner on the dimension of Freud to Faulkner criticism Fringe” at the Southside Gallery. by introducing the “Uncanny” to the “Oxford Remembers,” coordinated by reading of Absalom, Absalom!; and Elizabeth Shiver, brought together six Reginald Martin raised new questions Oxonians for reminiscence of the regarding the motivation of Charles Bon Faulkner family and Oxford as it was in the same novel by pointing out the when Faulkner lived here. A highlight of great differences between Louisiana’s the conference continued to be the lenient codes for people of Creole “Teaching Faulkner” sessions conducted background and those of Mississippi, this year by James B. Carothers, Terrell yan Whittington where Bon would become “by state law R L. Tebbetts, Theresa Towner, and his own father’s black slave.” Conference participants looking at Seth Charles A. Peek. Other scholars added new layers to Berner’s Faulkner book display Other events included two art Faulkner’s inheritance by reopening exhibitions: Faulkner Prints by Boyd already treated perspectives: Susan deep concern with “apocalyptic fear” as Saunders at the University Museum Donaldson on the “culture of an undisclosed quality in the United and Whispering Pines, a collection of segregation”; Brittany Powell on the States. Finally, Noel Polk complicated photographs by Birney Imes, at Barnard Quixotic hero; Lael Gold on the two the idea of inheritance by analyzing Observatory. There were also guided strands of Faulkner’s Bible reading, the Faulkner’s quest for some kind of tours of North Mississippi, an opening oral African American Bible and the “originating moment,” when he could dinner at historic Memory House, and written white one. Other scholars, write without the influence of anyone or a closing party at Square Books. including Jay Parini, Peter Robert Brown, any preceding event. As is always the case with major Jonathan Howland, Jon Smith, Matthew In addition to the formal presentations, artists, the “inheritance” continues to Sutton, and Priscilla Wald, assessed the John Maxwell performed an abridged expand, part of the past that, as impact of Charles Dickens’s Hard Times, version of his acclaimed monologue “Oh, Faulkner put it, is “not even past.” oral culture, material culture in and Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?” and Sam DONALD M. KARTIGANER outside Yoknapatawpha, and Faulkner’s Apple read his winning entry in the Faux

Page 16 Fall 2005 The Southern Register SOUTHERN FOODWAYS REGISTER The Newsletter of the Southern Foodways Alliance From the President Dear SFA Members, First, my profound thanks and congratulations to all in New Orleans Hurricane Katrina – Full-time SFA Oral who put together an amazing event. The SFA Responds Historian Hired Field Trip was imagined and executed by an all-volunteer crew including Lolis SFA has partnered with CIRA (the University of Mississippi Chancellor Eric Elie, Sara Roahen, Brett Anderson, Council of Independent Restaurants) Robert Khayat awarded SFA a one-time Sarah O’Kelley, Brooks Hamaker, Scott and the James Beard Foundation to build development grant of $30,000. Those Simmons, Poppy Tooker, Liz Williams, a job bank for displaced restaurant funds, combined with an ongoing Elizabeth Pearce, Matt Konigsmark, workers. Approximately 60 SFA $15,000 annual grant from Birmingham- Pableaux Johnson, Susan Tucker, and members volunteered to phone Beard based Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B-Que, fueled the Eversmeyer family. Marcelle Foundation member restaurants. They the hire of SFA’s first full-time oral Bienvenue provided wonderful insight asked that the restaurant offer a minimum historian. Amy Evans, who built the into the sugar cane industry and the of one job to displaced workers. They program, first as a Southern Studies people behind it. Our sponsors— explained that each offer should come graduate student and later as a freelancer, Tabasco and Southern Comfort— with a promise of temporary housing and began work in late July. enabled us to do it with panache and at that the employee will likely need help an affordable price. with relocation funds, too. Job offers are Many of our members who wanted to posted at www.cirajobs.com. Anyone join us in New Orleans but could not may view jobs online. To post a job offer Tim O’Brien’s New will be happy to know your board is to the site, retrieve the password from working hard to address this challenge. www.southernfoodways.com. Albums One of the ideas we’ve begun This fall, look for two full albums of implementing is a series of regional American folk by singer and songwriter dinners, kind of mini Field Trips. We’re and SFA member Tim O’Brien, calling them Day Camps, and the first Cornbread Nation and Fiddler’s Green. one, lovingly named Camp Bacon, took New Oral Histories The title track for Cornbread Nation place on September 16 in Louisville. To was written especially for SFA and learn more, point your browser to Online draws a parallel between traditional www.southernfoodways.com. Going A survey of the bartenders of New food and music—subjects dear to forward, Angie Mosier is helping Orleans, underwritten by Southern O’Brien’s heart. Other songs on the members organize their own events. If Comfort and collected by SFA oral album, like “Long Black Veil,” “House you’d like to initiate a dinner, contact historian Amy Evans, is now online. of the Rising Sun,” and “Busted,” Angie at [email protected]. Viewed in the light of the recent showcase his knack for interpreting Our oral history work is progressing. tragedy, they are especially poignant. contemporary songs and making them In the coming months Amy Evans his own. will be working with, among other groups, tamale makers in Mississippi and beekeepers in Florida. Looking toward to our May 18–21, 2006, Field Lyndhurst Foundation Grant Trip to Apalachicola, Florida, she will be collecting histories from oystermen The Lyndhurst Foundation of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which had its beginnings in and fisherwomen. the philanthropic activities of Thomas Cartter Lupton, a pioneer in the Coca-Cola And please keep Southern bottling business, has awarded SFA a grant of $5,000 for general support. SFA Foodways in mind when you think deeply appreciates the gift. Visit their Web site at www.lyndhurstfoundation.org. about charitable giving. We have so much work to do and so few resources! The organization needs and appreciates your support.

Yours around the table, Elizabeth Sims Bacon Producers of Kentucky Charles Gatton Jr. Text and Photographs by Amy Evans Nancy Newsom Mahaffey In Kentucky, curing bacon and hams has been a necessity of life for generations. In more recent years, this tradition has been in retreat. Some blame onerous government regulations. Others see urbanization as the culprit. Others still ponder our region’s evolving food habits. There remain, however, a select few artisans who cling faithfully to family traditions. By way of generations-old recipes, hands-on expertise, and time sweet time, a small number of folks are still doing things the old fashioned way. As a means of survival, these purveyors of bacon, vanilla bourbon, but no chocolate—yet. whose families once cured by necessity, And, yes, they still offer the traditional are now catering to gourmands and hickory and pepper bacons. chefs who appreciate both the effort the same ham house, catering to some of invested and the end result. They are the same customers who have frequented Meacham Hams carrying forth the tradition. Newsom’s Old Mill Store for decades. William Meacham Amy Evans, oral historian for the Ninety-two-year-old William Meacham Southern Foodways Alliance, inter- Father’s Country Hams started Meacham Hams 50 fifty years viewed eight of these artisans as part of a Charles Gatton Jr. ago. His grandfather used to provide project sponsored by grants from Charles Gatton Jr. is known to some as hogs to tenant farmers, and each year Birmingham-based Jim ’N Nick’s Bar-B- the mad scientist of bacon. Growing up the Meacham family hosted a Que and the University of Mississippi. on Gatton Farms, in Bremen, Kentucky, community hog killing to process the Sketches and photographs of three Charles learned the business of curing meat. When William was a young boy, bacon producers and the names and hams and bacon from his father, Charles his grandmother handed him the family businesses of five others interviewed are Gatton Sr., who founded Father’s cookbook with the cure recipe in it, and presented below. The entire project, Country Hams in 1950. When his father William became responsible for curing with audio clips from each interview, can passed away in 2000, Charles Jr. decided the hams and bacon on the farm. After found at www.southernfoodways.com. to take bacon-making to another level. he was married, he began giving his His epiphany occurred at a food show, cured hams to relatives as Christmas Colonel Bill Newsom’s Aged Country when chocolate purveyors asked if he gifts. In the late 1950s, the business of Ham could create a chocolate-flavored bacon. Meacham Hams was born. For decades, Nancy Newsom Mahaffey Charles Jr. returned home and began William has produced a traditional Nancy Newsom Mahaffey, known far and toying with different products, eventually hickory-smoked country bacon but with wide as The Ham Lady, is one of the few getting his hands on some flavorings that a little less salt and a lot more flavor to women who dry-cures pork. Her family he could use in his dry-cure process. sweeten the family cure. Today, has been curing ham in the town of Today, Gatton Farms makes 10 flavors of William’s son, Rodman Meacham, keeps Princeton, Kentucky, for generations. bacon, including apple cinnamon and watch over the ham house and the H. C. Newsom, Nancy’s grandfather, treasures within. worked from a cure, handed down in an Broadbent’s Hams 18th-century family will. Before long, he ...... Ronny and Beth Drennan was selling hams and bacon in the family- owned general store. Eventually, his son, Father’s Country Hams Colonel Bill Newsom, started working on ...... Lorene Gatton his own and developed a traditional sugar cure, which caught the attention of Meacham Hams famous eaters like James Beard. Nancy ...... Rodman Meacham grew up learning the value of tradition and the secret to her father’s success. Scott Hams Today, she carries on her father’s legacy in ...... Leslie Scott the same store, curing the same way, in William Meacham Eating the South

Baked Virginia Ham, Broiled Shad, Apple Fritters, and Pepper Vinegar made with Texas Bird Peppers, reveal American influences. Dining at Monticello is a beautifully designed and fascinating way to learn history—a “feast of reason,” as Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Wayles Randolph would say. KAREN CATHEY

Dining at Monticello: In Good The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Taste and Abundance. Creole Cuisine. The final chapters reveal Folse Edited and with Recipes Developed by By Chef John D. Folse. fulfilling his duties as Culinary Damon Lee Fowler. Chapel Hill: Gonzales, Louisiana: Chef John D. Ambassador with tributes to the University of North Carolina Press, Folse and Company Publishing, 2004. festivals, plantations, personalities, and 2004. 208 pages, 120 color 849 pages, 735 recipes, approximately local brands that exemplify, celebrate, illustrations, 75 recipes. $35.00 cloth. 700 photographs. $49.95 cloth. and preserve the essence of Cajun and Creole cuisine. Dining at Monticello contains two The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole It is impossible to describe this book sections: essays and recipes. To explain Cuisine is a hefty book, both in weight without remarking on the striking how Thomas Jefferson’s delight in (about ten pounds) and thoroughness photography. The best shot of all is the French cuisine only complemented his in treating its subject. It is the self- cover, in which Folse’s take on a 1933 love of American ingredients, editor described “birthright and obligation” of photo entitled “The Oysterman,” has Damon Lee Fowler says, “Clearly, he Chef John Folse, the man designated Folse perched, barefoot, atop a mound of relished the best from both sides of the by the state legislature as “Louisiana’s spent oyster shells, looking like he may Atlantic.” Women ran the household, Culinary Ambassador to the World.” have eaten more than he’s added to the and Jefferson hired Europeans to train The 850-page cookbook, history oyster can. Snapshots and portraits of his slaves in gardening. Slave James text, photo album, and reference source historical figures add personality to the Heming trained with chefs in Paris, is divided into three sections. The first historical material in the first section, and Heming in turn trained cooks at devotes a chapter to each of the seven and vibrant close-up shots of Monticello. As president, Jefferson set cultures that Folse identifies as having Ponchatoula strawberries and plump the standard for entertaining in significantly contributed to the eggplants interspersed with the recipes Washington. creation of the Cajun and Creole will inspire even the most timid cooks. Throughout his life, Jefferson paid cuisines (Native America, France, ANGIE WHITE careful attention to the acquisition of a Spain, Germany, England, Africa, and huge variety of interesting foods, Italy). This section can be textbookish including over 300 types of vegetables. in spots, but the relevance of the He toured the vineyards of France and historical information does ultimately Louisiana Cookery. also made tasting notes on Italian wines, come through. By Mary Land. Illustrated by Morris Madeira, and Sherry. Historical The second section is the sweet spot: Henry Hobbs. Preface by Owen explanations accompany all the recipes, the recipes (more than 700 of them). Brennan. Jackson: University Press of which are attributed to relatives or to Folse’s classic recipes are well written, Mississippi, 2005. 376 pages. $20 paper. Jefferson himself. Beef Soup Monticello often anecdotal, and cover everything draws from “Observations on Soup,” from basic sauces to pig roasts to classic “The five requisite elements in Jefferson’s recording of classic French cocktails (often considered basic sauces Louisiana cookery, Mary Land contends techniques. More French-inspired dishes in Louisiana). The recipes are divided in her classic 1954 book, are “the iron include Braised Artichokes with Fine into standard categories, but Folse is pot, the roux, stock, herbs, and Herbs, Asparagus with Herb Vinaigrette, true to his mission, as when he devotes alcoholic liquids.” It is the directness Beef à la Mode, and Blancmange. Other several pages to the creation and and simplicity of such observations that dishes, such as Catfish Soup, Okra Soup, evolution of brunch. give Mary Land’s writing its authority and her recipes their usefulness. Mary recipes for domestically produced Land was a poet, a novelist, a journalist, ratafias and cordials. and an outdoorsman. She realizes that Mary Land begins Louisiana Cookery any area’s cooking exists at the with a quotation from Harnett Kane, intersection of culture—she recognizes who points out in Louisiana Hayride, the contribution of French, Spanish, that “modern Louisiana is divided, as Anglo-Saxon, Native American, and was the mother country, into three African American cultures to the pasts: the South, the North, and The cooking—and necessity—what the City—New Orleans.” Each has its own Native peoples and early settlers found language, its own culture, and its own and could raise in the northern hills style of cooking. Mary Land was born and southern bayous. in northwest Louisiana, and one of the The result is a book that is delights of this book for me, who grew informative about the foodways of 50 up that part of the world, is to see the years ago—few of us these days have cooking of North Louisiana treated sufficient access to game to makes with equal respect to that of its flashier recipes for muskrat casserole or ragout cousins to the south. of bear or squirrel-head pot pie more The University Press of Mississippi than a curiosity. But other recipes feel Cornbread, biscuits, hushpuppies, fried is to be congratulated for bringing this very modern. Our age was not the first catfish or bream, chicken and classic book back to print and for to discover that spoonbill catfish had dumplings, fried green tomatoes. The including the original edition’s roe that could be served as caviar. chapter on beverages is particularly charming illustrations by Morris Henry Louisiana Cookery is still a useful book interesting, not just a useful collection Hobbs. for the contemporary Southern kitchen. of cocktail recipes but a compendium of THOMAS HEAD

SFA Contributors ELIZABETH SIMS, current SFA president, regularly for the Washingtonian and other has been the communications director for publications on food, drink, and travel. KAREN CATHEY, proprietor of Bon Vivant in the Biltmore Company in Asheville, North Arlington, Virginia, is a founding member of ANGIE WHITE was born in Shreveport, Carolina, since 1990. She holds a BA in the Southern Foodways Alliance. Louisiana, and has lived the last 11 years English from Rhodes College and an MA in in Washington, D.C., where she gets paid AMY EVANS is oral historian for the literature from the University of Arkansas. to do Latin American finance but really Southern Foodways Alliance. She is also an THOMAS HEAD is the Washingtonian spends most of her time thinking about exhibiting artist, freelance photographer, magazine’s executive wine and food editor, her next meal. and cofounder of PieceWorks, a nonprofit one of its restaurant reviewers, and writes arts and outreach organization.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, VISIT US AT OUR WEB SITE: www.southernfoodways.com or call John T. Edge, SFA Director, at 662.915.5993 or via e-mail at [email protected] Reading the South The Mississippi River in Wisconsin beach; boys in Missouri 1953: A Photographic playing baseball; old men deep into Journey from the a checkers game in an Iowa riverside Headwaters to the Gulf of park; cotton brokers grading cotton Mexico. on Front Street in Memphis; women Photographs and journal entries by in long dresses, aprons, and straw Charles Dee Sharp. Essays by John hats fishing near Vicksburg, a O. Anfinson. 222 pages, 118 paddlewheel steamboat in the black-and-white photographs, 63 background. One enigmatic image color photographs. Santa Fe: from the Mississippi Delta shows an Center for American Places, 2005. African American woman in a pink $49.95 cloth. dress clutching a brown paper bag and staring at what looks like a Industrial Perspective: dinosaur skull perched atop a Photographs of the Gulf general store’s potbelly stove. Coast. Among Sharp’s best pictures are a Photographs and text by Andrew series of portraits he made of the Borowiec. 128 pages, 51 tritone busy, complicated, and bizarre as to crew on the towboat on which he black-and-white plates. Santa Fe: seem from another planet. Both traveled downriver. He also Center for American Places, 2005. books make extensive use of photographed bridges, rail yards, $50.00 cloth. photographs. There, however, the river traffic, historic sites, statues, similarities end. downtown business districts, and These two recent offerings from the The Mississippi River in 1953 is the more, all up and down the river. It Center for American Places should product of two trips Charles Dee was voracious, often indiscriminate, both be of interest to students of the Sharp made down the Mississippi— vision that made up for a lack of South. Charles Dee Sharp’s The the first on a towboat, the second by sophistication and technical Mississippi River in 1953 looks at the car—in 1953, when he was 25 and expertise with energy and entire length of America’s great just out of the military. He enthusiasm. river, following its course from undertook these trips as research for Happily, The Mississippi River in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. a film he hoped to make about a pair 1953 is more than just a photo album. Implicit in the author’s photographs of newlyweds who spend their Selected entries from Sharp’s 1953 and journal entries are comparisons honeymoon rafting down the river. journal, excerpts from literary works of life and culture along various Sharp never got around to making by the likes of Mark Twain, Walt stretches of the river in the middle his movie, but even half a century Whitman, and Pare Lorentz, and of the 20th century. Andrew after his river travels, his book present-day commentary on the Borowiec’s Industrial Perspective bubbles over with the same youthful pictures combine with essays by looks at heavy industry—oil enthusiasm that saw a honeymoon- historian John O. Anfinson to form a refineries, chemical plants, port on-the-Mississippi film as a can’t- multifaceted treatment of life on and facilities—along the Gulf Coast miss idea. He pointed his camera at along the Mississippi. Put together from Alabama to Texas. It too just about everything—people, in this manner five decades after encourages readers to make places, buildings, the river, and the Sharp’s river travels, The Mississippi comparisons, this time between our land it flowed through. His River in 1953 is as much about a own stereotypically idyllic images of photographs of people along the hopeful, prosperous, and potentially a lazy coastline drowsing in the sun Mississippi include teenage girls in tranquil postwar America as it is and a collection of real-life skirted bathing suits and rubber about a classically American place. industrial landscapes sometimes so shower caps cavorting on a As with any work that treats the past

Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, For these and other books call 800-648-4001 or fax 601-234-9630. Students, and Friends of the Center for the 160 Courthouse Square • Oxford, Mississippi 38655 Study of Southern Culture

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 21 Reading the South continued

tiny human figures off Borowiec has managed to reveal to one side of the frame; some hard truths about a particular or unimposing, low- part of the contemporary Southern tech objects—bicycles landscape while simultaneously in a few images, a endowing it with a certain measure telephone booth in of beauty. This is a balance that’s another—lost and difficult to achieve and surely one of incongruous among the hallmarks of fine documentary bewildering jumbles of art. In this case, one hopes that industrial hardware. Borowiec’s pictures are not so He even shows us a beautiful that they obscure the harsh gently, it may be open to charges of couple of backyards with the requisite set of realities—economic, nostalgia or sentimentality, but critics playhouse or swing set, the looming environmental, political—their should bear in mind that 1953 wasn’t industrial presence barely kept at bay subject matter derives from. the past when Sharp made his trips in the very near distance. But these DAVID WHARTON down the river. kinds of pictures are the exception In contrast, Andrew Borowiec’s rather than the rule. All in all, most of Industrial Perspective: Photographs of the photographs in Industrial the Gulf Coast is very much about the Perspective are visual appreciations of Lost Delta Found: present—a heavily industrialized the industrial sites themselves rather Rediscovering the Fisk present not often associated with life than about their relationship to the University–Library of in the South and unlikely to ever be world around them. In this sense, an object of nostalgia. Borowiec is they are not as complex or as thought- Congress Coahoma County one of America’s leading landscape provoking as the images from Study, 1941–1942. photographers, especially of the Borowiec’s earlier book. By John W. Work, Lewis Wade human-made “cultural landscape.” Borowiec’s approach, of course, is Jones, and Samuel C. Adams Jr. His previous book, Along the Ohio markedly different from Sharp’s. Edited by Robert Gordon and Bruce (2000), explored towns on the Ohio Unlike The Mississippi River in 1953, Nemerov. Nashville: Vanderbilt River, many with histories of Industrial Perspective is a purely University Press, 2005. 344 pages. manufacturing that have left them photographic vision. With the $34.95 cloth. with present-day cityscapes where exception of the author’s brief To call Lost Delta Found a residential neighborhoods and introduction and the pictures’ titles, companion piece to Alan Lomax’s industrial sites exist side by side or, in Borowiec’s images are unmediated award-winning The Land Where the some cases, interspersed among each by words. The photographs are Blues Began (1993) is like calling other. It is a very fine book that reproduced (beautifully) one per Alice Randall’s scathing parody The speaks with great eloquence about two-page spread, allowing viewers to Wind Done Gone (2002) the sequel the relationship between making a focus on the individual pictures, one to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the living and living a life. at a time. And they’re very much Wind. Although editors Robert Industrial Perspective, however, is in a worth focusing on. All are Gordon and Bruce Nemerov different vein. Photographed between impeccably seen, with multiple struggle to be fair to the Great 1999 and 2003, Borowiec’s views of points of interest spread throughout White Folklorist, they’re on a industry on the Gulf Coast (and as far the frame. Made with a medium frankly revisionist mission here, up the Mississippi as St. Francisville, format panoramic camera (befitting determined to decenter Lomax, Louisiana) are more distanced and on the Gulf Coast’s overwhelmingly critique his misnarration of a key a less human scale than his Ohio River horizontal landscape) and not period in the history of blues images. In part this is by necessity: enlarged to any great degree, they ethnography, and put “the other industrial facilities in the Gulf region are rich with detail and delicacy of guy,” as they call John W. Work, on tend to be larger, more isolated, and, tone. They are lovely to look at. the map. Three other guys, in fact: by design, separate from where their They are works of art. And this is African American academics, employees live. As such, they don’t where Industrial Perspective—with Southern-born, and based at Fisk, make for landscapes that people seem its purity of vision and photographic all three of them members—along a part of. Borowiec tries to mitigate sophistication—is more rewarding with the ever-calculating and this somewhat: we occasionally see than The Mississippi River in 1953. voracious Lomax—of what the

Page 22 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Reading the South continued

Library of Congress has called “the other things, that the “favorite radio first racially mixed field study in the musicians” in 1941 are the Golden Deep South.” Gate Quartet, Cab Calloway, Artie Southern-born white men in the Shaw, Benny Goodman, Duke Jim Crow South were not notably Ellington, Glenn Miller, Gene Autry, skillful at sharing power with African Memphis Minnie, and Roy Acuff and American colleagues at a time and in his Smoky Mountain Boys. a context where the word “colleagues” Not quite the brutalized, itself was scandalous. Lomax, more embittered, suffocatingly Jim Crowed skillful than most, nevertheless finds Southland that Lomax depicts in The his missteps large and small Land Where the Blues Began, in other inventoried by Gordon and Nemerov words, but a rich, vibrant, fully- in this volume’s introduction: he encultured world of black strivers came late to a field project in the and seekers who created a world of Mississippi Delta that musicologist their own and lived large lives Work and sociologist Lewis Wade regardless. It’s all here, in this superb Jones had already dreamed up; used and needed book: much too late, but the power of his own affiliation with right on time. the Library of Congress to wrest ADAM GUSSOW control from his Fisk associates; African American generations: the stepped on Work’s metaphorical toes pioneers in their 70s and 80s who during a famous 1941 interview with cleared and settled the Delta, used bluesman McKinley “Muddy Water” the Mississippi River as trans- Divine Agitators: The Delta Morganfield at Stovall Plantation; portation, and dwelled comfortably Ministry and Civil Rights in misidentified Morganfield as “Muddy with frontier violence; an inter- Mississippi. Waters” when he later issued these mediate sharecropping generation in By Mark Newman. Athens: field recordings; allowed Work, Jones, their 50s and 60s that built churches, University of Georgia Press, 2004. and graduate assistant Samuel Adams traveled on trains, and frowned on 376 pages. $54.95 cloth, $22.95 to transcribe his recordings and report frontier misrule; and a third paper. their findings in extensive generation between 30 and 50 that unpublished manuscripts that “[rattles] about in the second-hand In his second book, historian Mark somehow disappeared into the Lomax cars their cotton money bought,” Newman inspects the Delta archives; and then—most damning listens to the latest pop hits on Ministry, which the National by far—incorporated much of this Seeburg (or “Sea Bird”) jukeboxes, Council of Churches established in joint-stock material decades later into and dwells in the modern disorder 1964 as a servant ministry in The Land Where the Blues Began that prevails between the wars. Mississippi. The Delta Ministry without crediting his three black Work’s manuscript, which includes (DM) has probably been overlooked colleagues. more than a hundred transcriptions by many historians because it The heart of Lost Delta Found is of spirituals, blues, ballads, work appeared at the end of the first simply these unpublished manu- songs, game songs, and long-lined Freedom Summer, and the sordid scripts, discovered by Gordon when hymns, explores the inner workings events of that tumultuous season he was researching his recent of both sacred and secular spaces have dominated many accounts of biography of Waters and presented within the Delta—the black church the Mississippi civil rights here for the first time, six decades and its sermonizing preachers, black movement. Newman reexamines after they went missing. They are juke joints and the guitarists and the DM and pays special attention stirring, enlightening, often harmonica players who struggle to to its guiding philosophy of meeting brilliantly interpreted presentations negotiate the shifting musical tastes the needs of the poor and acting as a of black cultural life in the mid- of their restless public. Adams’s home mission service to Mississippi’s century Mississippi Delta. Jones, for contribution, a master’s thesis at Fisk African American community. The example, uses the personal titled “Changing Negro Life in the book provides a thoroughly narratives he helped gather to Delta,” polls a hundred sharecroppers researched and descriptive account discern attitudinal differences that on the King and Anderson plantation of the organization’s evolution and distinguished three successive near Clarksdale and discovers, among attempts to incorporate the larger

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 23 Reading the South continued

story of civil rights activity in the national attention to the plight of should please anyone interested in state as well. Delta blacks when it supported the Mississippi civil rights activity as well Newman begins the book with a famous occupation of the Greenville as scholars searching for more brief introduction to the National Air Force Base. Newman counters all accounts of the organizations that Council of Churches and the DM’s the Delta Ministry successes with the helped in the freedom struggle. goal of serving Mississippi’s blacks. At organization’s failures. The DM WILLIAM HUSTWIT its inception, the DM theoretically supported the Mississippi Freedom operated “as a religious equivalent of Labor Union when it decided to SNCC [Student Non-Violent strike, which proved unrealistic, Coordinating Committee],” but the organized a nearly disastrous The Bristol Sessions: organization soon took on a variety of communal farming project called Writings about the Big Bang nonsectarian chores. Between 1964 “Freedom City,” and routinely failed of Country Music. and 1965 the Delta Ministry involved to attract necessary funding from Edited by Charles K. Wolfe and Ted itself in voter registration, community both the Office of Economic Olson. Jefferson, North Carolina: organizing, and citizenship education Opportunity and the denominations McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005. classes. The DM also dispensed food of the National Council of Churches. 296 pages. $30.00 paper. and clothing to the needy and created Newman’s study provides a fuller the Child Development Group of account of the Delta Ministry, which By compiling 19 essays, both old Mississippi. The Delta Ministry raised historian James F. Findlay Jr. touched and new, Charles K. Wolfe and Ted funds to supply black hospitals with on in his Church People in the Struggle Olson have attempted to clarify the modern medical equipment and (1993). Newman revives historical significance and to trace the established the Delta Foundation that interest in the DM, but readers may subsequent influences of Ralph allocated grant funds for small still wish to refer to Findlay’s book for Peer’s 1927 field recording sessions, business growth. a better explanation of the National which Johnny Cash hailed as “the Newman includes three case Council of Churches’ role in the single most important event in the studies on the cities of Hattiesburg, black freedom struggle. Although the history of country music.” That McComb, and Greenville, which title of Newman’s work–“divine historic venue established a musical helps in understanding how the DM agitators”–suggests a focus on religion dynasty that reverberates to this day worked at the local level. Newman’s in the civil rights movement, he and launched the careers of two examination of the DM’s activity admits that religious worship and superstar acts of early country music: within the towns reveals how easily personal religious beliefs were Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter the civil rights movement could lose uncommon in the DM, and the Family. The book details every artist cohesion. In Hattiesburg, for importance of religious beliefs among recorded by the Victor Talking example, blacks became divided DM organizers and workers escapes Machine Company in Bristol, along class lines when white leaders the book. Tennessee, but the names Rodgers granted concessions to upper- and Divine Agitators manages to and Carter, probably because of middle-class African Americans but provide, however, a much needed their huge commercial successes, are ignored the needs of the poor. By account of the South’s largest civil repeated like a litany. Peer’s two 1967 the Delta Ministry had also rights group by 1967. Newman’s study discoveries probably had such failed to create an adequate is also the best account of the widespread appeal because they infrastructure to guarantee school National Council of Churches’ represented popular but conflicting desegregation in the city and pulled operations on the local level. Even aspects of Southern rural culture. out before several objectives had though the DM suffered from quarrels The Singing Brakeman yodeled been secured. among its leaders and from a host of about “living the wild life,” but the Perhaps the best aspect of Divine other problems, it showed an ability Carters harmonized, often in the Agitators is Newman’s honesty in to adapt to changing circumstances “old ballad tradition,” about subjects relating both the victories and the in the state. Newman’s attention to “morally and spiritually instructive.” disappointments of the Delta the shifting nature of the organization Wolfe asserts that the sessions “may Ministry. The DM seems to have and its many economic initiatives to not have ushered in a new type of been successful at distributing food, relieve the impoverished black music, but they did usher in a new forcing state and federal authorities to Mississippian community shows how musical era as well as a new way of allot food, and at implementing Head Mississippi has been slow to realize perceiving and merchandising rural Start programs. In 1966 the DM drew full racial equality. Newman’s work Southern white music.”

Page 24 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Reading the South continued “Delectable Tennessee. The book closes with * Olson and Kalra arguing that the from start to finish.” musical traditions springing out of the Bristol sessions are still alive in the region, particularly at East Tennessee State University, whose music department has instituted a Bluegrass Program and whose Sherrod Library houses the extensive Burton-Manning collection of regionally collected material. The Bristol Sessions contains photographs, an excellent index, and copious bibliographical citations—all of which provide a wealth of information useful to students as well as scholars. With country music’s becoming a The five sections of the book galactic industry, and Peer’s 1927 proffer a balance of biographical, recordings apparently being the anecdotal, and technical writings seminal point from which the from both primary and secondary industry expanded, it seems sources. Part 1 elucidates the state appropriate that the editors Matzoh Ball Gumbo of recording technology at that time employ Nolan Porterfield’s oft- Culinary Tales of the Jewish South and traces the evolution of the quoted stellar image to describe marcie cohen ferris Victor Talking Machine Company. the Bristol Sessions as the “Big “A fascinating journey to dinner tables Part 2 offers not only details of Bang of Country Music.” throughout the Mississippi Delta, Ralph Peer’s organization of the MICHAEL DAVENPORT Charleston, and beyond. Over four sessions, but also biographical centuries, southern and Jewish cultures have mingled, resulting in sketches of the individuals and Pecan Kugel and Pesach Fried Green groups recorded. Anchoring part 3 Tomatoes. A delicious and sometimes are reminiscences provided by Bridging Southern poignant world emerges, complete Ralph Peer and some of the artists’ with the history, stories, and recipes Cultures: An from this unique cultural cross- relatives, including Rodgers’s wife, Interdisciplinary Approach. section of southern Jews.” Carrie, and A. P. Carter’s daughter —Joan Nathan, author of Edited by John Lowe. Baton Gladys. Part 4, the only section Jewish Cooking in America Rouge: Louisiana State with music and lyrics, contains two “The perfect introduction to the University Press, 2005. 317 pages. rather technical musicological distinctive faith, culture, and $49.95 cloth. studies. One explains how Ernest foodways of southern Jews.” —Jonathan D. Sarna, Stoneman creatively adapted This intriguing collection edited author of American Judaism commercially published material to by John Lowe, professor of English “Marcie Cohen Ferris does for the his individual style. The second at LSU, is notable for showing the ethnography of food in the Jewish analyzes how Jimmie Rodgers and academic concerns of senior South what Jessica Harris has done Alfred Karnes “were more vocally scholars who have been studying for African Diaspora cooking.” inventive and expressive, as well as the South for the past 25 years. —Dale Rosengarten, coeditor of A Portion of the People* more stylistically progressive, than Most of the authors of the 14 essays the others” at the sessions. Part 5 in Bridging Southern Cultures are 344 pp., 79 illus. $29.95 cloth follows up with extensive tables full professors, and many of their listing the performances Peer essays not only analyze topics in the university of recorded in Bristol in 1928, as well Southern literature, art, music, north carolina press as those garnered in 1928-29 by history, and sociology but also at bookstores or 800-848-6224 Columbia in Johnson City, address the state of the scholarly www.uncpress.unc.edu

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 25 Reading the South continued

profession and how it has changed an essay entitled “The Burden of and should change. Southern Culture,” Charles Reagan What unifies these essays and Wilson expands C. Vann gives the volume its title is the Woodward’s argument to addresses Southern Seen: Meditations interest in bridging gaps in the issues of biracial concern. Daniel on Past and Present. topics and approaches in studying Littlefield returns to old battles over By Larry T. McGehee. Foreword by the South. This generation of the continuity of African into John Egerton. Knoxville: scholars was the group who broke African American culture to think University of Tennessee Press, down scholarly conventions that how contemporary scholars can 2005. 368 pages. $15.95 paper. had long viewed studying the South make use of those issues. Anne as a process of studying the concerns Goodwyn Jones discusses how Among the least studied and yet most of white men. The concept of scholars in cultural theory and intriguing contributions to Southern Southern identity, most obviously, regional studies have not engaged culture are the works of newspaper had long seemed the possession of each other very well, and offers columnists. These writers take on the the white men in charge of the some hope that scholars of the demanding responsibility of com- region. The scholars in this volume South can learn more from new menting on local community life. took part in revolutions in African approaches. Often writing daily, the columnist American studies, women’s studies Other essays offer good examples relays stories, raises civic issues, and then gender studies, and the of recent scholarship on topics in provides a chronicle of events, ever-changing languages of cultural Southern culture. Bertram Wyatt- comments on social mores, and, in studies; they established new fields Brown offers a sophisticated reading general, becomes the voice of the of study by expanding the range of of the depression, drinking, and community where the paper appears. both topics to study and ways to creativity of William Faulkner. Sue Larry T. McGehee writes out of this study those topics. It is important Bridwell Beckham’s detailed analysis tradition, but he takes the column to a that the book’s title refers not to of the gender issues in the creation high art. For years I’ve been reading Southern culture but to Southern of the Southern images in WPA his columns written for a hundred cultures, taking note of the region’s murals, Joyce Marie Jackson’s small-town Southern newspapers, as diversity. Here they are concerned discussion of quartet singing by he would send collections of recent with bridges not just between groups Southern African Americans, and writings for circulation at the Center. and not just between academic Richard Megraw’s study of artist I thus always knew him as a sage disciplines but also between older Ellsworth Woodward all apply the commentator on the South, but until and newer scholarly questions. insights of a generation of I read his new book I did not realize Many of the more intriguing, scholarship to their topics. his achievement. He has been an challenging essays take on Bridging Southern Cultures does intelligent and sensitive observer of conventional notions of how to not offer a method for what scholars Southern life as the region has lived study the South, but twist them or should do next. Its authors are not through fundamental transformations. expand them in new directions. searching for some key ingredient to The subtitle of this book uses the William Andrews asks the same define the South; surely it is word “meditations,” and these essays questions of four Mississippi significant that no one offers what are indeed thoughtful musings that autobiographers—two African regional scholars used to see as their give a philosophical reading of American and two white—and finds mission—a key to Southern Southern culture by one who laments them converging and diverging in distinctiveness. Encouraging the the gentle ways of the South that surprising ways. Addressing the old study of all groups from many have vanished, says good riddance to notion of a Southern fascination perspectives, it has an open, the bad, and points us toward savoring with home, Thadious Davis analyzes welcoming approach to studying the those abiding experiences that still are recent attempts by African South, and it is an intriguing volume available. American authors to claim the both for what it says about specific McGehee positions his book South as home as a creative practice topics and for what it shows about intentionally as a contribution to rather than an act of nostalgia. the changing state of Southern Southern Studies, and it is. He tackles Editor Lowe returns to the old idea scholarship. issues like the Confederate flag debate, of the plantation myth in order to TED OWNBY conservative and liberal positions in show how a range of critics adopted politics, and, bless him, ways in which the myth in order to critique it. In Elvis and football are religions in the

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South. He interprets Southern rituals, places, and icons from a self-consciously Southern perspective. His range is wide— senior proms to snake handling, barbershops to frontier hymnals, cookbooks to BB guns. His portraits of Southern icons would be a great source for journalists writing stories, students researching papers, or academics looking for information on such interesting but often un- documented cultural topics as waving (as in people in cars waving their hands in a friendly gesture to other motorists) and Vick’s Salve (an unacknowledged but effective North Carolina contribution to the American health care system). My favorite pieces are McGehee’s writings on the environment and landscape. He provides the eloquent testament of a mature Southerner to the rhythms of the land and of life on the land he has long known. His memories of growing up and raising his children mix with his contemporary reflections on rural life, the countryside, and city life. McGehee, trained in religious studies and long a teacher and administrator at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has produced a book that reflects his lifetime of learning and experience. CHARLES REAGAN WILSON

Best of the South: The Best of the Second Decade, 1996–2005. Edited by Shannon Ravenel. Selected and introduced by Anne Tyler. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005. 368 pages. $15.95 paper.

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For 20 years, the wise editors of Best of the South authors are currently Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill touring Southern bookshops with have bestowed upon the masses an musicians from Sugar Hill Records’ (of annual New Stories from the South Durham, North Carolina) CD anthology. This year, Shannon compilation Best of the South. It is Ravenel (who started the New rumored they are serving Maker’s Stories series in 1986) and guest Mark after the readings and singings. editor Anne Tyler (who has Great fiction, great music, and published 16 novels, most recently Maker’s—What more could you ask The Amateur Marriage) have for? All I can think of is another selected 20 of the 186 stories from volume of “Best of” in 2015. the last decade for inclusion in the SALLY CASSADY LYON Best of the South: The Best of the Second Decade. This book reads the way a greatest-hits record from your all-time favorite band sounds. Joy in the Morning: Poems. Included here are Lee Smith, By Claude Wilkinson. Southern William Gay, Jill McCorkle, Messenger Poets Series. Baton Michael Knight (who is this year’s Rouge: Louisiana State University Grisham Writer at the University of Press, 2004. 62 pages. $26.95 cloth, Mississippi), Scott Ely, Pam in “Debra’s Flap and Snap.” Debra $16.95 paper. Durban, and many talented others. meets L. Ray in shop class. “They People magazine once said of the didn’t have special ed back then. Claude Wilkinson returned to Oxford New Stories series that the “tales They just called it shop.” After the recently to read from Joy in the epitomize the qualities readers school dance, L. Ray masturbates in Morning, his latest poetry collection. treasure in the best Southern front of her, leaving her scarred for A book of joys and sorrows, this slim literature: a rich appreciation of life. “The experience at the time left volume yields kudzu and Renoir, free language and humor, as well as a me feeling filthy. And he never asked verse and sonnets, Greek heroes and dead-on sense of place and me out again after that night, which I Gospel tunes, subtle puns and an character.” In other words, every regretted only after I got married.” occasional mock epic attitude. The offering is Southern short-story Another 14-year-old, Roberta, from soft-spoken author told his Square magic. Every one is a masterpiece. Judy Troy’s “Ramone,” wonders about Books audience that several poems Every one is a slam dunk. the power of feeling “too much,” and had their start in 2000-2001, when he That said, perhaps the most well- describes it like “loving a boy more served as the University of written characters in these Southern than he loved you; you couldn’t help Mississippi’s John and Renée Grisham tales are young people poignantly it, and you couldn’t stop it, and you Visiting Southern Writer in describing events from their early made him love you in your dreams.” Residence. That same year, the years that transformed them. In It’s only after making this connection Whiting Foundation recognized Heather Seller’s “Fla. Boys” the 14- that Roberta is able to understand her Wilkinson’s literary promise with a year-old protagonist—who learned to mother’s fear of emotional overload large cash prize and a collector’s drive at 12 and who must fend for and forgive her. Other standouts in edition of Henry David Thoreau. herself while her father is in the this collection include Mark The Foundation saw a deep hospital—wrecks Dad’s Oldsmobile Richard’s “Memorial Day,” in which a likeness between the poet from on a Florida freeway and dreamily small boy mistakes the personification Nesbit, Mississippi, and the 19th- wanders into a service station where of Death for the landlady’s son; Max century author from Concord, she meets a trucker who winds up Steele’s “The Unripe Heart,” about Massachusetts. In Walden: or, Life in sleeping with her. In the morning the the agony an eight-year-old the Woods, his most famous text, girl, walking toward home in stolen experiences after he locks his Thoreau compares Walden Pond blue jeans, leaves us with a whollop: mother out on the roof of the family’s (“God’s drop”) to the holy Ganges “It scared me, all of it. As much as the home; and Jim Grimsley’s tale of a River; for him, bathing in those thought of the next thing.” Clyde sermon-giving woman on an Atlanta waters at dawn is a sacred Edgerton’s funny, chubby eighth- commuter train, “Jesus Is Sending immersion. For Wilkinson, too, grader, Debra, describes her first date You This Message.” nature glimmers with transcen-

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dence. The title Joy in the Morning his edgy scenes: “the soliloquy / of comes from the psalm he cites as his anguish seems beyond / what epigraph; and Wilkinson reads God’s anything could take.” In other message of joy in the flash of poems, Wilkinson describes the loss “radiant schools of fish,” “a of a beloved dog, the hauling of coneflower’s purple alms,” and family cows to slaughter, the “undulations of butterflies.” “shocked bodies” of chickens killed As lovers of music, Thoreau and for the evening meal, and a wolf’s Wilkinson are alert to sounds of attack on a gardenia-white crane. harmony and dissonance: flute “Golden Years” is the ironic title of notes, loons, and locomotives at a poem about a nursing home; an Walden; blues and jazz, redbirds, octogenarian “sits in the rec room / and 18-wheelers in the South. The before candlelit cake / as if watching authors’ eyesight is as sharp as their a house burn.” Saddest of all, hearing. The act of vision becomes Wilkinson remembers his mother’s so crucial that both Walden and Joy final weeks in a Memphis hospital in the Morning achieve an air of and his father’s last days. The dying prophecy, especially in Wilkinson’s man lingers “between ether and many references to dreams and earth” while asking his guilt- revelations. The poem “Grail” burdened son, “Things okay, / recalls his early longing “to be field of “tall bleached grass / and its between you and me?” changed / from child to a giver / of single leafless scrub” in his recurring Yet, the son is able to reassure his omens and dreams.” During a cold nightmare might conceal “the favor father and then to comfort himself. Christmas season, a time of waiting, of the Lord,” as the artist Rousseau Wilkinson also fortifies his readers the boy walks under a “temple” of hides kittenish lions and an earthy for hard times to come by reminding Mississippi trees—sycamore, locust, nude in jungles of “passionflower us of the consolations of memory, cedar—hoping to spot “one and fern.” Rousseau’s bold landscape art, religious faith, language, and remarkable fire” in the dark sky. The is the lushest of several allusions to even humor. While Joy in the poem’s title evokes the religious art in Joy in the Morning. Himself an Morning begins with the terrors of quest of King Arthur’s purest artist, Wilkinson reproduces a lovely “The Enduring Night,” the book knights, and Wilkinson might have detail from his painting “Cypress closes with claps of praise in even more in common with the Grove” on the cover of his book. A “Doxology and Benediction.” great metaphysical poets of 17th- few years ago, he contributed several Halfway between these extremes of century England than he does with landscape sketches and commentary despair and hope, the poet playfully Thoreau’s optimistic transcen- to The Yalobusha Review, the describes a haircut. In “The dentalism. Like Donne and Herbert, University of Mississippi’s literary Barbershop,” a “heroic chorus”— Wilkinson speaks of spiritual journal. In that article, Wilkinson made up of farmers, a gardener, struggle, the dark night that observed: “While I typically paint young “Romeos,” and the poet too— precedes the joyful morning. At his scenes that offer an alluring serenity, arrives with their “jawbones of local book signing, he pointed out there is always present, at least to asses.” Each is “summoned” to be that joy can come even in the my mind, the undercurrent that “cropped, / shaven, anointed with “mourning.” these spots may soon be lost to some pomade”; the ceremony over, each Thus, his poem “Mourning Song” form of encroachment.” “tramples out / over the dingy fleece describes a dove’s call “from the Loss is a serious threat in his of our strength”—wry references to brink.” Beginning “like a tear, / as poetry as well. Joy in the Morning the biblical Samson and the much glory as despair / on the begins on a melancholy note with a legendary Jason. With good grace, broken note,” the bird’s mysterious poem named after Michael Crespo’s Claude Wilkinson redeems frail song of grief and gladness “falls “The Enduring Night,” a painting of human enterprises in his strong imperceptibly over / chambers of “moon, rabbit, dark.” A more poems. dream,” just before the sleeper is familiar title to most readers is JOAN WYLIE HALL “released” from the night. In “Cape Cod Evening, 1939,” another poem, “The Grace of Wilkinson’s homage to Edward Dreams,” the narrator wonders if a Hopper, a modern artist known for

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 29 Reading the South continued

husband, or expresses her dissatisfaction with the turn his life has taken. When he left for Martha Washington: An Philadelphia and the Constitutional American Life. Convention, for instance, she remained firmly ensconced at By Patricia Brady. New York: The Mount Vernon. Nor was she Viking Press, 2005. 276 pages. especially happy in New York, where $24.95 cloth. her duties as the president’s wife Eighteenth-century American virtually took over her own life. women are at long last being rescued Brady clearly likes both George from oblivion. In recent years, and Martha Washington. This is not biographers have begun tapping a “warts and all” biography. When into—and helping to create—a she describes the Revolutionary growing public interest in the army’s experience at Valley Forge, “founding fathers,” creating the she appears not to notice the phenomenon that Newsweek has difference between the suffering of dubbed “founders chic.” Now, the common soldiers and the increasingly, historians have begun relatively comfortable existence of to capture the less public experiences the officers and their wives. She of the new nation’s “founding talks of a few house slaves in mothers.” We now know much more Scholars who are interested in passing—including a couple who about the lives of Abigail Adams, feminist theory, or who want ran away—but does not even Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, Mercy insights on the gender and status mention the slaves whose labor in Otis Warren, Deborah Franklin, constructs that informed the lives of the fields made Mount Vernon a Deborah Sampson Gannett, and men and women in the 18th growing concern. Judith Sargent Murray than anyone century, will no doubt be The book is marred by the would have thought possible a few disappointed in Brady’s book. occasional anachronism. References decades ago. And yet one woman— Chronologically rather than to the “burning intensity of [Martha’s] Martha Washington—is strangely analytically organized, this is a love for her husband” seem out of missing from the pantheon. straightforward biography, written place in a world that had yet to America’s first “First Lady” (they in a chatty, familiar, and accessible embrace the notion of romantic love called her Madam Presidentress at fashion. Perhaps understandably, (105). The assertion that Mercy Otis the time) remains a vague presence, George Washington’s career Warren underestimated Martha’s as hidden from view as ever. dominates. Martha is seen all too intelligence “because of her soft Patricia Brady’s Martha Washington: often as an appendage to her southern manner” is doubtful (108). An American Life is an admirable husband, as a loving helpmeet who The stereotypical “Southern belle” effort to bring Washington out of the acquiesces to her fate and makes life was a product of the 19th, not the shadows, even as it might explain just as comfortable as possible for the 18th, century. why most biographers may have planter, general, and president. The Still, this is a lively, eminently avoided her as a subject. As Brady rhythms of Martha’s life are wedded readable book. It does something to points out in her introduction, to her husband’s experiences. She humanize Martha Washington and, Washington destroyed virtually all of evidently shares his political views perhaps more importantly, to remind her personal correspondence before without question. His trajectory readers that women were present at she died. Thus it is difficult, if not becomes hers, as she follows him the founding. impossible, to bring her alive, to from camp to camp as long as the SHEILA L. SKEMP capture her essence, or to develop Revolution lasts, and then to New many insights about her hopes and York when he assumes the fears, much less her understanding of presidency. Martha becomes more her place—as a woman or as a interesting, and more or her own patriot—in the founding of the person, on those rare occasions American nation. when she refuses to follow her

Page 30 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Music of the South 2006 Natchez Literary and Cinema Conference Celebration to Explore Southern Food, September 2–3, 2005 The Center, in conjunction with Drink in History, Literature, Film University Outreach, hosted the Taste buds in the Deep South favor biscuits, gumbo, sweet tea, bourbon balls, fried inaugural Music of the South chicken, tomato aspic, pecan pie, mint juleps, and other foods and beverages so Conference, September 2–3, 2005. It popular they have become icons, actually representing the region. Food and drink began with presentations on gender and show up everywhere in Southern history, literature, and film. What do these foods Southern music and included other and beverages tell about the South? What do their history and regional variations panels that dealt with such topics as reveal? religion, race relations, generational Find out at the 17th annual Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, to be differences in Southern music, Mississippi held February 23-26, 2006, in Natchez, Mississippi. Using the theme “Biscuits, musicians, and music in different parts of Gumbo, Sweet Tea, and Bourbon Balls: Southern Food and Drink in History, the South. Stephen Shearon offered a Literature, and Film,” the conference will explore all manner of Southern foods and wide-ranging multimedia look at the beverages. South through music. John T. Edge, a widely published author and director of the Southern Foodways Bill Malone, author of Country Music Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, advised organizers of the U.S.A. and other books on music in conference program. He will speak about the legacy of the South’s fried chicken the South, delivered the keynote cooks of African descent and will introduce one of the films to be shown at the address on Mike Seeger and issues of festival, Smokestack Lightning: A Day in the Life of Barbecue, by Lolis Eric Elie, of musical authenticity in the folk music New Orleans. revival. Malone and his wife, Bobbie, Other authors who will speak about various aspects of Southern foodways are also performed traditional music. Jessica Harris, Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking; Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast John Egerton, Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History; Robert St. John, the week before the conference, and Deep South Staples or How to Survive in a Southern Kitchen without a Can of Cream of many participants reflected upon New Mushroom Soup; and Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays, Being Dead Is No Orleans’s central role in Southern Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral. music. Mississippi’s Jones Sisters closed Martha Foose, executive chef of Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, out the conference with gospel singing, Mississippi, will present “Cooking to the Blues,” a cooking demonstration with putting an appropriate benediction on music by Delta musician Duff Dorough. Judy Hood, from the University of Miami, this year’s gathering. will talk about food imagery in the works of Zora Neale Hurston, and literary CHARLES REAGAN WILSON scholar Kenneth Holditch will discuss food and beverage imagery in Tennessee Williams’s plays. Amy Evans, oral historian for the Southern Foodways Alliance, will look at Mississippi’s hot tamale tradition. Joe York There will be a panel discussion on Southern drinks, including moonshine, mint juleps, Coca-Cola, beer, wine, and tea. The conference will also include book signings, tastings, special meals, writing workshops, food shows, receptions, and parties. Receiving special writing awards are William Ferris, former director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and now at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; literary scholar Noel Polk, Mississippi State University; and playwright Beth Henley. Prior to the awards ceremony, the Center Bobbie Malone and keynote speaker Bill Malone for the Study of Southern Culture will host a reception at which Center director Charles Reagan Wilson will make remarks. Most of the NLCC is free of charge, in part Joe York because of annual funding by the Mississippi Humanities Council and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. For information, call toll-free 866- 296-NLCC (6522) or 601-446-1289; e-mail [email protected]; or Sylvester Oliver, music professor at Rust visit the Web site: College in Holly Springs, Mississippi www.colin.edu/nlcc.

The Southern Register Fall 2005 Page 31 New Cookbook Celebrates Oxford’s Eclectic Cultural Mix Literature, fine art, and delicious food roots, while reminiscences about the combine to make Oxford one of the town and its food culture from Oxford premier cultural epicenters of the residents, such as William Lewis, Julie South, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Walton, and Nan Davis, contribute to the Council has captured that unique essentially Southern sense of place that Southern combination in a new permeates the book. cookbook, Square Table: A Collection of The cookbook reflects a substantial Recipes from Oxford, Mississippi, community effort. A committee of 67 published at the end of October. people guided the project, and 260 Almost 350 recipes for traditional Oxford residents contributed hundreds Southern dishes, local favorites, plus of favorite recipes, which were then the best from celebrated New South triple-tested by almost 100 volunteer chefs share space in this beautiful cooks. The award-winning chefs of book, along with the words and images City Grocery, L & M’s Kitchen and of many of Oxford’s authors and artists. Salumeria, 208, and Yocona River John T. Edge, cookbook author, William Faulkner, as well as revered Inn—among several other area director of the Southern Foodways journalist and Mississippi author Willie restaurants—also contributed recipes Alliance at the University of Mississippi, Morris are also sprinkled throughout for their patrons’ favorite dishes. and well-published food writer with the book. With 11 recipe categories plus several works appearing in the New York Times, Square Table is a visual treat as well. complete menus provided, Square Table Gourmet, and Saveur magazines, has high Celebrated artists from the community includes the best cuisine ideas from praise for the work in his introduction to supplied beautiful renderings of Oxford. Oxford residents and restaurants, not the cookbook: The book includes work from more than to mention practical tips on preparing “The art alone is worth the fare. But a dozen artists, among them Jere Allen, and serving food. don’t judge this book by a thumb- whom Art and Antique magazine has Proceeds from the book will help the through, even if you’re swooning by called a “modern-day master” and whose city continue to celebrate and foster its page thirty-seven. Find a space for work has received international acclaim; unique artistic culture by funding the Square Table on your kitchen shelf. Jason Bouldin, a Harvard-educated artist activities of the Yoknapatawpha Arts Dog-ear the pages; edit the recipes and winner of the grand prize in the Council. YAC enriches the community to suit your palate. Make the book Portrait Society of America’s 2002 by providing community arts grants, your own. International Portrait Competition, who sponsoring the annual Oxford Film “A year may pass before you come contributed the art for the cover of the Festival and the Double Decker to truly appreciate the effort. By cookbook; and Marty Vinograd, a Festival, organizing local art sales and then your repertoire will include nationally recognized collage artist demonstrations, as well as operating smothered doves and marmalade whose portraits and other work are writing contests, drama workshops, and sweet potatoes, not to mention featured in the University of Mississippi art shows for children. cream cheese jalapeño venison Museum, Washington, D.C.’s Decatur Square Table is available for $32.00 a rolls and cornbread salad.” House, and the Israeli Heritage copy. To order, contact the Yokna- The eclectic mix of literature, art, International Bank. patawpha Arts Council at 662-236-6429 and food in Square Table reflects the Square Table also features 17 colorful or e-mail [email protected]. One book unique feel and flavor of Oxford itself. photographs by internationally recognized can be shipped with two-day delivery Essays from writers with ties to Oxford, photographer Langdon Clay, whose work for $5.95 shipping and handling. Add such as Curtis Wilkie, John Grisham, has been featured in numerous books and $2.00 for each additional book ordered. Lisa Howorth, and Julia Reed, are by magazines, including Southern Living, A half case of six books can be delivered turns funny and poignant, most notably capture favorite local activities such as to a single address for a shipping cost of in the case of the late author Larry tailgating in the Grove, a Halloween $9.00 and $16.00 for a full case of 12 Brown, whose essay was completed pumpkin patch, and the bounty of the books. Mississippi residents should add only days before he died. Selections local farmer’s market. Historical photos of 7 percent sales tax. from Oxford’s most famous past Oxford, many of which have never been ELLEN MEACHAM resident, Nobel Prize–winning author published until now, highlight the town’s

Page 32 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Oxford’s finest new cookbook is here!

Cover art by Jason Bouldin

A collection of recipes, original artwork, and personal accounts of Southern cooking by Oxford’s most distinguished literary figures, Square Table is the perfect gift—for yourself and everyone on your holiday list. A beautiful book—a perfect gift.

All proceeds benefit the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.

Many thanks to our primary sponsors, Baptist Memorial Hospital and First National Bank.

Name ______

Address ______

City______State ______Zip ______Quantity ____ @ $32.00 each

E-mail ______Order Total ______

Mississippi residents Daytime Telephone ______add 7% sales tax ______Shipping and handling costs: Add $5.95 for one book and $2.00 for each additional book sent to a single address. A half case of six books can be delivered to a single address for a shipping cost of $9.00 and $16.00 for a full case of 12 books. Shipping and Handling ______Send check or money order to Square Table Cookbooks, P.O. Box 544, Oxford, MS 38655.

Orders may also be made by e-mailing [email protected] or calling TOTAL ______662-236-6429. NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

MARION BARNWELL taught English at Delta State currently working on a dissertation on James Jackson University for many years. She is editor of the anthology Kilpatrick and Southern whites’ response to the civil A Place Called Mississippi (1997) and coauthor of Touring rights movement. Literary Mississippi (2002). DONALD M. KARTIGANER holds the William Howry MARY BATTLE is a second-year graduate Southern Chair in Faulkner Studies at the University of Mississippi Studies student at the University of Mississippi. She is and is director of the Faulkner Conference. He is the serving as an intern for the soon-to-be-opened Cotton author of The Fragile Thread: The Meaning of Form in Exchange Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. Faulkner’s Novels and has completed a book-length study, “Repetition Forward: A Theory of Modernist WILLIAM BEARDEN is the president of the William Reading.” Bearden Company of Memphis, Tennessee, which produces documentary films, live events, and corporate SALLY CASSADY LYON is a Sewanee grad from Gulfport videos. He is in charge of productions for the Cotton who now calls Oxford home. She works at the Center, as Museum at the Memphis Cotton Exchange and is also Director Charles Reagan Wilson’s assistant. the author of Cotton: From Southern Fields to Memphis Market, a collection of photographs and descriptions of ELLEN B. MEACHAM is a graduate of the Southern the cotton industry in the Delta region. Studies master’s degree program, a freelance journalist, and an instructor in the University of Mississippi’s MARK CAMARIGG practiced law in California for several Department of Journalism. years before moving to Mississippi in 2002 to study Southern history, work for Living Blues magazine as a SHEILA L. SKEMP is professor of history at the University graduate assistant, visit jook joints, and soak up Southern of Mississippi. Among her publications are William culture. In the spring of 2004, he became publications Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King; Benjamin and manager of Living Blues. William Franklin: Father and Son, Patriot and Loyalist, and Judith Sargent Murray: A Brief Biography with Documents. MICHAEL DAVENPORT, a retired teacher who lives near Greeneville, Tennessee, taught Advanced Placement JENNIFER SOUTHALL is advancement associate for English and Great Books courses for 30 years. He was a annual giving at the University of Mississippi, where she Saks Fellow at the 2001 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha received a BA in English in 1992. She taught high Conference and is currently writing fiction and working school English and worked as a copyeditor before on some editing projects. returning to Ole Miss in 2003. DAVID WHARTON is assistant professor and director of ADAM GUSSOW, assistant professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, is the documentary projects at the Center, where he teaches author of Mister Satan’s Apprentice: A Blues Memoir and courses in Southern Studies, fieldwork, and photography. Seems Like Murder Here: Southern Violence and the Blues He is the author of The Soul of a Small Texas Town: Tradition, winner of the C. Hugh Holman Award for the Photographs, Memories, and History from McDade. best book of literary scholarship or criticism in Southern CURTIS WILKIE, author of Dixie: A Personal Odyssey literature published in 2002. through Events that Shaped the Modern South, lives in New Orleans and Oxford, Mississippi, where he holds the JOAN WYLIE HALL teaches in the English Department at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of Shirley Cook chair in journalism at the University of Mississippi. Jackson: A Study of the Short Fiction and articles on CHARLES REAGAN WILSON is director of the Center and Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Grace King, professor of history and Southern Studies. Among his Frances Newman, and others. publications are Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause and Judgment and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths WILL HUSTWIT is a doctoral student in the History Department at the University of Mississippi. He is from Faulkner to Elvis.

(continued from page 8) page abstracts must be submitted by January of English, The University of Mississippi, 31, 2006. Authors whose papers are selected University, MS 38677-1848. Telephone: 662- 31, 2006. Authors whose papers are selected will receive a reduction of the registration fee 915-5793, e-mail: [email protected]. will receive a waiver of the conference to $100. In addition to commercial lodging, Panel abstracts may be sent by e-mail registration fee, and lodging at the Inn at Ole inexpensive dormitory rooms are available. attachment; plenary manuscripts should only Miss from Saturday, July 22, through Thursday, All manuscripts and inquiries should be be sent by regular mail. Decisions for all papers July 27. For short papers, three copies of two- addressed to Donald Kartiganer, Department will be made by March 1, 2006.

Page 34 Fall 2005 The Southern Register Southern Culture Catalog The University of Mississippi International Orders Barnard Observatory • University, MS 38677 Other video formats Gift Ideas may be available. Phone 800-390-3527 • Fax 662-915-5814 J. B. Murry: Writing in an Unknown Please call for information. Tongue; Reading through the Water Sold To: J. B. Murry, a self- educated African American visionary Name from Georgia, celebrates ritual Address “writing in the Spirit” and water divination. City State Zip These traditional expressions, derived from African influences, occur throughout the Country Caribbean, South America, and the American South. This DVD shows Murray performing the Daytime Phone rituals and includes shots of some of the paintings for which he has gained national J Payment enclosed (check, money order, international money order in U.S. currency recognition. This short documentary raises or international check drawn on a US bank; made payable to The Southern Culture Catalog) issues about the relationship between the spiritual and the aesthetic in the art of religious J Charge my: J Visa J MasterCard Account # visionaries. By Judith McWillie/University of Georgia. 1986. Exp. Date Signature Color, 15 minutes. DVD1145 ...... $15.00 How To Order Delivery Friends ...... $13.50 By mail: Southern Culture Catalog Orders for delivery in the continental United Barnard Observatory • The University of States are shipped by US Postal Service unless Mississippi • University, MS 38677 James “Son” Thomas other means of delivery are requested. Orders for delivery outside the continental United A renowned Delta By e-mail: Credit Card orders only States are shipped by Parcel Post. blues singer, “Son” [email protected] Thomas was also a Shipping and Handling Costs By telephone: Credit Card orders only gifted clay sculptor. United States: $3.50 for first video or other item, 800-390-3527 (Monday-Friday, Filmed at his home in $1.00 each additional item sent to the same 8:15 a.m.-4:45 p.m. CST) in the US. Leland, Mississippi, address. Foreign: $5.00 for each item. this treatment juxtaposes Thomas’s artwork Outside the US call 662-915-5993 with several musical performances. It also Posters. United States: $3.50 for any number of includes a sequence showing how he worked By fax: Credit Card orders only posters sent to the same address. Foreign: clay to create his famous sculptures of the 662-915-5814 (Daily, 24 hours a day) $10.00 for any number of posters sent to the human skull. By Judith McWillie/University of same address. Georgia. 1986. Color, 17 minutes. Return Policy All sales are final. No refunds will be made. If an order DVD1104 ...... $15.00 Friends ...... $13.50 contains faulty or damaged goods, replacements will be made when such items are returned with problem(s) noted. William Faulkner and Eudora Welty This film features Eudora Item # Title/Description Qty. Price Total Welty at the opening session of the 1987 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. Welty reads from her story “Why I Live at the P.O.” and answers questions about Order Total her work and This form may be Faulkner’s. Mississippi residents add 7% sales tax Color, 34 minutes. photocopied. DVD1104 ...... $25.00 Faxed orders Shipping and Handling Friends ...... $22.50 accepted. TOTAL

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