1111 I '-1\ 11\-11\ ()I \11--1'-11'1'1 LAS'f CHANCE TO~RECEI'VE THE REGIStER - '- Tex says, "Listen up, pardners. We're rwt just whistlin' Dixie here."
he Center's director, Charles Reagan Wilson, must reply. A special response card is inserted in this issue for has issued a special appeal to all partners in your convenience. the continuing study of the American South. If you wish, you may continue to receive the newsletter by As the Center works to strengthen its pro- mail. Please verify that your name and address are current. grams for the 21st century, your help is need- Notify the Center if multiple copies have been arriving in your ed with one simple but important task: saving mailbox. You may also cancel your subscription by mail and read this publication. the Register online. You will find it on the Internet at "We mail the Southern Register to more than 30,000 recipients http://www.cssc.olemiss.edu. in the U.S. and abroad," Wilson says. "It's a good way to keep in Along with your correspondence, please consider showing touch, and we certainly would like to keep publishing the your support by making a pledge to the Center's Annual newsletter, but we're concerned about rising costs." Appeal. On the same card you will find information about Words of warning: In an effort to preserve the Southern making a tax-deductible contribution, to help out in a Register, the Center is engaging in more than tough time of tight budgets. talk. Be aware of the consequences. If you do not "We need to shore up our academic programs respond to this query using the enclosed response and bund a broader base for our conferences and card, your name will be removed from the other public activities," Wilson says. "The 'mailing list. American South continues to be a fascinat- "Our mailing list has not been updated in ing laboratory for exploring many issues a while," Wilson says. "We want to make pertinent to the country and other parts sure we're hitting the target, not shooting of the world. Racial and ethnic diversity in the dark. We want to make sure we're or the role of religion in everyday life- reaching people who really have an these are just a couple of examples made interest in Southern culture." prominent when tragic violence in In addition to significant increases Northern Ireland or the excesses of in the price of paper and postage, the Islamic fundamentalism are making Center also must shoulder the cost of the news. newsletters that are returned without "We intend to strengthen the delivery. The Postal Service charges Center's involvement in exploring the Center for the return mailing, and many aspects of the South's cul- the growing number of returns repre- ture, and we want to make those sents an unacceptable drain on current findings widely available," Wilson resources. adds. "But we need new and especially Readers of the Register can help renewed support in order to be alleviate the burden. Please commu- able to succeed." nicate your preferences about Please turn to the enclosed receiving the newsletter. Readers response card and reaffirm your who wish to remain on the mailing list interest in the Center's work. Charles Reagan Wilson, Age 3 Renewal is essential for institu- pare our students to be thoughtful, pro- Published Quarterly by tions as well as individuals. In the tradi- ductive citizens. One of our highest pri- The Center for the Study of Southern Culture tional South, revival was the summer rit- orities during the coming year will be to The University of Mississippi ual for church folks that brought renewal, focus our collective attentions upon the Telephone 601-232-5993 as crops were "laid by" and people's academic program, adding new courses Fax: 601-232·5814 thoughts turned to the spiritual. In the and building on the strengths of existing E·mail: [email protected] modern South, summer is vacation time, classes. Internet: URi http://www.cssc.olemiss.edu bringing renewal through departure from These efforts will profit from new addi- IN THIS ISSUE normal routines. tions to the Center this fall. Michael Sumrn.erIFa1l1998 This summer, the Center has contin- Bertrand is joining the faculty as visiting ued the process of renewal through self- assistant professor of History and 1 LastChance to Receive the Register 2 Director'sColumn examination and looking toward future Southern Studies. The University of 3 NEH Celebration plans. This process has been a part of the Illinois Press will soon be publishing his 4 BrownBagSchedule - Fall 1998 transition that began when Bill Ferris left dissertation, entitled "Southern Youth in 5 HistorySymPQSiumtoExplore to become director of the National Dissent: Rock 'n Roll, Race, and Elvis SoutheasternIndians Endowment for the Humanities last Presley, 1945-1960." Leah Hagedorn, 5 MarkYourCalendars! January and Ann Abadie assumed her who is completing her doctorate in 6 TennesseWilliams Festival stewardship of activities this spring.I American history at the University of 6 DecorativeArts & Preservation began my new role as director of the North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is direct- 7 Center to ReleaseRed TopsCD Center on July 1, after extensive meetings ing a two-year research project on JeWish 7 Previewof Delta] ews with Southern Studies faculty, students, life at the University of Mississippi and, 8 Southern FoodwaysSymposium more broadly, in the state of Mississippi. 8 BarnardObservatoryExhibitions and alumni, Center staff, University 9 McKnight Exhibition administrators, and our State Advisory She will also be teaching a course in the 10 Teaching Faulkner Newsletter Committee. I have been teaching at the spring semester, bringing to bear her 10 BlakeIs 1998FauxFaulkner Winner University since 1981, but these meet- expertise on ethnicity and the South. 10 1999F&Y Call for Papers ings were an in-depth education for me Research is integral to the Center's 11 Faulkner in America: Summer 1998 in the workings of the Center. They were academic program, as faculty and stu- 12 Southern BooksellerABA President especially valuable in giving everyone dents collect information, analyze it, and 13 Reading the South: Reviews& Notes associated with the Center a forum to write about the South. Southern Studies 16 1998EudoraWeltyAwards share concerns on its future directions. faculty with joint appointments in histo- 16 McKee'sEnglish676 We all agreed, it seems, that academics ry, literature, anthropology, and art are 16 New Arrival provides the solid foundation for the especially vital to the Center's mission, 17 ProfessorAirs Sounds of Africa Center's work. The Southern Studies but so are the other faculty on campus 17 Southern Studies Graduates bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees who teach courses on the South as part of 18 In Memoriam:Joanne Varner Hawks provide students training in multidisci- our extended curriculum. Their efforts 19 EugeneWalters plinary course work that prepares them in documenting the region's culture are 19 WalkerPercyProject 19 Kentucke MakesDebut for work in cultural institutions such as creating a notable body of scholarship 20 GeorgeWashington Bicentennial museums, art galleries, historical that will be the Center's great legacy to 20 Call for Proposals:Country Music archives, research centers, and newspa- future efforts to study the South. 20 Notes on Contributors pers and magazines that cover the South. Center staff members are also integral 21 Regional Roundup The degrees give students the research, parts of the educational mission. Living writing, and verbal skills to work in the Blues magazine connects with people REGISTER STAFF booming businesses of the South or to around the world who now look to the take on advanced graduate training in University as an important source of Editor: Ann]. Abadie the liberal arts or the law. The Southern information about one of the South's Contributing Writer: Lynn McKnight Studies curriculum touches many people most significant art forms. The magazine Editorial Assistant: Anne Evans at the University, from our students who is filled with interviews and other docu- Publications Manager: Mickey McLaurin major in it to the countless students who mentation that provide a unique Graphic Designer: Bea Jackson take the courses as part of their overall resource for scholars as well as providing Mailing List Manager: Ananda Bollu education. The academic program brings information and entertainment for its Lithographer: Metroweb hundreds of students to the Center's readers. Similarly, the Center's Southern activities each year. Media Archive has quietly accumulated The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affinnative action and equal opP'brtunity in all its activities The Southern Studies faculty has a magnificent collection of photographs, and does nOt discriminate against anyone protected by law exciting ideas about additions to and videos, and distinctive home movies because of age, creed, color, national origin, race, religion, sex, handicap, veteran or other status. revisions of the curriculum to better pre- that document the South's visual tradi-
Page 2 Summer/Fall 1998 The Southern Register tions of the 20th century and reach out ways they can connect with our primary the meeting, which was a reflective occa- to a wide audience. mission of academics. sion held at the First Baptist Church in Other Center activities bridge the I was involved this summer with sever- Mound Bayou, founded as an all-black gap between the University and the al events that represent something of the community in the 19th century. broader public, which has surely been a Center's continuing role in supporting Late July saw the Center hosting the major objective of this institution in its the study of Southern culture. In May, 25th annual Faulkner and Yoknapataw- two-decade history. We are all proud of the Center hosted the first Southern pha Conference. With the theme the Center's achievements but look t~ Foodways Symposium. The theme of this "Faulkner in America," the conference provide focus for the future. Southern unique conference was "The Evolution of brought together scholars and over 130 Studies faculty and staff members have Southern Cuisine," and formal sessions registrants to examine literary and cultur- been sharing ideas and concerns with were interspersed with cooking demon- al aspects of Faulkner's attitudes toward me and with each other in a frank airing strations. The well-known Food and. Wine the idea of America. Finally, in mid- of views on the Center's priorities. This magazine mentioned the symposium in August, I served as moderator for an edu- dialogue has really only begun, as the an article on the distinguished food cational program preceding the Center embarks on a new stage in its scholar Jessica Harris, who enlivened the Sunflower River Blues Festival in mission to teach, research, and serve gathering with her spirit. A month later, Clarksdale, Mississippi. The panel the broader community. the Center was a sponsor of the ninth focused on visual and poetic traditions of That word community lies at the heart annual Natchez Literary Celebration, documenting the blues. of coming efforts to provide a mission which explored the theme of "The South: The Center's involvement in all statement and a five-year plan for the Its Land and Its Literature." The these meetings celebrating literature, Center. This institution connects with Celebration honored authors Richard Ford food, homecomings, and music reas- many people, on campus at the and Will Campbell with awards in the sured me of the diversity of approaches University but in other places as well. name of Richard Wright, and their accep- to studying the South. Southern cul- The Center's communities are in tance speeches were eloquent testimonies ture remains lively, with much to ana- Oxford, throughout MiSSissippi, in the to the power of the word in the South. lyze. And the music still makes you South, and around the world among July saw Mound Bayou, MiSSissippi, want to move, the words on paper still those friends who read the Southern hosting a homecoming for scholars who inspire you, and the food is still worth a Register and attend conferences here. As had grown up there before leaVing for special trip. Center director, I will strive to remem- their academic training and work. The CHARLES REAGAN WILSON ber these differing communities and the Center collaborated with organizers of
The Southern Register Summer/Fall 1998 Page 3 SEPTEMBER 2 "Mississippi Writers' HOlnetowns: 28 "Maniacs & MayheUl .'0 A PilgriUlage" Below the Mason-Dixon: Teresa Parker', Assistant Director, The South as Depicted Oxford Tourism CouncJ in Modern Horror Cinema" Ann Mueller*, Steve Budney, Development Associate/Research Doctoral Student in History Coordinator, University of Mississippi Center University Foundation NOVEMBER for the Study of 9 "Southern Human Rights 4 "The Legislative Session of 1999: Conference" A Loolz Ahead" Southern Culture Jaribu Hill,Attorney, Gray Tollison, Senator, Human Rights Activist Mississippi Legislature Oxford, Mississippi Oxford, Mississippi
THE BROWN BAG LUNCH 16 "Recycling, Art, & Poetry" 11 "Pot Likker: Southern Symbol AND LECTURE SERIES Blair Hobbs, Instructor, and Sustenance" Department of English John T Edge', Journalist Artist Oxford, Mississippi FALL 1998 Oxford, Mississippi 18 "Ole Miss Coeds of the '50s: 23 "Delta and Pine Land COUlpany" Reflections on Impressions" Mary Ann Connell Percy, Mary Stewart, The Brown Bag Communications, Assistant Professor of English Delta and Pine Land Company Shippensberg University Luncheon Series Scott, Mississippi 25 "The Battle of}ereUliah Gage tal~esplace each 30 "The Conscious Adventurer: and the University Greys" Walter Inglis Anderson" Charles Raiteri, Mary Anderson Pickard Assistant Professor of Journalism Wednesday at noon Ocean Springs, Mississippi University of Mississippi
in the OCTOBER DECEMBER 7 "Labor in the American South" 2 "Quapaw Canoe COUlpany: Yuri Rogoulev Expeditions on the Barnard Observatory University of Moscow Lower Mississippi River" Moscow, Russia John Ruskey Lecture Hall Clarlzsdale,Mississippi 14 "Poor White Body" during the regular Jay Watson, 9 "Children, Scarecrows, Associate Professor of English and Their Gardens" University of Mississippi Felder Rushing, Horticulturist, academic year. Mississippi Cooperative 21 "Celebrating and Preserving the Extension Service State's TraditiQ1lal Arts Jackson, Mississippi Through the Heritage Program" Larry Morrisey, Heritage Program Director Betsy Bradley, Director Mississippi Arts Commission Jacl~son,Mississippi
* indicates Southern Studies Graduate Student
SummeriFall1998 The Southern Register History,S· mposium to Explore Sout eastern Indians
arly Social History and Anthropology, will begin Friday's of the Southeastern program with "The Role of Carolina Indians, 1526-1715" is the in the Transformation of Native topic of the Porter L. Fortune American Societies," after which Jr. History Symposium to be Patricia Galloway, Mississippi held at the University Department of Archives and History, October 7-9,1998. Sponsored will present "Colonial Period Social by the Department of History Transformation in the Mississippi and the Center for the Study Valley: Alliance, Confederation, of Southern Culture, the sym- Playoff." posium is named in honor of The program on Friday afternoon Porter L. Fortune Jr., chancel- will include Timothy Perttula, lor emeritus, to honor his con- Frontera Archaeology, presenting tributions to the success of the symposium. Past events have "Social Changes among the Caddo Indians in the 16th and 17th examined topics in Southern history such as emancipation, the Centuries" and discussions led by Vernon James Knight, profes- Southern political tradition, childhood, the civil rights move- sor of Anthropology, University of Alabama, and Peter Wood, ment, religion, and the role of gender in shaping public power. professor of History, Duke University. The 1998 Fortune Symposium reaches further back in time- The symposium is free of charge and does not require registra- to the beginnings of Spanish, French, and English coloniza- tion. For more information c9ntact the coordinators: Robbie tion-and places Native Americans at the center of the histori- Ethridge, Department of Anthropology, University of cal action. In the past 20 years, historians, anthropologists, and Mississippi, University, MS 38677, 601-232-7317 or Ted Smith, archaeologists have made considerable progress in interpreting Department of History, University of Mississippi, University, MS the lifeways of the native peoples of the late prehistoric and early 38677,601-232-7148. The symposium website may be viewed at historic Southeast. From these works, we now understand that www.olemiss.edu/depts/ history/symposium. the first 200 years of the historical era was a time when funda- mental-even catastrophic-changes occurred in native soci- eties of the South. The task of this year's symposium is to exam- ine the various forces at play and to assess their role in the trans- formations of the native peoples of the Southeast between the era of Spanish exploration durjng the 16th century and the Southern Indian uprising of 1715, known as the Yamasee War. The symposium will open at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 7, with Charles Hudson, Franklin Professor of Anthropology, University of Georgia, presenting a lecture on "Genesis of the Indians of the Old South." Morning sessions on Thursday, October 8, will feature histori- an Paul Kelton, Southern Connecticut State University, exam- ining "The Great Southeastern Smallpox Epidemic, 1696-1700" and anthropologist Marvin Smith, Valdosta State University, discussing "Early Population Movements of the Southeastern Indians and Their Causes." Three lectures will be presented on Thursday afternoon: "Spanish Missions and the Persistence of Chiefly Power" by John Worth, director of programs, Coosawattee Foundation; "The Mother of Necessity: Reflections on the Role of the English Trade in the Southeast," by Stephen Hahn, history graduate stu- dent, Emory University; and "Trouble Coming Southward: Emanations through and from Virginia, 1607-1675" by Helen Rountree, professor of Anthropology, Old Dominion University. Chester DePratter, South Carolina Institute of Archaeology
The Southern Register Summer/Fall 1998 Page 5 Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
The sixth annual Mississippi Delta knew Williams, walking tours of his- Tennessee Williams Festival will toric sites from the playwright's child- take place in Clarksdale on October hood, and one-act plays staged on 15-17,1998. Events on the opening porches in the neighborhood. day will include the screenings and Following dinner and music at critiques of Williams's films; a prayer Hopson Plantation Commissary, service at St. George's Episcopal Theatre Oxford will perform Sweet Church, where the playwright's Bird of Youth. grandfather was rector; and a dinner This year, for the first time, a special at Uncle Henry's, known in Williams's program for Elderhostel participants plays as Moon Lake Casino. will take place in conjunction with On Friday, following the presenta- the festival. Scheduled for October tion of scholarly papers, Paul Budline 13-18, the Elderhostel program will of Arts & Entertainment will show enable registrants to learn about his film biography of Tennessee Tennessee Williams in the play- Williams and take questions from the wright's boyhood home and also study audience. Coahoma Community cotton culture and blues music. The College will sponsor a program of cost, including meals and lodging, is gospel music as a means of acquaint- $415, double occupancy. For informa- ing the audience with aspects of tion about Elderhostel sessions, con- Southern culture that greatly influ- tact Ronald Gorsegner, Carnegie enced the playwright. Following a Public Library/Delta Blues Museum, multicultural buffet at Lyon, another 114 Delta Avenue, Clarksdale, MS Williams setting, actress Erma Duricko will present dramatic 38614; telephone 601-627-7341; fax 601-627-4344. readings from Williams's plays. For information on the 1998 festival and drama competition, III Saturday's schedule will include an acting competition for write Tennessee Williams Festival, P.O. Box 1565, high school students, a session with Clarksdale residents who Clarksdale, MS 38614-1565; telephone 601-627-7337.
Columbus Forum to Examine Arts and Crafts Movement The Columbus Historic Foundation announces Sedalia, Missouri. Speakers scheduled for October iii the 7th annual Decorative Arts and Preservation 24 are author Ray Stubblebine, a trustee of the Forum and the 27th annual Antiques Show and Craftsman Farms Foundation, lecturing on the Sale to be held October 22-25, 1998, in contributions of Gustav Stickley to the Arts and Columbus, Mississippi. The weekend features Crafts Style of architecture; historian Martha scholarly lectures, gala entertainment, house Swain, presenting "The Political and Social tours, and retail sales. Context of the Bungalow Home, 1890-1930"; The American Arts and Crafts Movement is and John W. Keefe, New Orleans Museum of Art, the theme of the two-day forum, which is funded discussing the origins and the influence of the through a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Arts and Crafts Movement and its impact on the Council and will include four free public lectures. decorative arts. The first, scheduled for the evening of October For information on free lectures and events, 23, will be a lecture/performance on "What Is call the Columbus Historic Foundation at 601- Ragtime?" by Richard Zimmerman, musical direc- 329-3533 or the Columbus Convention and tor of the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival of Visitors Bureau at 800-327 -2686.
Page 6 Summer/Fall 1998 The Southern Register Center to Release Red Tops -Compact Disk
his November the Center plans to Walter Osborne, Red Tops drummer tact Michelle Walton, Southern Cultural release a compact disk record- and manager, graciously donated his col- Heritage Complex, at 601-631-2997. To ing of the Red Tops dance band lection of Red Tops recordings and mem- purchase a compact disk after the at a Red Tops Reunion held at the orabilia to the Center in 1985. Roberts November release, call the Center's cata- Southern Cultural Heritage Complex in Wilson Jr., a 1969 graduate of the log office at 800-390-3527. Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Red Tops, an University of Mississippi Law School, is ll-piece band, played regularly at col- providing financial support for the pro- leges, nightclubs, and country clubs in duction of the compact disk. Among the Above: The Red Tops in the 1950s (left Mississippi and Louisiana during the ~£!dTops songs to be included on the disk to right) Willard Tyler, Joe Custard, are "Danny Boy," "Swanee River Rock," 1950s, '60s, and '70s. In the 1950s the Jimmy Bosley, Napoleon Fleming, "Doc" Red Tops were the most popular and "Hello, Is That You?," and "I'm in the Raymond, Walter Osborne, Jesse Hayes, innovative dance band in Mississippi, in Mood for Love." The $17 compact disks Louis Spencer, Curtis Dunning, Rufus part because they often added humorous will be sold for the first time at the Red McKay (not pictured: Anderson skits to their acts and always performed Tops Reunion Party on November 7. For Hardwick, absent because of military ser- in a lively manner, with great personality. more information about this event, con- vice) Inset: Red Tops CD
THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE OX'FORD TOURISM COUNCIL MISSISSIPPI HUMANITIES COUNCIL
THE MUSJ=:UM OF THE SOUTHERN JEWISH EXPERIENCE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL PREVIEW SCREENING OF DELTA ''''jEW"S A NEW DOCUMENTARY BY MIKE DEWITT
PRESENTED BY MISSISSIPPI ETV
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 1, 1998, AT 2:00 P.M. PANEL DISCUSSION AND RECEPTION TO FOLLOW
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE
BARNARD OBSERVATORY
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
FUNDING FOR THIS EVENT PROVIDED BY Ben Llmensdorf; atWrd- generation Mississippi Delta THE MISSISSIPPI HUMANITIES COUNCIL cotton farmer
The Southern Register SummerlFall1998 Page 7 Southern Foodways Symposium a Great Success·. . 'w"· __ ~ r- oo Food and Wine magazine called the first Southern Foodways Symposium "ground-breaking." "Extraordinary," said the St. Petersburg Times. For three days in May, Oxford, the University, and the Center played host to a diverse collection of scholars, chefs, writers, and a few self-professed "good eaters." They gathered to discuss mat- ters of race, class, and regional identity. They gathered to eat fried catfish and hushpuppies. At the core of the conference was a series of 10 lectures, rang- ing from John Martin Taylor's "Toward a History of Southern Food" to Bill Wiggins's "Chicken Are Dying So That Men Might Live!: A Look at the Role of Foodways in the African American Author Richard Schweid talks with Ed Scott, the first African American catfish farmer in the Mississippi Delta. Religious Experience." Entertainment spanned the spectrum from the rousing sounds of the University of Mississippi Gospel Choir to the contemplative musings of Norma Jean Darden's of next year's gathering is to be "The Creolization of Southern play, Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine. And mealtime offerings Food." Expect discussions of how different ethnic groups influ- ranged from Ed Scott's criSp fried catfish to Frank Stitt's rich enced the development of Southern cuisine, of food at the pork rillettes. Southern borders, and of how Southern food changes when it Primary thanks for the event's success go to sponsors Bryan makes its way north to cities like Chicago or west to Oakland. Foods and Viking Range as well as supporting sponsors Ellen Expect to eat well. Rolfes Books and Mississippi Madness. The American Institute Look for details in the next Southern Register or contact sym- of Wine and Food was an advisory sponsor. Caroline Herting of posium director John T. Edge by phone at 601-236-7803 or e- the Institute for Continuing Studies did a masterful job at man- mail, [email protected]. Based upon suggestions from atten- aging logistical affairs. dees, registration will again be limited to 75 persons. Those plan- Plans are taking shape for a second symposium, to be held in ning to attend are advised to register by early 1999 in order to the fall of 1999. Though the dates have not been set, the theme secure a space.
Page 8 The Southern Register Page 9 Teaching CALL FOR PAPERS THE 26th ANNUAL Faulkner FAULKNER & YOKNAPATAWPHA CONFERENCE Newsletter "Faulkner and Postmodemism" THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI The Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State July 25~30,1999 University publishes Teaching Faulkner, a newsletter that appears twice yearly (fall and spring). The newsletter features brief arti- The Department of English is issuing a call for papers for cles, notes, and queries related to the teaching of Faulkner in high possible presentation at the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha school, college, and university classes. Conference to be held on the Oxford campus of the Teaching Faulkner is edited by Robert W. Hamblin, professor of University of Mississippi July 25-30, 1999. Papers on any English and director of the Faulkner Center at Southeast, and aspect of the theme "Faulkner and Postmodernism" are eli- Charles Peek, professor of English at the University of Nebraska gible. The purpose of the conference will be to study and at Kearney. Hamblin and Peek have directed "Teaching situate Faulkner's work within the context of what has Faulkner" sessions at the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha been termed "postmodern," although certainly that con- Conference since 1990. cept is one of the trickiest in current literary theory. We Subscriptions ($5.00 a year), manuscripts, and suggestions hope to elicit papers that provide some working definition should be mailed to Teaching Faulkner, Center for Faulkner of the postmodern, as it pertains to Faulkner, either as a Studies, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, way of incorporating his work within that definition or M063701. exploring his differences from it. Among the questions that papers might address are the following: What are the texts of Faulkner that most qualify as postmodern and how do they differ from his other work? Is there any sense in which Faulkner may fit into both the concepts of modernism and postmodernism, either as a pattern of development, an abrupt shift, or even as simultaneously practiced modes? Does modernism always imply postmodernism, as struc- turalism may imply poststructuralism, or are they distinctly different modes? What role might Faulkner's Southernness Blake Is 1998 play in his identity as a postmodem writer? Authors whose papers are selected for presentation at the conference will receive (1) a waiver of the conference Faux Faulkner Winner registration fee, (2) lodging at the University Alumni House from Sunday, July 25, through Friday, July 30, and Robert L. Blake Jr., of Columbia, Missouri, won the ninth (3) reimbursement of up to $500 in travel expenses within annual Jack Daniels Faux Faulkner Contest. Blake's parody, "Pile the continental United States ($.31 per mile by automobile On," was chosen the best of the "Bad Faulkner" by contest judges or tourist class airfare). Papers presented at the conference George Plimpton, John Berendt, Barry Hannah, and Arthur will be published by the University Press of Mississippi. Schlesinger Jr. The contest is sponsored by the Jack Daniels The 14th edition of the University of Chicago Manual of Distillery, the Yoknapatawpha Press and its Faulkner Newsletter, Style should be used as a guide in preparing manuscripts and the University of Mississippi. (3,000 to 6,000 words). Three copies of manuscripts must The contest winner receives a trip for two to Oxford and com- be submitted by January 15, 1999. Notification of selection plementary registration and lodging for the annual Faulkner and will be made by March 1, 1999. Manuscripts and inquiries Yoknapatawpha Conference held each summer at the University. about papers should be addressed to Donald Kartiganer, Blake, a physician and teacher at the University of Missouri Department of English, The University of Mississippi, School of Medicine, read his winning entry on July 26, the open- University, MS 38677. Telephone: 601-232-5793. E-Mail: ing day of the conference. [email protected]. Deadline for the 1999 Jack Daniels Faux Faulkner Contest is February 1, 1999. Entries, no longer than 500 words each, must be typed and double-spaced. Send entries to Faulkner Newsletter, Deadline P.O. Box 248, Oxford, MS 38655. For additional details, visit the website http://www.watervalley.net/yoknapatawphapress/ January 15, 1999 index.htm.
Page 10 Summer/Fall 1998 The Southern Register 25th Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI • OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI "Faulkner in America" SUMMER 1998 "You're a country boy; all you know is that little patch up there in MississiPPiwhere you started from. But that's all right too. It's America too.... "
-SHERWOOD ANDERSON TO WILLIAM FAULKNER
Clockwise from top left: Award-winning actresses Alice Berry (front) and Jenny Odie dramatized a Joan Williams short story about her relationship with William Faulkner and scenes from the novel Light in August. Berry and OdIe are founders of Voices of the South. a theater compa- ny dedicated to preserving great Southern literature by adapting short stories and novels for the stage from languages and images inspired by the text. Diane and M. C. "Chooky" Faulkner pose in front of their new home, where they hosted the closing party for the conference. structure is a replica his parents' home, Memory House, now headquarters for the University Foundation. Speakers at the 1998 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference are (seated. from left) Charles A. Peek, University of Nebraska at Kearney; Noel Polk, University of Southern Mississippi; Kathryn Burgess McKee, University of Mississippi; Catherine Gunther Kodat, Hamilton College; (standing. from left) Donald M. Kartiganer. University of Mississippi; Richard Godden. University of Keele; Peter Nicolaisen, Paedagogische Hochschule, Flenburg, Germany; Candace Waid, University of California, Santa Barbara; Hortense Spillers, Cornell University; Linda Wagner-Martin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Joseph R. Urgo, Bryant College; and James B. Carothers, University of Kansas. Not pictured is Center director Charles Reagan Wilson. Southern Bookseller Elected ABA President vocalchampion of independent bookstores, Richard Howorth writes in the July/August issue of Dear Reader, the Howorth of Oxford, Mississippi, has been elected newsletter from Square Books. A president of the American Booksellers Association, a "The ABA, by being for booksellers a formidable entity that national nonprofit organization that supports privately held can deal with these threats in the style of battle that those who bookstores across the country. threaten like to employ themselves, is doing work that we feel in Howorth's own store,"Square Books in Oxford, is known for noble and necessary." its fine general selection and its emphasis on Southern litera- It's not just about selling books, Howorth adds. Independent ture, history, and other topics pertaining to the American bookstores "are necessary to a healthy reading society." a South. Square Books has been an Oxford landmark since 1979. As a member of the board of Richard Howorth directors and as an officer, Howorth long has backed the work of the ABA, which he says is "in the realm of missionary duty when one considers the objectives of the organization." Founded in 1900 and based in Tarrytown, New York, the trade association tackles the big issues related to books and independent bookselling. ''What with the publicly funded big box corporate bookstores, mass- merchandising 'wholesale' clubs, and Internet 'bookstores,' most members of the ABA lately have been in for the fight of their lives,"
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The next edition, a special issue on Folklife and the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, will consider relationships between political activism and religion, music, memory, and social life and manners.
Future issues will examine folklife in landscape, recreation, and storytelling and literature. ------~------The annual subscription price for Mississippi Folklife is $10. For your subscription, please caUl ..800..390..3527. MississiPpi Folklife is published by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.
Page 12 SummerlFall1998 The Southern Register Readin the South Truth: Four Stories I Am covering sex, helped care for the old Douglas discovers the secret of her fam- Finally Old Enough to Tell. uncle, who had not given up sexual ily's involvement with the murders of By Ellen Douglas. New York: desire. On the morning of his death, 30 slaves suspected of plotting an upris- Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1998 bees swarmed. ing in Adams County in 1861. Trying to 238 pages. $18.95. "Julia and Nellie" reveals the secrets of discover "truth," she examines long- a liaison of close cousins who lived at the concealed family ledgers, interviews an Ellen Douglas is the pseudonym of ancient aunt, converses with blacks Mississippi author Josephine Ayres who once lived on the family's property, Haxton, who was born in Natchez, and meditates about Tumult and Silence lived in Greenville for more than three at Second Creek, historian Winthrop decades after her marriage, and taught Jordan's recent account of the incident. in Oxford and other places before set- "With regard to ancestors one has few tling down in Jackson. Her first eight choices," Douglas observes in this story. books are all fiction: the novels A "They're back there. One can remem- Family's Affairs, Where the Dreams ber or forget them, investigate or let lie, Cross, Apostles of Light, The Rock Cried lie or speak what may perhaps be the Out, A Lifetime Burning, Can't Quit You, truth about them. Of the more recent Baby, and two story collections, Black ~ ones there may exist portraits, letters, Cloud, White Cloud and The Magic ~ diaries, perhaps ambrotypes and pho- Carpet and Other Tales. 5 tographs. Further back, things are con- Having published fiction for four ~ siderably vaguer." decades, with Truth: Four Stories I Am ~ Choosing not to ignore her ancestors, > Finally Old Enough to Tell, the 77-year- i< Douglas uses every tool imaginable dur- old author crosses over into the mirror Ellen Douglas ing her journey to discover them. Truth, world of historical fact. This crossing is as she says, is a book "about remembering actually not a radical departure for Natchez landmark Longwood, a Moorish and forgetting, seeing and ignoring, lying Douglas. She adopted her pseudonym in mansion left unfinished in 1861 when and truth-telling. It's about secrets, judg- 1961, before the publication of her first the Civil War broke out. The Nellie in ments, threats, danger, and willful amne- novel, because, she explains, "A Family's the story is the author's paternal grand- sia. It's about the truth in fiction and the Affairs was based closely on the lives of mother. Julia is Nellie's cousin, Julia fiction in truth." Readers will welcome my two aunts, very private ladies who Nutt, daughter of the builder of Truth and hope that the author will write would take a dim view of having that Longwood. Discovering details of Julia's four more stories like those in this vol- privacy violated in a book that anybody 40-year affair with their cousin Dunbar ume and four more and four more for might buy and read." Marshall and the circumstances of his many years to come. Douglas continued to use her own burial are central to this story. experiences and those of her family in "Hampton" focuses on the author's her fiction. In Truth, however, she writes maternal grandmother and the black ser- Angels of Mercy: An openly, without disguise, about herself, vant who worked for her as director of Eyewitness Account of the about her white Mississippi forebears, the household, chauffeur, mechanic, gar- Civil War and Yellow Fever. about her relationship to black dener, and handyman from 1931 until Compiled and edited by Sister Mary MiSSissippians, and about her family' 1954. Douglas later made visits to him in Paulinus Oakes, RSM. Baltimore: guilt for the murder of helpless slaves. the nursing home where he spent his last Cathedral Foundation Press, 1998. In "Grant," the first story, Douglas years, trying to learn about his life, his 112 pages. Paper $16.00. tells of her husband's old uncle who disapproval of Jews, his reactions to the moves in with her family during the last civil rights movement, and his strong As a child growing up in Vicksburg, year of his life and of the beautiful black conviction that "Only an evil God could Mississippi, Sister Mary Paulinus Oakes, woman who nursed him as he was dying. have created the world we live in." RSM, was a history buff, particularly The sons of the house, young men dis- And finally, in "On Second Creek," interested in the Civil War. Her kinder-
Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, for lhere and other boolo "n Il00-648-4001or mx 601-234-%30_1~1 and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture 160 Courthouse Square' Oxford, Mississippi 38655 i~:l~
The Southern Register Summer/Fall 1998 Page 13 Reading the South continued
LIVING ON A DREAM garten classroom had been a hospital use facility that will include a muse- for wounded soldiers during--- the Siege um, an education center, and an inn. A Marriage Tale of Vicksburg, and for a time Grant's This facility will provide a lasting By Patt Blue monument to the Sisters of Mercy. uThis book stands as for above confes· forces had occupied the school- Saint Francis Xavier Academy, All proceeds from Angels of Mercy sionolliterature as its photographic opened by the Sisters of Mercy in will benefit Mississippi Mercy images rise above fami~ snapshots. Ministries with the Poor. Copies are Rother than se~lIbsorption, the family's 1860. Sister Paulinus recalls as a child available from Square Books and history tenders a row lesson in what it hearing stories about the Sisters of other independent bookstores. Mail sometimes tokes to survive." Mercy, heroic women who dedicated orders (checks payable to Sisters of • Publishers Weekly their lives to service as teachers and Mercy) to Sister Emmanuel Harper, $28 doth nurses. Her passion for history sparked 103 McAuley Drive, Vicksburg, MS intense research to learn about their 39180. ApPALACHIAN LEGACY work, and Angels of Mercy: An Phofographs by Shelby lee Adams Eyewitness Account of the Civil War A intimate look into the lives of nine and Yellow Fever is the result of Appalachian families over the (ourse of a her 10-year mission. Quorter-century and into the life of the The book is organized around man who photogrophs them nine biographies: four nuns and $50 cloth, $30 paper two women preparing for the order who left their convent in Baltimore in October 1860 to THE LOVED AND establish and staff a school in THE UNLOVED Vicksburg; the first woman from By Thomas Hal Phillips Vicksburg and one from New An unforgettable novel in which violence Orleans who joined the order; is tempered by compassion and love and Father Francis Xavier Leray, the priest who recruited the $17 paper Sisters to Vicksburg and, as a Confederate chaplain, accompa- INVENTING SOUTHERN nied them to Jackson, Oxford, LITERATURE and other sites where they nursed throughout the Civil War. By Michnel Kreyling In addition to the biographies, A skeptical view of the way the main- the book contains the journal of stream has defined and studied southern Sister Mary Ignatius Sumner, literature who gives accounts of events $45 anjatketed doth, $11 paper from 1860, when she and her five companions arrived in Vicksburg, THE JIM DILEMMA until her death from malaria fever in Trouble in Mind: ReDding RDee in Huclcleberry Finn 1895. During this time the Sisters of Black Southerners By Jocelyn Chadwick·Joshua Mercy built a convent and an auditori- in the Age of Jim Crow. An eloquent defense of Jim, Twain, um next to their original quarters, a By Leon E Litwack. New York: Alfred and the use of Huckleberry Finn in the house built in 1830. A. Knopf, 1998.599 pages. $35.00. classroom Sister Paulinus proVides extensive $45 unjacketedclath, $17 paper footnotes to supplement the journal, In a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize-win- and she traces the history of the ning Been in the Storm So Long, distin- Sisters as they constructed two addi- (HILDREN OF THE guished historian Leon Litwack has tional buildings, occupying an entire once again created a thoughtful, engag- DARK HOUSE city block in downtown Vicksburg ing account of one of the most signifi- Text Dnd Context in FDulkner until the early 1990s when they cant periods in the history of American By Noel Polk moved the convent and closed the race relations. While his 1979 book Polk's probing look into the Freudian school. The City of Vicksburg pur- focused on the aftermath of slavery, world of Faulkner's life and works chased the property in 1994 for the Litwack now has turned his attention $37.50 clath, $18 paper development of the Southern primarily to the years between 1890 New in paperbatk! Cultural Heritage Complex, a multi- and the Great Migration, when black
Page 14 SummeriFall1998 The Southern Register Reading the South continued
Southerners endured a "sharply pro- A broad interpretation of Southern scribed and deteriorating position in a culture, the book analyzes, among oth- South bent on commanding black lives ers, novelists, journalists, advertisers, and black labor by any means neces- United Daughters of the Confederacy sary." speakers, the builders of Stone The disturbing details of the era's vio- Mountain, and lynch mobs. The con- lence and brutality, and the explana- cepts of whiteness and white suprema- tions of larger forces at work on the cy emerge as complex works in Southern landscape, do not escape progress, full of tensions and insecuri- Litwack's attention. Yet Trouble in Mind ties that different Southerners tried to largely deals with these events in terms explain through various narratives. Lee~Siiiith,Annie Dillard, of their impact upon the everyday lives Hale explains the rise of new kinds of the vast majority of black Southerners, of thinking about whiteness in several and the Hollins Group who coped with immense political, ways. Along with emancipation, A Genesis of Writers social, and economic challenges without urbanization, and new forms of African Nancy C. Parrish having the power or affluence to make American activism, the rise of con- "Nancy Parrish writes of extraordinary their mark in broader terms. sumer culture triggered new ideas women in a most extraordinary place." Lending an intimacy to his story, about what it meant to be white. Since -Jill McCorkle Litwack draws on contemporary docu- shopping and access to goods had the Southern Literary Studies • Fred Hobson, Editor ments and first-person narratives from potential to undercut traditional privi- both blacks and whites to show how leges in the South, racist advertise- Illustrated· $29.95 many black Southerners managed to ments and newly segregated public battle the repressive system by creating spaces became ways to sustain or cre- their own institutions and preserving ate social differences. their culture through religion, music, Grace Hale's writing is powerful and and other avenues of expression. It is generally free of the jargon that mars Christopher Morris, Susan A. this "interior life" that forms the frame- so much scholarship on identity con- Eacker, Anne Goodwyn Jones, work for Litwack's inquiry. As he puts struction. The conclusion-that since it, "This is not so much a study of black some people made whiteness, we Bertram Wyatt-Brown, and leadership and ideology as it is a story of should be able to unmake it-is a wise Charles Joyner daily strugglesby black men and women reinterpretation of ideas C. Vann Introduction by Michael O'Brien to wrest some meaning and value out of Woodward developed many years ago. Edited by Christopher Morris and their working lives. It is less a study of Perhaps even inspired is Hale's sugges- Steven G. Reinhardt the institutional life of blacks than of tion that we can only begin to "reimag- "These excellent essays show how thor- the experience of being black in the ine integration" (296) by learning or oughly recent scholarship is redrawing late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth- remembering that Southern history is the landscape of the literary South." century South." the story of interdependence and -Journalo/Southern History shared experience. $11.95 paper Making Whiteness: TED OwNBY The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890,1940. TeIIAllout the South By Grace Elizabeth Hale. New York: The Southern Rage to Explain Pantheon Books, 1998.427 pages. Fred Hobson $30.00. "A lively and original study .... Hobson Making Whiteness is an exciting volume makes plain ... how few white southern- that analyzes how people in the J1m ers have understood the black contri- bution to southern culture." Crow South came to understand and - The New Yorker articulate the meanings of being white. Southern Literary Studies Equally importantly, author Grace Elizabeth Hale, an assistant professor of $16.95 paper American history at the University of Virginia, shows how different ffl'tlil,/;/(' III book'storL'S orji-rnn Southerners developed new narratives to deal with the privileges they claimed Grace Elizabeth Hale LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS in the name of whiteness. t Baton Rouge 70RO.) • i{O())j6IYI77
The Southern Register SummerlFall1998 Page 15 Reading the South continued ture as a reflection and/or criticism of Southern culture. McKee's Writing the Tradition of Southern nto the Sound Country: Women's Literature, though listed as k\ Carolinian's Coastal Plain. English 676 English 676, appeals to Southern Studies graduate students for its emphasis on ~y Bland Simpson. Photography by gender, literature, and culture. It reassess- f'\nn Cary Simpson. Chapel Hill: Southern Studies and English es the way the canon of Southern litera- ~niversity of North Carolina Press, Professor Kathryn McKee created ture has been structured and, according 1997.269 pages. $34.95 cloth, $19.95 English 676 to cover an element of to McKee and her students, has proved baper. Southern literature that has been largely absent from standard seminars: 19th- to be an extremely successful venture. Part travelogue, part autobiography, century Southern women's literature. For more information on the English nd part natural history. Into the Sound Indeed, English 676, Writing the 676 seminar, contact Kathryn McKee by ountry is a book to settle into for a Tradition of Southern Women's telephone at 601-232-7161 or bye-mail ood read. In it, the natural world of Literature, seeks to answer several impor- at [email protected]. orth Carolina's eastern coast, a sound- tant questions: (1) Is there a tradition of SCOTT SMALL otted, swamp-soaked, pine-pocked distinctly Southern women's literature? 'lsh-and-feathered region of rivers run- (2) If so, is this an important distinction ing out to sea, is captured by two to study? (3) Can women's literature be atives who affectionately recollect and linked by gender as well as by region? e-create their fascinating home land as Focusing on women's literature from hey rediscover their roots. 1830 to 1930, McKee's course requires Bland Simpson, an author who teach- students to read a wide variety of 19th- creative writing at the University of century literature, including the works of orth Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Sherwood Bonner, Kate Chopin, ember of the acclaimej string band Augusta Jane Evans, Ellen Glasgow, ~ he Red Clay Ramblers, guides the Frances Harper, Frances Newman, and eader on an entertaining tour of scup- Evelyn Scott. In studying and discussing rernong vineyards, swamps, pine savan- these authors, students are considering ras, oyster bars, fishing shanties, water- not only the tradition of Southern ronts, and beyond. His narrative is women's literature, but also how region illed with accounts of his ramblings plays a part in how women view their hrough the region, enriched by the gender through their writing. ales of the people he knows and meets. McKee is encouraged by the reaction of Ann Simpson's photographs pro- the students to this "experimental" class."I Ivide a sweeping view of sounds and don't think any students had read any of hare lines, accompanied by closer the books in the seminar," she said. 'nspection of slow-paddled rivers and "Certainly, they had heard of many of the treams and their surrounding en vi- authors and their work. But it is encourag- ons, giving visual form to her hus- ing to think this class gives voice to and's personal prose portraits. The Southern women's literature that has not ook also includes her selection of been Widelyread." ~rchival illustrations, which, like old The course requirements include leading amily photographs, give Into the Sound class discussion on the readings as well as k:ountry an even homier feel. writing a final paper on either one writer or an overall theme ofSouthern women'slitera-
Page 16 Summ.er/Fall1998 The Southern Register Professor Airs the Sounds of Africa
In Helsinki as a visiting professor in 1994-95, Brinkmeyer began frequenting a world-music record store whose owner introduced him to dozens of African artists. Brinkmeyer spent hours listening to the music, reading about it, and buying it. "It helped me get through those long winter nights," he said. III What is it about African music that grabs him? "It's hard to say. I just love it," said Brinkmeyer. "It's so different. It's such a wonderful mix of traditional and modern. It's so varied, so rich." It's not so different from rock 'n' roll as one might think. "There's a lot of give and take between Western and African music," Brinkmeyer said. "Rock 'n' roll's origins are in Africa, but then rock'n'roll went back and influenced African music. And you've got African reggae, African blues, Afro-Cuban music, and Afro-funk." Returning to the the States with a new collection of African recordings, Brinkmeyer began dreaming of doing a Bob Brinkmeyer hosting African music show on campus radio radio show. This year, a slot opened up on WUMS. He proposed his idea, and it was accepted. "I just steeled myself and did it," said Brinkmeyer, who had no previous broadcasting experience. "I was messing up a lot the here would an American professor of literature learn first time. Now I feel much more comfortable. I love it; it ener- to love African music? Would you believe-Finland? gizes me." That's exactly where Robert Brinkmeyer, professor of ''It's going really well," Matt Chatham, the station's program American Literature and Southern Studies at the University, director, said of the show. "We get a lot of positive feedback. And developed his taste for the sounds of Africa. And since Jan'll,ary, I personally enjoy listening to the show. It's not like anything he has been spreading those sounds around through The Source, a we've had before." show he hosts every Sunday afternoon on the campus radio sta- Like the other disc jockeys-mostly students-on the tion, WUMS. UniverSity-owned station, Brinkmeyer receives no pay for his "This is some of the tightest and mellowest music you'll ever work. One of his rewards is getting to hear the new releases that hear," the 46-year-old professor tells his listeners. "If you ever see record distributors send to the station, after Brinkmeyer tells this CD, buy it. If you don't like it, I'll buy it from you." them about his show. "The distributors have been very coopera- Brinkmeyer started hearing African music in the 19805 and tive," he said. liked some of it, but he remained mainly a rock 'n' roll fan until STEVE CHESBOROUGH that trip to Finland.
The Southern Register Page 17 Study of Southern JOANNE VARNER Culture from its begin- "JAN" HAWKS ning. (1932-1998) Hawks helped plan Joanne Varner "Jan" Hawks, director the Center's pioneer- of the Sarah Isom Center for Women's ing Southern Studies Studies and assistant professor of histo- curriculum and taught ry, died of heart failurepn Saturday, July Women in the South, 4. She had served as dean of women the first Southern from 1972 until she became director of Studies course offered the Sarah Isom Center in 1981. at the University. She Hawks grew up in Georgia, was an developed the course honor graduate of Agnes Scott College, as a result of her par- and, in 1960, came to the University of ticipation in "Teaching Mississippi, where she earned M.A. and Women's Literature Ph.D. degrees in history and served on from a Regional Per- the faculty and as an administrator spective," a project except for six years when she taught at sponsored by the Blue Mountain College. She is survived Department of Educa- by her husband, Paul Harvey Hawks, tion and the Modern two sons, two daughters, a sister, and Language Association. three grandchildren. The course, which was Joanne Hawks will be missed by fami- first taught in the 1979 ly, friends, colleagues, students, and Spring semester, be- countless others whose lives she came a favorite of enriched. undergraduates and Carolyn Ellis Staton, associate graduate students in provost and associate vice chancellor Southern Studies as Isom Center for Women's Studies and for academic affairs, worked closely well as history. the Afro-American Studies Program. with Hawks in many campus activities With historian Sheila L. Skemp, who The project, funded by a $310,000 and collaborated with her on a research is currently serving as interim director grant from the Ford Foundation, helped project on the impact of women legisla- of the Sarah Isom Center, Hawks orga- the University and other institutions of tors in the South. Staton remembers nized "Sex, Race, and the Role of higher learning in Mississippi and sur- Hawks as "a very supportive fritmd." Women in the South," a symposium rounding states enhance the teaching of "To most she was a role model," sponsored by the Center and the Southern history and culture. Staton said. "She was a champion of Department of History in 1982. Hawks was active in many organiza- women and women's' rights. She really Together Hawks and Skemp edited the tions and served as president of the helped create a good environment for volume of proceedings of that event. Southern Association of Women women here on campus. She was the Hawks made many presentations at Historians, the Mississippi Association epitome of loyalty, commitment, and professional and scholarly meetings. ill of Women Deans, and the Oxford service-a truly wonderful person." Among these was "Mother, Servant, branch of American Association of "Jan was an impOrtant mentor to Saint: Historical Images of the Southern University Women. Her memberships many, many women, not only in Oxford Nurse," a lecture delivered at the included Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa but across the state," said Brenda West, Barnard-Millington Symposium in Phi, Mortar Board, Mississippi associate director of Alumni Affairs and 1985. The Sarah lsom Center was a ,~\ Historical Society, Mississippi Women's a longtime friend of Hawks. sponsor of this program, and Hawks Political Caucus, Southern Historical In addition to working for the assisted with its planning and imple- Association, and the Southeastern advancement of women in numerous mentation. Women's Studies Association. She was capacities within and outside the Shortly thereafter, Hawks helped a ruling elder of the First Presbyterian University, Hawks made significant develop and administer the three·year Church in Oxford and a member of the contributions through teaching and (1986-89) Ford Foundation Project in board of the Historical Foundation of writing about the history of'" women in Southern Studies sponsored by the the Presbyterian and Reformed the South. Furthermore, she was a Center for the Study of Southern Churches. strong supporter of the Center for the Culture in cooperation with the Sarah Contributions to the Joanne Varner HUMANITIES ON THE INTERNET
Hawks Memorial Fund, which supports scholarship and research at the Sarah The Walker 'II!! Isom Center, may be sent to the University of Mississippi Foundation, P.O. Box 249, University, MS 38677. Percy Project EUGENE WALTER Author Eugene Walter died on May Having debuted online in early 1995, the Walker Percy Project has grown into a 29, 1998, at his home in Mobile, successful model for merging the humanities with the latest in information technol· Alabama. Walter was honored as a ogy. In a discipline where technology is often believed to contribute to depression of "renaissance man" at a 1988 Auburn the human spirit-what Percy referred to as "the malaise"-the Walker Percy University celebration of his life and Project is proving that showcasing the humanities through technology can indeed work. He was an actor, artist, costume be beneficial to the modern mind. designer, culinary expert, dancer, film- The Walker Percy Project at http://sunsite.unc.edu/wpercy conceives of itself as maker, lyricist, singer, translator, and an Internet-based Literary Center that, among its many programs, serves as a nexus writer of both fiction and poetry. linking all of the institutions that house collections on the philosophical 20th-cen- Walter's published works include the tury Southern writer, including the three major Percy manuscript collections held at novel The Untidy Pilgrim, winner of the the University of North Carolina, Loyola University, New Orleans, and the 1954 Lippincott Prize; The Byzantine University of Texas Harry Ransom Center. Hosted by the University of North Riddle, a short story collection; and Carolina at Chapel Hill, but existing as an independent, nonprofit educational ser- Monkey Poems. He was a founding con- vice, the project combines the features of an encyclopedia with the ongoing activi- tributor of the Paris Review, an editor of ties of a conference in a visual and aural setting that allows visitors to actively the Transatlantic Review, and an assis- engage themselves in Percy-related materials. tant at the poly lingual review Botteghe Internet facilities include an administration center, a museum and display area, a Oscure. research library, a conference center, and classrooms. Essays and comprehensive bib- Born and raised in Mobile, Walter left liographic resources on Percy, photographs and video footage of the National Book the South to serve as an Air Force cryp- Award-winning author, calls for papers, information on forthcoming and recent tographer in World War II. After the Percy books, conference information, and location guides to Percy collector's items war, he studied at the New School for are aU available through the project. Social Research in New York and The Percy Project's founding director, Louisiana State University graduate Henry designed sets and costumes for the P. Mills, is currently planning production of a digital CD-ROM in conjunction with beginning of the off-Broadway theater Interactive Architex, a multimedia production company in Austin, Texas, and a movement. Walter then lived for two major corporate sponsor of the project. The CD is slated to include Percy's nonfic- decades in Europe, attend~ng the tion works in a searchable format accompanied by digital video of the author's sig- Sorbonne in Paris and the Istituto Dante nificant public appearances, lectures, and interviews. Plans are also under way for an Aleghieri in Rome. online Percy conference to be held on the Internet in the spring of 1999. For more In Rome Walter worked as a transla- information on the project, visit the project's web site or contact Henry Mills at tor on several Frede,rico Fellini films, [email protected] or 512-305-0751. including Satyricon and 8 1/2, in which ALLISON VISE FINCH he also played a journalist. He wrote the lyrics for the song "What Is a Youth?" in Franco Zefferelli's film Romeo andluliet. It was Walter's dedication to the preservation of Southern culinary her- itage that brought him back to the South in 1969 to write American Cooking: Southern Style, the bestseller in the Time-Life Food of the World series. Walter then settled in his native Mobile with his beloved cats in a house full of books and papers, where he said, "My muse continues to visit daily." JUDY LONO
Page 19 1999: George Washington Bicentennial Next year will mark the bicentennial of George Washington's death. The life of the first president will be celebrated throughout 1999 with events held at Mount Vernon and around the country. In Mississippi, several events are being planned, including the presentation of a new musical tribute to George Washington writ- ten by composer Luigi Zaninelli of Hattiesburg. The voice and piano work is based on a poem written by PhylliS Wheatley in 1775. A symposium featuring nationally known scholars will be held at the University of Southern Mississippi October 28-30, 1999, during which decorative arts historian Wendell Garrett and other scholars will discuss interdisciplinary topics related to the subject "George Washington and the American South, 1799." Events in Mississippi are being coordinated by Lynn Crosby Gammill of Hattiesburg, vice regent, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and a member of the Center's State Advisory Committee. Materials relating to the national celebration, including pack- ets for teachers and a CD entitled Dig into George, are available from Mount Vernon. Write George Washington Bicentennial, P.O. Box 110, Mount Vernon, VA 22121; telephone 703-799- 8652; fax 703-799-8698; e-mail [email protected]. Information is also available on the Internet website www.gwash- ington1999.org.
Page 20 Spring 1998 The Southern Register Mississippi University for Women will The Greenville County Museum of hold the 10th annual Eudora Welty Writ- Art in Greenville, South Carolina, offers ers' Symposium on October 1-3, 1998. selections from its Southern Collection Speakers are John Dufresne (two novels, and Contemporary Collection through- Louisiana Power and Light and Love Warps out the year, plus 12-15 changing exhi- the Mind a Little, plus a collection of sto- 1811: Year of Wonders in the MississiPPi bitions annually. Its Southern ries), Ashley Warlick (The Distance from Territory is on exhibit at the Old Capitol Collection traces the history of Ameri- the Heart of Things), Steve Yarbrough Museum in Jackson, MiSSissippi,through call art from the colonial period to the (MississiPPi History and two other collec- November 8. The exhibit celebrates 1Pe present through works of art that relate tions of short stories), Nanci Kincaid (two bicentennial of the opening of the territO- to the South. From a 1726 pastel by novels and stories in various magazines), rial period, when the United States took Henrietta Johnston, the first profession. Jerry Ward (professor at Tougaloo College, posseSSion of this area from Spain. The al woman artist in America, to a 1991 poet, editor of Trouble the Water: 250 Years focus is on the year of wonders, 1811, painting by South Carolina's own Jasper of African American Poetry), Vicki Coving- when all extraordinary confluence of Johns, the collection includes an exam- ton (The Last Hotel for Women and three events occurred in the Mississippi Territo- ple from every major movement in other novels), Dennis Covington (Salva- ry: the New Madrid Earthquake made the American art and is known as one of the tion on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Mississippi River run backwards, the finest regional collections in the coun- Redemption in Southern Appalachia plus a Great Comet appeared in the sky, and the try. Among the Contemporary Collec- novel and essays), and the winner of the first Mississippi River steam boat launched tion are 24 watercolors by Andrew 1998 Welty Prize, to be announced. The its maiden voyage. Call 601-359-6920 for Wyeth and works by Georgia O'Keeffe, symposium is partially funded by the Mis- more information about the exhibit. Andy Warhol, and other 20th-century sissippi Humanities Council and is open to American artists. The Museum is open the public without charge. For informa- Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m, and tion, contact Ginger Hitt, Division of Sunday, 1-5 p.m. Admission is free of Humanities, Mississippi University for charge. For more information call 864- Women,W-Box 1634, Columbus, MS A Century of CoUecting will be exhibited 271-7570. 39701; telephone 601-329-7166; e-mail at the Valentine Museum of Richmond, ghitt@MUWEdu. Virginia, from October 2, 1998, through September 6, 1999. Since its opening a century ago, the Valentine Museum has collected more than a million artifacts, "Magical Muse: The Drama of Ten- costumes, photographs, and other materi- nessee Williams" is the theme for the The Great Oaks Storytelling Festival als that document the history of Rich- 23rd Alabama Symposium on English will take place October 9-11 in Ocean mond and Virginia. Reflecting both the and American Literature to be held in Springs, Mississippi. Storytellers from physical and intellectual organization of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, February 4-6, North Carolina to Texas will perform. the museum's holdings, the centennial 1999. Invited speakers include Jackson ill Tickets for Saturday are $5 for the entire exhibition focuses on the museum's six R. Bryer, Al Devlin, Allean Hale, Ken- day, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and are available for collecting areas: The Research Library, neth Holditch, Philip Kolin, Lyle Lev- all ages. Adults-only tickets for evening Costumes and Textiles, Fine Arts, Decora- erich, and Nancy Tischler. Papers on events are $7 for the Showcase Concert tive Arts, Industrial History, and General all aspects of Williams's life and drama on Friday and $10 for the Concert and Collections. A major emphasis of the are welcome and must be received by Dessert Reception on Saturday. Sunday's exhibition is the relationship between the October 15, 1998. For additional infor- events include Sacred Telling in the museum's collecting initiatives and its mation contact Don Noble or Ralph morning and Lagniappe Concert that mission to collect, preserve, and interpret Voss, Department of English, Box afternoon. Family and group discounts the life and history of Richmond. Call 870244, Tuscaloosa, AL35487-0244. E- are available. For information, contact 804-649 -0711 for more information. mail: [email protected] or the Ocean Springs Chamber of Com- [email protected]. merce at 228-875-4424.
The Southern Register Spring 1998 Page 21
Southern Culture Catalog International The University of Mississippi Orders Hill Hall, Room 301 • University, MS 38677 Other video formats Phone 800-390-3527 • Fax 601-232-7842 may be available. Please call for Sold To: information.
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