Autobiography and Memoir” an Audio Program from This Goodly Land: Alabama’S Literary Landscape

Supplemental Materials for “Autobiography and Memoir” An Audio Program from This Goodly Land: Alabama’s Literary Landscape

Program Description

Interviewer Maiben Beard and Dr. Bert Hitchcock, Professor emeritus, of the Auburn University Department of English discuss autobiography and memoir.

Reading List

Anthologies, Bibliographies, and Overviews

• Berry, J. Bill, ed. Located Lives: Place and Idea in Southern Autobiography. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990. • Bjorklund, Diane. Interpreting the Self: Two Hundred Years of American Autobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. • Briscoe, Mary Louise. American Autobiography, 1945-1980: A Bibliography. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1982. • Cooley, Thomas. Educated Lives: The Rise of Modern Autobiography in America. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1976. • Couser, G. Thomas. Altered Egos: Authority in American Autobiography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. • Cox, James M. Recovering Literature’s Lost Ground: Essays in American Autobiography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989. • Eakin, Paul John, ed. American Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. • Goodwin, James. Autobiography: The Self-Made Text. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. • Gornick, Vivian. The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001. • Kaplan, Louis. A Bibliography of American Autobiographies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1961. • Lamar, Jay, and Jeanie Thompson, eds. The Remembered Gate: Memoirs by Alabama Writers. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002. • Liebowitz, Herbert. Fabricating Lives: Explorations in American Autobiography. New York: Knopf, 1989. • Lillard, Richard Gordon. American Life in Autobiography: A Descriptive Guide. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1956. • Payne, James Robert, ed. Multicultural Autobiography: American Lives. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1992. • Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. • Stone, Albert E., ed. The American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981. • Stone, Albert E. Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts: Versions of American Identity from Henry Adams to Nate Shaw. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. • Watkins, James H., ed. Southern Selves: From Mark Twain and Eudora Welty to Maya Angelou and Kaye Gibbons: A Collection of Autobiographical Writing. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. • Zinsser, William, ed. Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

Alabama Authors

Helen Blackshear

• Blackshear, Helen F. Mother Was a Rebel. Montgomery: H. F. Blackshear, 1973. Rpt. as Mother Was a Rebel: Tuscaloosa Sketches: In Praise of Gentle People. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2004. • Blackshear, Helen Friedman. From Peddler to Philanthropist: The Friedman Story. Montgomery: H. F. Blackshear, 1994.

Rick Bragg

• Bragg, Rick. All Over But the Shoutin’. New York: Pantheon, 1997. • ---. Ava’s Man. New York: Knopf, 2001. • ---. The Prince of Frogtown. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Mary Ward Brown

• Brown, Mary Ward. Fanning the Spark: A Memoir. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2009.

Virginia Pounds Brown

• Brown, Virginia Pounds. Mother & Me: An Intimate Memoir of Her Last Years. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2003.

R. Scott Brunner

• Brunner, R. Scott. Due South: Dispatches from Down Home. New York: Villard Books, 1999. • ---. Carryin’ On: And Other Strange Things Southerners Do. New York: Villard, 2001.

Jimmy Buffett

• Buffett, Jimmy. A Pirate Looks at Fifty. New York: Random House, 1998.

Truman Capote

• Capote, Truman. A Christmas Memory. New York: Random House, 1956. Rpt. New York: A. A. Knopf, 2006. • ---. The Thanksgiving Visitor. New York: Random House, 1967. Rpt. New York: Modern Library, 1996. • ---. One Christmas. New York: Random House, 1983. Rpt. New York: Random House, 1994.

John Henrik Clarke

• Clarke, John Henrik. My Life In Search of Africa. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 1994. Rpt. Chicago: Third World Press, 1999.

Dennis Covington

• Covington, Dennis. Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Salvation in Southern Appalachia. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1995. • Covington, Dennis, and Vicki Covington. Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage. New York: North Point Press, 1999. • Covington, Dennis. Redneck Rivieria: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream. New York: Counterpoint, 2004.

Vicki Covington

• Covington, Dennis, and Vicki Covington. Cleaving: The Story of a Marriage. New York: North Point Press, 1999. • Covington, Vicki. Women in a Man's World, Crying: Essays. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002.

Rebecca Harding Davis

• Davis, Rebecca Harding. Bits of Gossip. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904. [An online version of Bits of Gossip is available from Google Book Search at http://books.google.com/books?id=VcM1AAAAMAAJ.]

Virginia Foster Durr

• Durr, Virginia Foster. Outside the Magic Circle: The Autobiography of Virginia Foster Durr. Ed. Hollinger F. Barnard. University: University of Alabama Press, 1985. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990.

Patricia Foster

• Foster, Patricia. All the Lost Girls: Confessions of a Southern Daughter. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000. • ---. Just Beneath My Skin: Autobiography and Self-Discovery. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.

Frye Gaillard

• Gaillard, Frye. Lessons from the Big House: One Family’s Passage through the History of the South: A Memoir. Asheboro, N.C.: Down Home Press, 1994.

Charles Gaines

• Gaines, Charles. A Family Place: A Man Returns to the Center of His Life. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994. Rpt. as A Family Place: A Man Discovers a New Center to His Life in Canada. New York: Berkley, 1995. • ---. The Next Valley Over: An Angler's Progress. New York: Crown Publishers, 2000.

Wayne Greenhaw

• Greenhaw, Wayne. My Heart Is in the Earth: True Stories of Alabama and Mexico. Montgomery: River City Pub., 2001.

Virginia Van der Veer Hamilton

• Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer. Teddy’s Child: Growing Up in the Anxious Southern Gentry Between the Great Wars: A Family Memoir. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2009.

Trudier Harris

• Harris, Trudier. Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003.

A. Cleveland Harrison

• Harrison, A. Cleveland. Unsung Valor: A GI’s Story of World War II. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000.

James Haskins

• Haskins, James. Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher. New York: Grove Press, 1969. Rpt. New York: New Press, 2008.

Lillian Hellman

• Hellman, Lillian. An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. Rpt. Boston: Little, Brown, 1999. • ---. Pentimento: A Book of Portraits. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973. Rpt. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2000. • ---. Scoundrel Time. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976. Rpt. Boston: Little, Brown, 2000.

Paul Hemphill

• Hemphill, Paul. Me and the Boy: Journey of Discovery: Father and Son on the Appalachian Trail. New York: Macmillan, 1986. Rpt. as Me and the Boy: A Father and Son Discover America—and Each Other. New York: Ivy Books, 1987. • ---. Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son. New York: Viking, 1993. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2000.

Aileen Kilgore Henderson

• Henderson, Aileen Kilgore. Stateside Soldier: Life in the Women's Army Corps, 1944- 1945. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001. • ---. Tenderfoot Teacher: Letters from the Big Bend, 1952-1954. Fort Worth: TCU Press, 2002.

Homer Hickam

• Hickam, Homer H., Jr. Rocket Boys: A Memoir. New York: Delacorte Press, 1998. Rpt. as October Sky. New York: Island Books and Dell Pub., 1999. • ---. The Coalwood Way. New York: Delacorte Press, 2000. • ---. Sky of Stone. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001.

Zora Neale Hurston

• Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1942. Rpt. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984. Rpt. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.

Rheta Grimsley Johnson

• Johnson, Rheta Grimsley. Poor Man's Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2007.

Helen Keller

• Keller, Helen, and Anne Mansfield Sullivan. The Story of My Life. Ed. John Albert Macy. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1903. Rpt. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1954. Rpt. New York: Norton, 2003. [An online version of The Story of My Life is available from Google Book Search at http://books.google.com/books?id=9_W7NdG2f3EC.] • Keller, Helen. The World I Live In. New York: Century Co., 1908. Rpt. New York: New York Review Books, 2003. [An online version of The World I Live In is available from Google Book Search at http://books.google.com/books?id=FKgWAAAAIAAJ.] • ---. Midstream: My Later Life. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1929. Rpt. New York: Crowell Pub. Co., 1991.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

• King, Martin Luther, Jr. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ed. Clayborne Carson. New York: Intellectual Properties Management in association with Warner Books, 1998.

Viola Goode Liddell

• Liddell, Viola Goode. With a Southern Accent. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1993. • ---. A Place of Springs. University: University of Alabama Press, 1979. • ---. Grass Widow: Making My Way in Depression Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.

Andrew Lytle

• Lytle, Andrew. A Wake for the Living: A Family Chronicle. New York: Crown Publishers, 1975. Rpt. Nashville: J. S. Sanders & Co., 1992.

John McCormack

• McCormack, John. Fields and Pastures New: My First Year as a Country Vet. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995. • ---. A Friend of the Flock: Tales of a Country Veterinarian. New York: Crown Publishers, 1997. • ---. The Hero of the Herd: More Tales from a Country Veterinarian. New York: Crown Publishers, 1999.

Deborah E. McDowell

• McDowell, Deborah E. Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Barbara Robinette Moss

• Moss, Barbara Robinette. Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2000. • ---. Fierce: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2004.

Lewis Nordan

• Nordan, Lewis. Boy with Loaded Gun: A Memoir. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2000.

Nancy Huddleston Packer

• Packer, Nancy Huddleston. In My Father’s House: Tales of an Unconformable Man. Santa Barbara: J. Daniel, 1988.

Judith Hillman Paterson

• Paterson, Judith Hillman. Sweet Mystery: A Book of Remembering. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996.

Howell Raines

• Raines, Howell. Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis. New York: Morrow, 1993. • ---. The One That Got Away: A Memoir. New York: Scribner, 2006.

Eleanor de la Vergne Risley

• Risley, Eleanor de la Vergne. An Abandoned Orchard. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1932. • ---. The Road to Wildcat: A Tale of Southern Mountaineering. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1930. Rpt. as The Road to Wildcat: A Tale of Mountain Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.

Nate Shaw

• Shaw, Nate. All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw. Comp. Theodore Rosengarten. New York: Knopf, 1974. Rpt. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Celestine Sibley

• Sibley, Celestine. Turned Funny: A Memoir. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

E. B. Sledge

• Sledge, E. B. With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. Novato, Calif.: Presidio Press, 1981. Rpt. New York: Presidio Press, 2007. • ---. China Marine. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002.

Virginia Sorensen

• Sorensen, Virginia Eggertson. Where Nothing Is Long Ago: Memories of a Mormon Childhood. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963. Rpt. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998.

William Spratling

• Spratling, William. File on Spratling: An Autobiography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.

T. S. Stribling

• Stribling, T. S. Laughing Stock: The Posthumous Autobiography of T. S. Stribling. Ed. Randy K. Cross and John T. McMillan. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.

Hudson Strode

• Strode, Hudson. The Eleventh House: Memoirs. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.

Gay Talese

• Talese, Gay. A Writer’s Life. New York: Knopf, 2006.

Ellen Tarry

• Tarry, Ellen. The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman. New York: D. McKay Co., 1955. Rpt. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992.

Margaret Walker

• Walker, Margaret. How I Wrote Jubilee and Other Essays on Life and Literature. Ed. Maryemma Graham. New York: Feminist Press at The City University of New York, 1990.

Eugene Walter

• Walter, Eugene, and Katherine Clark. Milking the Moon: A Southerner's Story of Life on This Planet. New York: Crown Publishers, 2001.

Booker T. Washington

• Washington, Booker T., and Edgar Webber. The Story of My Life and Work. Naperville, Ill.: J. L. Nichols & Co., 1900. Rpt. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969. [An online version of The Story of My Life and Work is available from Documenting the American South at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/washstory/menu.html.] • Washington, Booker T., and Max Bennett Thrasher. Up From Slavery: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901. Rpt. as Up From Slavery, with Related Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003. [An online version of Up From Slavery is available from Documenting the American South at http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/washington/menu.html.] • Washington, Booker T. My Larger Education: Being Chapters From My Experience. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1911. [An online version of My Larger Education is available from Documenting the American South at http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/washeducation/menu.html.]

John Weld

• Weld, John. Young Man in Paris. Chicago: Academy Chicago, 1985. • ---. Fly Away Home: Memoirs of a Hollywood Stunt Man. Santa Barbara: Mission Publications, 1991.

Edward O. Wilson

• Wilson, Edward O. Naturalist. Washington, D.C.: Island Press for Shearwater Books, 1994.

Kathryn Tucker Windham

• Windham, Kathryn Tucker. A Serigamy of Stories. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988. • ---. Odd-Egg Editor. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990. • ---. Encounters. Montgomery: Black Belt Press, 1998. • ---. Twice Blessed. Montgomery, Ala.: Black Belt Press, 1996. Rpt. Montgomery, Ala.: River City Pub., 2007. • ---. Spit, Scarey Ann, and Sweat Bees: One Thing Leads to Another. Montgomery, Ala.: NewSouth Books, 2009.

Tobias Wolff

• Wolff, Tobias. This Boy's Life: A Memoir. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989. Rpt. New York: Grove Press, 1999. • ---. In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Clement Wood

• Wood, Clement. The Glory Road: An Autobiography. New York: Poets Press, 1936.

Web Sites

• Campbell, Katie, ed. “Memoir Roundtable.” CAScade. 2008. University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences. http://cascade.uoregon.edu/fall2008/online-extras/bonus-two/ • Drummond, Laurie, Gordon, Sayre, and David Bradley. “The Boundaries of Memoir.” CAScade. 2008. University of Oregon College of Arts and Sciences. http://cascade.uoregon.edu/fall2008/features/feature2/feature-two/ • Silverman, Sue William. “The Meandering River: An Overview of the Subgenres of Creative Nonfiction.” Sue William Silverman. 2008. http://www.suewilliamsilverman.com/_the_meandering_river__an_overview_of_the_subgenres_ of_creative_nonfiction__12178.htm

Discussion Questions

• Many autobiographies and memoirs are being written now by young people. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of writing at a young age vs. waiting until the author is older? • Legal issues aside, do you think the author of an autobiography or memoir should “tell all” or should s/he make an effort to protect the identities or reputations of other people? Does your answer change depending on how long ago the events described took place? • Autobiographies always leave out part of the author’s life story, the part that happens after the book is published. Knowing that, would you rather read a famous person’s autobiography or wait for a biography to be published after his/her death?

Lesson Plans

• Grades 6-8 o Czajka, Christopher W. “What We Leave Behind.” PBS Teachers. 2008. Public Broadcasting Service. http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/1569/preview/ o Fink, Lisa Storm. “Alphabiography Project: Totally You.” Read-Write-Think. 2009. International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=937 o Green, Erica. “Memoir Writing for Middle School Students.” Bright Hub. 2009. Bright Hub Inc. http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/18821.aspx • Grades 9-12 o Carangelo, Audrey. “What’s in a Name? Understanding Malcolm X.” Discovery Education. 2008. Discovery Communications, LLC. http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/malcolmx/ o Casey, Marie Patricia. “Reading and Writing the Autobiography with a Study of Zora Neale Hurston.” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. 2009. Yale University and New Haven Public Schools. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1988/3/88.03.03.x.html o Filkins, Scott. “Having My Say: A Multigenre Autobiography Project.” Read- Write-Think. 2009. International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1103 o Freundt, Anna. “Life Writing Unit Plans.” Suzanne Marrs: Welty Foundation Scholar-in-Residence. 2008. Millsaps College. http://home.millsaps.edu/marrss/Freundt_lesson_plan_Welty.pdf o “From Courage to Freedom: Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Autobiography.” EDSITEment. 2004. National Endowment for the Humanities. http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=594 o Greenblatt, Ellen. “Family Memoir: Getting Acquainted with Generations before Us.” Read-Write-Think. 2009. International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=998 o “Perspective on the Slave Narrative.” EDSITEment. 2006. National Endowment for the Humanities. http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=321 o Ramos, Elizabeth. “Writing an Autobiography.” Scholastic: Teachers. 2009. Scholastic Inc. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplan.jsp?id=24 o Schulze, Patricia. “The Year I Was Born: An Autobiography Project.” Read- Write-Think. 2009. International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=419