Charles Reagan Wilson Named Recipient of Distinguished Research Award David Wharton

the

the newsletter of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • Spring 2010 the university of mississippi Charles Reagan Wilson Named Recipient of Distinguished Research Award David Wharton

harles Reagan Wilson’s list of achievements spans decades, continents, and organizations. Most recent- Cly, the Kelly Gene Cook Sr. Chair of History and Professor of Southern Studies became the third recipient of the University of Mississippi’s Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award. The award was presented May 8 during the university’s com- mencement ceremony. “This award honors Dr. Wilson for his scholarly contributions and his role in anticipating, inspiring, and facilitating a field of interdisciplinary research known as Southern Studies,” said Alice M. Clark, vice chancellor of research and sponsored programs. “Dr. Wilson’s scholarship on Southern religion, memory, and culture has elevated obser- vances of life in the South to an area of academic inquiry.” Formerly director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Wilson published his first book,Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920, in 1980; it was reprint- ed with a new preface in 2009. According to his successor as Center director, Ted Ownby, “In that book Wilson helped an- ticipate a movement in the past generation that studies memory as both politics and psychology. Baptized in Blood posed an essential question that scholars of the post–Civil War American South are still answering: if Confederates claimed Charles Reagan Wilson they were fighting a war in which God was on their side, how did they interpret defeat?” “I haven’t received other research awards, thus making this ships. The Encyclopedia for Southern Culture (which he coedit- one especially meaningful,” Wilson said. “Receiving this award ed with William Ferris in 1989) received the Dartmouth Prize is a humbling experience because there is so much excellent from the American Library Association as best reference book research going on across campus in so many departments and of the year. Wilson regards the 24-volume New Encyclopedia programs.” Wilson joined the University of Mississippi fac- of Southern Culture as his main achievement. Volumes of the ulty in 1981. During his tenure, he has published four mono- encyclopedia began publishing in 2006 and will be finished graphs on Southern history, edited or coedited eight books in 2012. The total value of the research projects conducted of essays, published 41 scholarly articles, and made 62 presentations at conferences, symposia, workshops, or lecture- continued on page 12 the D i r e c t o r ’ s C o l u m n ’Tis the Season Published Quarterly by I write in the midst of what many faculty members term Thesis Season, a pretty dra- The Center for the Study of Southern Culture matic time when students are finishing PhD dissertations, MA theses, final papers, The University of Mississippi internship reports, and Honors College theses, and faculty are doing their best to in- Telephone: 662-915-5993 spire or require improvement. Fax: 662-915-5814 E-mail: [email protected] There’s plenty of reading and rereading, late nights and nervous students, and www.olemiss.edu/depts/south plenty of sentences, paragraphs, and entire manuscripts that need revision. Students are often torn between trying to do their best and trying to enjoy a round of celebra- IN THIS ISSUE tions and appreciations that mark the end of the spring semester. Spring 2010 Thesis season, at this university as on many campuses, immediately follows spring 1 Charles Wilson Receives Award conference season, and numerous annual events compete for the attention of students and other conference-goers. The Oxford Conference for the Book, the Porter 2 Director’s Column Fortune Jr. History Symposium/Future of the South Conference, Black History Month, 3 Southern Studies on the Road Women’s History Month, and numerous other events took place in a short stretch in 3 Living Blues News February and March. One reason for this concentration of conferences is that another 4 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Schedule season, football season, takes command of hotel rooms, roads, and restaurants during 4 SST Student Photographs so much of the fall that many events in town squeeze into the spring. By far the most notable event of the 2010 spring conference season was the death 5 2010 F&Y: “Faulkner and Film” of Barry Hannah, who passed away just a few days before the Oxford Conference for 6 Lawn in August to Be Unveiled the Book that featured him and his work. People at the conference repeatedly won- 7 Center Seeks Funds for SST Students dered if Barry would have liked being honored, and speakers had the difficult job of 8 Continuing Center Projects modifying their comments to deal with his death. The conference was not a wake, 8 Contributors but it became far more a tribute than the roast some may have been planning. So the talks ranged from youthful stories to appreciation of Barry’s work and teach- 9 Southern Studies Alumni News ing to tributes and memories from close friends. It was good to have so many people 11 MIAL to Celebrate Mississippi Art- talking about Barry Hannah and his fiction, and the conference schedule helped ists and Writers on June 5 in Jackson give a structure to conversations people were wanting to have. If there were recur- 12 In Memoriam ring themes, they concerned the originality of Barry’s fiction, the passion he showed 14 30 Years of Sacred Harp in Oxford for good sentences and paragraphs in his own work and the work of other writers and 15 All-Day Singings in Mississippi student writers, and the uniqueness of the life he chose to live. 16 Movie Director Jodie Markell to Show In some ways we can be overwhelmed with seasons, as sports and media want us to Teardrop at October Williams Festival organize our lives around the start, middle, and end of their seasons, with special time 17 Reading the South: Reviews & Notes reserved for championships, supposedly major events, and prize ceremonies. The crop seasons still govern the lives of many people, although lots of us organize our lives more 25 Southern Foodways Alliance News around eating, rather than producing, according to the seasons. (I won’t forget a mo- 28 2010 Delta Literary Tour Portfolio ment in Italy when the streets closed because of the start of artichoke season. I would be 30 2010 Book Conference Portfolio happy to close down the Oxford square for fresh strawberries.) Others organize much of 32 “Life Never Touched Him ’til the their lives around hunting and fishing seasons, which are governed both by nature and First Monday in March” decisions by wildlife officials. Religious seasons give shape to the passing of the year, with 34 Southern Culture Catalog the growing complexity of Southern religion simply adding more seasons to the old concentration on the fall as revival season. Festival season begins in midspring and reaches 35 Catalog Order Form a peak right around the end of the school year. Allergy and tax seasons seem to intrude 36 Address Section/Mailing List Form/ into the work and possible joys of the spring more than they should. Friends Information and Form Thesis season only slightly precedes graduation season, and, of course, most students are trying to finish theses and internships so they can enjoy graduation. Grad- REGISTER STAFF uation season comes with its own rituals for both faculty and students—calls for pa- Editor: Ann J. Abadie pers to judge for awards, reminders to rent caps and gowns, warnings against doing Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee anything late, applying for jobs and graduate school, sending recommendation let- Mailing List Manager: Mary Hartwell Howorth ters, and hearing good and bad news. And the end of graduation season leads im- Editorial Assistant: Sally Cassady Lyon mediately to summer, a season with such promise that college faculty understand Lithographer: RR Donnelley Magazine Group why people outside academia suspect that we never really grow up. Among other things, summer means book season, reading them more slowly than usual and try- The University complies with all applicable laws regard- ing affirmative action and equal opportunity in all its ac- ing hard to write them. At the Center, we’re hoping this summer to wrap up the tivities and programs and does not discriminate against Mississippi Encyclopedia, and faculty, staff, students, and alumni are wondering how anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran to mix scholarly productivity with the other possible pleasures of summer. or disabled veteran. Ted Ownby

Page 2 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Southern Living Blues News

The June 2010 issue of Living Blues Studies on will feature Detroit harmonica legend Little Sonny on the cover, and the Road we will continue celebrating our 40th anniversary with a look at blues mu- In the past few weeks, Charles sicians in the 1990s, including Stevie Reagan Wilson gave the key- Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, R. L. note address at the Southern Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough. The Forum on Agricultural, Rural, issue will also look at the clubs in and Environmental History at which James Brown got his start and the University of South Carolina. feature the Living Blues Radio Charts Adam Gussow gave a paper on and over 60 CD/DVD reviews. his research on the devil figure Furthermore, on June 9–10, 2010, in the blues at the Delta Studies Living Blues teams with Dominican Conference at Arkansas State University in River Forest, Illinois, University, and he was a featured to present Blues and the Spirit II: participant at the Hill Country A Symposium on Chicago Blues Harmonica: A North Mississippi and Gospel Music, which will Blues Harp Homecoming at the commemorate the centennial of Foxfire Ranch in Waterford, Howlin’ Wolf’s birth and the 40th anniversary of Living Blues magazine. Mississippi. The program will include: Nancy Bercaw participated in • Panels and presentations with blues and gospel scholars, musicians, writers, a discussion on the legacy of the and industry representatives. Civil War at Rhodes College, • Special panel with the founding editors and contributors of Living Blues and Ted Ownby gave a paper on magazine on the occasion of its 40th anniversary. (Early registrants will the 1970s at the Organization of receive a reproduction of the Vol.1, No. 1 edition of Living Blues with American Historians convention Howlin’ Wolf on the cover.) in Washington, D.C. Amy Evans • Blues and the Spirit Awards honoring Barry Dolins, director of the Chi- Streeter traveled to Pennsylvania cago Blues Festival, and Howlin’ Wolf’s daughters, Bettye Kelly and Barbra to talk about SFA oral history Marks. work at the Heritage Philadelphia • Wednesday evening reception and pro jam with an all-star array of blues Program, which is run by the Pew musicians from Wolf’s generation and from the contemporary Chicago Charitable Trusts. music scene. Katie McKee participated in a • Thursday evening motor coach transportation and entrance to Chicago discussion on teaching Southern Blues Festival opening literature at the Society for the (tentative) and symposium after Study of Southern Literature party at the legendary Rosa’s in New Orleans, and Jimmy Lounge. Thomas gave a talk on the histo- Additional details and reg- ry of Lebanese and Syrian immi- istration are available at www. grants to the Mississippi Delta at dom.edu/blues. Make your trav- a conference at Southern Illinois el plans now! University. For a project on tour- A one-year subscription to ism in the South, David Wharton Living Blues is $27.95 and may be recently photographed Mardi purchased on our Web site: www. Gras celebrations in Mobile and livingblues.com. A sample copy Prichard, Alabama; birdwatch- of the magazine is also available. ers on Sanibel Island, Florida; and Please send an e-mail to info@ events at the New Orleans Jazz and livingblues.com and request your Heritage Festival. free copy today.

Mark Camarigg

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 3 Southern Studies Student Photographs Currently on exhibit in the Gammill Gallery is Work and Play: The Southern Weekend, a selection of 72 photographs Cathryn Stout, by students in the fall 2009 Southern Serving It Up, Alpha Studies seminar on documentary pho- Kappa Alpha Sorority tography and oral history. There were Luncheon, Memphis, 16 students in the class—Ross Brand, Tennessee Novelette Brown, Cory Cox, Nathan Gregory, Eric Griffis, Ben Guest, J. Bingo Gunter, Jamison Hollister, Tyler Keith, Meghan Leonard, Amanda Lillard, Xaris Martínez, Ferriday McClatchy, Kathryn

(left) Ross Brand, Trevor and Mischa in Canoe, Wacissa River, Florida

(right) J. Bingo Gunter, Football Player, Oxford High School, Oxford, Mississippi

McGaw, Cathryn Stout, and Mary Amelia Taylor. Their semester-long as- signment was to photograph (and record interviews with) Southerners engaged in various weekend activities. Not sur- prisingly, many of the photographs show people having a good time in and around Oxford: football Saturdays in the Grove, concerts, college-town nightlife, et ce- April 5–June 15, 2010 Exhibition Work and Play: Photographs from the Southern Weekend tera. Others, however, reveal different Southern Studies Documentary Students sides of the Southern weekend and range Schedule from Memphis to north Florida. They in- June 16–August 13, 2010 clude images of religious activities, peo- The Gammill Gallery, The Spirit of New Orleans Bruce Keyes ple going about their routine weekend located in Barnard chores, and families relaxing at home. In Observatory, is open August 16–October 15, 2010 addition, a number of the images explore Monday through Town and Country: New Color Photographs the world of weekend work, often under- Friday, 8:00 a.m.– David Wharton taken out of necessity and in many cas- 5:00 p.m., except October 18–November 19, 2010 es so that others can spend their week- for University Taco Trucks and Crepes Trailers: Modern Texas Foodways ends enjoying themselves. The exhibi- holidays. Telephone: Photographs from Austin and Houston tion will run through June 15. 662-915-5993. Angie Bennett Mosier November 22, 2010–March 31, 2011 David Wharton Florida Cowboys Bob Stone

Page 4 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference “Faulkner and Film”: July 18–22, 2010

The photograph of William Faulkner, taken in February 1944, on the post- Illustrating the 2010 Faulkner and er for the 37th annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha poster and program Yoknapatawpha Conference—“Faulkner is a photograph of William Faulkner and Film”—could easily pass for a pinup at the Highland Hotel in Hollywood of the Hollywood screenwriter at work: in 1944 (Alfred Eris, photographer; Time & Life Collection, Getty basking in the sun in shorts and shades Images). Flat copies of this poster with a typewriter and blank sheet of pa- and conference posters with illus- per at hand, as if words were ready to trations by Glennray Tutor (1989– write themselves as soon as the auteur 1993), John McCrady (1994, 2003, removes his pipe and gives the com- 2005), and William Faulkner (2007) mand. But like most representations of and with photographs by Martin Faulkner, including especially his own, Dain (1996, 2009), Jack Cofield this one is deceptive. In fact, the appear- (1997, 2000), Bern Keating (1998), ance masks a particularly turbulent time Odione (1990), Budd Studios in his career. Still locked into a binding (2002), Phyllis Cerf (2008), and seven-year contract with Warner Bros., from the Cofield Collection (2001), the Williams Library (2004), and he is about to embark on two major film the Commercial Appeal (2006) are projects, To Have and Have Not and The available for $10.00 each plus $3.50 Big Sleep, interrupted by brief forays into postage and handling. Mississippi a half-dozen others. He is also contem- residents add 7 percent sales tax. plating two versions of A Fable, screen- Send all orders to the Center for the play and novel, the second of which will Hamblin, director of the Center for Study of Southern Culture with a take him nearly 10 years to complete. In Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri check made payable to the University of the midst of all this, he will soon receive State University and author of Faulkner Mississippi or with Visa or MasterCard ac- a letter from Malcolm Cowley that, two and Hollywood: A Retrospective from the count number and expiration date. Please years later, will result in the publication Brodsky Collection, and Lee Caplin, film use the order form on page 35. Credit card of The Portable Faulkner. producer and exclusive representative orders also may be made by calling 800- 390-3527. Some posters are available to “Faulkner and Film” will take us be- of the Faulkner literary estate, will pro- view on the Center’s Web site, www.ole- hind the photographic mask of ease and vide an overview of Faulkner’s long and miss.edu/depts/south/our_catalog.html. explore more deeply than ever before the occasionally tumultuous experience in complex relationship of film and fiction Hollywood. it conceals. Throughout the 1930s and Matthew Ramsey and Deborah 1940s, Faulkner was working both sides Barker will lecture on the two major Ivan Delazari, professor of English at St. of the street, not as completely separate versions of Faulkner in film: as screen- Petersburg State University, will pres- media, one for love and the other for writer and as novelist. Ramsey discusses ent and discuss a Russian film,Noga , an profit, but as two manifestations of ar- Faulkner’s 1936 screenplay The Road to adaptation of Faulkner’s World War I tistic expression in which he took great Glory, and Barker a film made from two short story “The Leg.” interest. Leading off the conference will of his novels, Sanctuary and Requiem for Additional papers will enrich the be two lectures describing the general a Nun. The resulting films of screen- mixture, as film and fiction begin to scene of Faulkner in Hollywood. Robert play and adaptation will be shown. merge in Faulkner’s novels. Julian Murphet, professor in Modern Film and Literature at the University of New SOUTHERN WRITERS, SOUTHERN WRITING South Wales, describes a Faulkner who GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE incorporates into his fiction filmic techniques that Hollywood failed to follow The 16th Annual Southern Writers, Southern Writing Graduate Student through on; Sharon Monteith describes Conference is set for July 15–17, 2010, at the University of Mississippi. Both criti- the influence of Faulkner on French cal and creative pieces will be presented, dealing with all aspects of Southern cul- “New Wave” film directors; Robert ture. Topics for the conference are not limited to literary studies—we are inter- Jackson takes us back to the prenovelist ested in all interdisciplinary approaches to Southern culture. H. R. Stoneback, Faulkner and the impact of 1920s films State University of New York at New Paltz, will give the plenary lecture. Contact on the young writer in the South. William Boyle at [email protected] for more information. continued on page 6 The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 5 In addition to these and other scholars announced in the winter issue of the Southern Register, 10 speakers and pan- Lawn in August to elists have been selected from the “Call for Papers” competition: University of Tennessee, Allison Rittmayer, Phillip Be Unveiled at Davis, University of Tulsa, University of Sydney, Aaron Nyerges, Brian Crane, Faulkner Conference University of Montreal, Phil Smith, Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Lawn in August, a project stemming Lafayette will help protect and pre- Stefan Solomon, Michael Holgate, from the Oxford-Lafayette County serve the best part of Rowan Oak, University of Sydney, University of New Chamber of Commerce’s 2010 the grounds, trees, and plants that South Wales, Matthew Sutton, College Leadership Lafayette Program, spent the Faulkners so loved,” Rowan Oak of William and Mary, Randall Wilhelm, five months restoring the historic Curator William Griffith said. University of Florida, and Deighton east lawn of Faulkner’s home back The Leadership Lafayette Program Zerby, Louisiana State University. to its original condition. The group is a series of activities designed to Other program events will include a also developed a new University of assure the continuity of leadership selection of films made from Faulkner Mississippi Foundation account in in Oxford and Lafayette County. screenplays or adapted from his fic- order to encourage people to give Activities promoting community tion: To Have and Have Not (from the to a more permanent funding source knowledge and training to enhance Hemingway novel), Tomorrow (from for the future of Rowan Oak gardens leadership skills are blended with the short story in Knight’s Gambit), The to sustain the historic and cultural project-oriented sessions of interest to Story of Temple Drake (from Sanctuary), attraction. proven leaders, as well as the emerg- Tarnished Angels (from Pylon), and Barn Personnel at Rowan Oak and the ing leader. Leadership Lafayette start- Burning. There will also be sessions on University collaborated during the ed in the late 1980s and has graduat- “Teaching Faulkner,” conducted by planning and participated with its ed over 20 classes of leaders. James Carothers, University of Kansas, implementation, with an unveiling The project has already drawn Charles Peek, Emeritus, University of scheduled to coincide with the 37th the support of a number of area Nebraska at Kearney, Terrell Tebbetts, Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha businesses. These include Oasis Sod Lyon College, and Theresa Towner, Conference, July 18–22, 2010. Farms of Clarksdale, Smith Building University of Texas at Dallas; a discus- “We are so pleased to have an op- Supply of Oxford, and Magnolia sion of “Collecting Faulkner” by Seth portunity to complete the restoration Rental of Oxford. To find out more Berner; an exhibit by the University of Rowan Oak. The grounds have long about the project or to learn how Press of Mississippi of Faulkner books needed work beyond maintenance, to participate, please contact David published by university presses through- and these efforts from Leadership Flautt at [email protected]. out the United States, as well as a dis- William Griffin play, with books for sale, by Seth Berner. Leadership Lafayette Rowan Oak Project workers include, from left, There will also be guided daylong tours Brooke Newman Driskell, Peter Ross, Melanie Addington, Michael of North Mississippi, the Delta, and Dinkins, Stephanie Beebe, and Jeffrey Little. Group members not pictured Memphis; a picnic served at Faulkner’s are David Flautt, Andrew Stephenson, and Pamela Robertson. home, Rowan Oak; and “Faulkner on the Fringe”—an “open mike” evening at the Southside Gallery. Discount rates for the conference are available for groups of five or more students. Inexpensive dormitory housing is available for all registrants. Contact Robert Fox at [email protected] for details. There are also a limited number of waivers of registration for graduate students. Contact Donald Kartiganer at [email protected]. Further information on the program, registration, course credit, accommodations, and travel can be found on the conference Web site: www.outreach. olemiss.edu/events/faulkner.

Donald Kartiganer

Page 6 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Center Initiates Project to Attract Funds for Graduate, Undergraduate Students

Fund-raising efforts are under way some resources reserved specifically to attract $150,000 in private gifts for them. A part of the Ole Miss to support Southern Studies stu- Women’s Council program, the dents for the 2010 and 2011 aca- Elizabeth Brevard Scholarship pro- demic years, and the Institute for vides assistance. Kentucky native American Values (IAV) has pro- Jennifer Lawrence (BA 2009), now vided the first $30,000 toward that a Mississippi Teacher Corp partic- goal. The IAV gift is funding specif- ipant in Tunica, was the Brevard ic research examining Southerners scholar for four years. Other small- and money. Other gifts are needed er scholarships and several paper to support fellowships for graduate prizes, the Gray and Coterie awards students, scholarships for under- and the Peter Aschoff Award, also graduates, awards for students who benefit undergraduates. produce superior papers and oth- The Chris Fullerton fund and er projects, and student travel and the Julian and Kathryn Wiener equipment, particularly cameras fund provide assistance to gradu- and computers. ate students, and a prize funded “Our Southern Studies graduate by the Lucille and Motee Daniels students undertake a remarkable family supports graduate student range of jobs,” Center Director Ted paper awards. Established by the Ownby said. During 2009–10, grad- late Frances Patterson, another uate students provided assistance new endowment holds promise for the following: for the future. Beyond those funds, • Southern Studies 101 and 102 the Center relies on a changing ar- undergraduate classes ray of funding sources to assist its • Living Blues magazine, Highway students. 61, Southern Foodways Alliance, Jennifer Lawrence received the “The program has experienced William Winter Institute for Racial Elizabeth Brevard Scholarship for a great deal of success in funding assis- Reconciliation, and Future of the four years while an undergradu- tantships,” said Michael Upton, direc- South Conference ate majoring in Southern Studies tor of development for the Center. “We • American Music Archive and now teaches in Tunica as a are now appealing to Center friends and • Mississippi Encyclopedia and The New Mississippi Teacher Corp participant. alumni to invest or continue investing Encyclopedia of Southern Culture in our students by providing funds to • research on thrift and financial insti- The effort to raise money for students further their work, expand travel op- tutions in the South is off to a good start, Ownby said, point- portunities, and keep their equipment • project for the Society for the Study ing to the Southern Money Project fund- up to date. We’re also focusing on en- of Southern Literature ed by Institute for American Values. The suring that the assistance we offer stu- • documentary films about Southern idea came from Institute Director David dents is competitive with that of other foodways and the Oxford square Blankenhorn, a native Mississippian institutions.” • project to digitize filmed conference working in New York. He approached the The new initiative is open both for material for the Center Web site Center with the idea of researching the contributions to existing endowments • documentary music projects and a ra- ways Southerners think about thrift, sav- and funds and to new avenues of helping dio program on Southern musicians ings, and debt and about how Southern students. Anyone interested in contrib- “Many of these projects receive fund- institutions reflect their values about uting to student programs in Southern ing from sponsoring organizations such those topics. For example, an important Studies should contact Ted Ownby at as Media and Documentary Studies, discovery is that payday-lending institu- the Center for the Study of Southern Southern Foodways Alliance, and the tions are especially common in Mississippi Culture, [email protected], or 662- American Music Archive, but not all,” and other Southern states. The students 915-5993; or Michael Upton at the Ownby said. “The Center could not are studying payday lending and casino University Foundation, mupton@ole- pursue as many meaningful projects as gambling, as well as mutual savings banks miss.edu, or 662-915-3027. it does without its graduate students, and building and loans. who make tremendous contributions.” Southern Studies undergraduates have

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 7 Continuing Center Projects CONTRIBUTORS

Work continues, and it takes new Ross Brand, a Florida State University shapes, on three Center proj- graduate, is a first-year student in the ects—the New Encyclopedia of Southern Studies master’s program. Southern Culture, the Mississippi Mark Camarigg is the former assistant Encyclopedia, and the Center’s editor and current publications man- Web site. Look for new develop- ager for Living Blues magazine. ments from each in the coming Kirsten Dellinger is an associate pro- weeks and months. fessor of Sociology and chair of the De- The next volume of the New partment of Sociology and Anthropol- Encyclopedia, volume 15, is Urban- ogy at the University of Mississippi. ization. Coming out soon under the William Dunlap has distinguished editorship of Wanda Rushing of the himself as an artist, arts commentator, University of Memphis, the volume and educator since receiving his MFA will both revisit topics in the Urban from the University of Mississippi Life section of the Encyclopedia of in 1969. Dunlap, the book about his Southern Culture and take on new work, was published in 2007. topics as well as new urban centers. Joan Wylie Hall teaches in the Eng- Following Urbanization, we can start lish Department at the University to look for Sports and Recreation, edit- of Mississippi. She is the author of a ed by Hardy Jackson of Jacksonville book on Shirley Jackson and articles State, also due out in 2010. on numerous Southern authors. The NESC led to a new Center Donald M. Kartiganer is Howry Pro- project, when managing editor fessor of Faulkner Studies Emeritus Jimmy Thomas and Joe York of at the University of Mississippi and Urbanization, the 15th volume of The Media and Documentary Projects con- director of the Faulkner and Yoknapa- New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, is tawpha Conference. sidered how to turn material from the set for release on June 7, 2010. Edited Colby H. Kullman is professor of Eng- encyclopedia project into programs for by Wanda Rushing and Charles Reagan lish at the University of Mississippi. the radio. Using the work of some in- Wilson, the volume contains 48 the- Among his publications are Theatre spired graduate student assistants, Nelson matic essays on the ongoing remark- Companies of the World and articles on Griffin, Jesse Wright, and Omar Gordon, able growth of Southern urban centers, Tennessee Williams and other modern new immigration patterns, booming re- the project took NESC entries from the dramatists. Music volume, edited them, mixed them gional entrepreneurial activities with with music and interview material, and global reach, and mounting challeng- Sally Cassady Lyon works at the Cen- ter, as the director’s assistant. She is a had encyclopedia editor Charles Reagan es that result from these. Essays also Gulfport native and Sewanee graduate. Wilson read the new text. Stay tuned examine the Disneyfication of central Florida, crunk and hip-hop culture, for details, but we hope to hear the new Panny Flautt Mayfield, an award- and other recent developments. The 31 winning photographer and journalist, spots in a radio program called Sounds of topical entries focus on individual cities is director of public relations at Co- the South before the end of 2010. and urban cultural elements, including ahoma Community College in Clarks- The Center’s other encyclopedia Mardi Gras, Dollywood, and the 1996 dale, Mississippi. project, the Mississippi Encyclopedia, has Atlanta Olympics. To order a copy, visit Ted Ownby, director of the Center, moved into a new phase. With its ar- http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_ holds a joint appointment in South- detail?title_id=1639. Hardbacks are ticles complete and most of the edit- ern Studies and history. ing finished, staff are working on one of $45.00, and paperbacks are $22.95. the final steps in the encyclopedia pro- Edwin Smith is a communications specialist in the Office of Media and cess—the illustrations. The University films. One can currently watch numerous Public Relations at the University of Press of Mississippi received a grant sessions from Center conferences, Mississippi. from the Mississippi Arts Commission especially the Oxford Conference for Jimmy Thomas is managing editor of to help complete the project, and those the Book, and before long other films The New Encyclopedia of Southern Cul- funds are helping underwrite the gath- connected to the Center will be available. ture. An alumnus of the University of ering of, scanning of, and permissions And some time this summer, one can Mississippi, he has worked for publica- for the illustrations. look for an Opinions section for essays tions in Oxford and New York. The Center’s Web site, www.olemiss. and other articles by Center faculty, staff, Mary McKenzie Thompson is a re- edu/depts/south, has some recent students, and alumni. tired high school teacher of English additions and is ready to add more. The and creative writing from Clarksdale, most prominent addition is a section for Ted Ownby Mississippi.

Page 8 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Southern Studies Alumni News

It has become relatively easy to write stories about the accomplishments by Southern Studies alumni, in part because contemporary technologies have turned out to offer excellent ways to keep up with those accomplishments, but mostly because alumni keep doing new and interesting things.

New jobs and new schools. Several students have new positions in the Atlanta area. Courtney Chartier (MA 2003) has a new job in the Robert Woodruff Library at Emory University. As she finishes her dissertation in history at Yale, Robin Morris (MA 2001) will begin teaching as an adjunct faculty member at Agnes Scott College in the fall. Sawyer Riley Peter Slade (BA 2003) has a new position working Robin Morris for an Atlanta firm that distributes wines History at the University of Texas. throughout the world, and Stephanie PhD. Andrew Mullins (BA 2009) is going In New York, Sarah Abdelnour (MA Little (BA 2009) is working on her chef into the American Studies graduate pro- 2008) has a new title, Operations and skills in Oxford’s City Grocery before go- gram at the University of Massachusetts– Communication Associate, Admissions, ing on to culinary school. Nelson Griffin Boston. Ferriday Mansel McClatchy has at Teach for America. Among several (MA 2009), who discovered his teach- just completed her MA program with Southern Studies alumni with recent ing talents during his years in Oxford, an internship at the Oxford Visitors and law degrees, Amanda Brown Wallis (BA has a new position at a Suzuku school in Convention Bureau and is now start- 2005) is practicing health law with a Atlanta. One 2010 graduate, Alan Pike, ing an event planning firm in Oxford. firm in Tupelo, and Allison Worley (BA is moving to Atlanta to start work in the After she finishes her thesis this summer, 2006) has started her own practice in her PhD program in the Graduate Institute Blount Montgomery will be heading to hometown of Booneville, Mississippi. of Liberal Arts at Emory University, San Francisco to take a position with while another, I’Nasah Crockett, heads the Episcopal Service Corps. In Austin, Appearances on campus. This spring, to Vanderbilt to start work on a history Odie Lindsey (MA 2007) has a new po- three Southern Studies alumni returned sition at Austin Community College, to the Center to participate in programs. Andrew Mullins and current student Duval Osteen has In February, Renna Tuten (MA 2006), a position at the Center for American archivist with the Richard Russell Library at the University of Georgia, Amanda Brown Wallis participated with her colleague Margie Compton in a session of the Blues Today Symposium, showing previously unseen 1940s and 1950s film footage of blues performers Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Junior Lockwood. In March, Jon Parrish Peede (MA 1992), Director of Literature, Grants Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, vis- ited campus to take part in an Oxford Conference for the Book panel on teaching the work of Barry Hannah. Peter Slade (MA 2002), assistant professor of religion at Ashland University, gave a brown bag lecture on the subject of his new book, Open Friendship in a Closed Society.

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 9 Organizers, leaders, and speakers. Teresa Robin Yekaitis and a James Beard Award in 2010 for article Parker Farris (MA 2005) is the presi- Renna Tuten on race and barbecue. First year MA student of the Louisiana Folklore Society. dent Xaris Martínez has been accepted Jimmy Phillips (MA 1993) is the leader for an NEH summer seminar on the Civil of the Oxford Songwriters Association, War at the Georgia Historical Society in and Robin Yekaitis (MA 2006) is on the Savannah. And congratulations to cur- Oxford Mayor’s Committee on Disability rent undergraduate Southern Studies Issues. Sarah Alford Ballard (MA 2003), major Katherine Watson, who was in- who teaches English at Murrah High ducted this spring into the University’s School in Jackson, and Susan Glisson chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. (MA 1994), director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation Films. Films made in David Wharton’s at the University of Mississippi, are on the spring 2009 class—A Soul-Reviving Feast Civil Rights Education Committee that by Miles Laseter, Sarah Simonson (BA meets to work out strategies of teaching 2009), and Melanie Young, and Tortillas the civil rights movement as part of the de Maiz by Ferriday Mansel McClatchy curriculum in Mississippi public schools. (MA 2010), Alan Pike (MA 2010), Current student Jesse Wright organized and Duvall Osteen—both won Special an event in Oxford for relief following Awards for Documentaries at the Oxford the earthquake in Haiti. While teach- Film Festival in February. Thacker ing at Rust College, Chiquita (Willis) Mountain Radio: The Documentary by Walls (MA 1990) has, along with her Mary Warner (MA 2009) showed at husband, Benny Walls, started the Shape the Oxford event and the Crossroads Note Singing Project Web site, www. Film Festival in Jackson. Joe York (MA shapenote-singing.org. Billy Stevens 2007), who along with Wharton and (MA 2002) gives lectures for the North Congratulations to Caroline Herring Andy Harper helped teach filmmaking Carolina Humanities Council on, among (MA 1998) for winning the Mississippi techniques to those students, is show- other subjects, the topic of his MA the- Institute for Arts and Letters award ing several of his documentaries at fes- sis, “Sincere Forms of Flattery: Blacks, in Musical Composition (Popular). tivals. Cud is showing at the Reel Earth Whites, and American Popular Music.” Congratulations to Kate Medley (MA Festival in New Zealand, the Atlanta At the University of South Carolina, Bert 2007). She and April Grayson won the Film Festival, and the Going Green Way (MA 1999) organized a conference, Elbert Hilliard Oral History Award from Film Festival in Hollywood. Smokes and the Southern Forum on Agricultural, the Mississippi Historical Society for a Ears played at the Tupelo Film Festival Rural, and Environmental History. project, “Opening Doors, Forging New and the Crossroads Film Festival, where Paths,” on the integration of University it won the Ruma Award for the best Awards and awards and awards. Along of Mississippi’s professional schools. Mississippi-made film. Several of York’s with Professor Charles Reagan Wilson, Amy Wood (MA 1995) was nominat- films screened at the Ozark Foothills whose award is discussed in an article ed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Filmfest. All are films he made with the on page 1, numerous Southern Studies for her book Lynching and Spectacle. John Southern Foodways Alliance. alumni are recent award winners. T. Edge (MA 2002), winner of a James Beard Award in 2009, was nominated for Ted Ownby

Sarah Simonson and Melanie Young

Ferriday Mansel McClatchy

Page 10 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Announces Winners

The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Caroline Herring is the winner in Letters (MIAL) has announced its Music Composition (Contemporary/ award winners for works first published Popular) for her 2009 Golden Apples of or shown in the year 2009. The award the Sun album. This new work marks a categories are poetry, fiction, nonfiction, departure from the country-influenced visual arts, photography, music composi- sound of her previous work with a dark- tion (classical/concert), and music com- er and more haunting sound inspired position (contemporary/popular). The by female folk singers from the 1960s award winners were chosen in a juried and ’70s. Herring is a native of Canton, competition by out-of-state judges; win- Mississippi. ners must have significant ties to the An MIAL Lifetime Achievement state of Mississippi and must have been Award will be presented to William nominated by a member of MIAL. Ferris, the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Presentation of the awards will be Professor of History and senior associate made at the Institute’s annual Awards director of the Center for the Study of Gala on June 5, 2010, at the Mississippi the American South at the University Museum of Art in Jackson. Master of of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A Ceremonies will be Richard Howorth, native of Vicksburg, Ferris is the found- owner of Square Books in Oxford. ing director of the Center for the Study D. C. Berry is the winner in the po- of Southern Culture at the University etry category for his work Hamlet Off ner is Charles Crossley, a native of of Mississippi, where he served on the Stage. Berry taught at the University Pike County, for the exhibition Charles faculty for 18 years. A former chairman of Southern Mississippi’s Center for Crossley: Textures-Shapes and Forms of of the National Endowment for the Writers, where he was an English pro- Spirits presented by the Lauren Rogers Humanities, Ferris is also coeditor of fessor for 27 years. There he published Museum of Art in 2009. Crossley is a the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and hundreds of poems and several volumes founder of the McComb Studio of Art the author of the recently published and three times won the Excellence in and Design and a roster artist for the Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Teaching Award, while being honored Mississippi Arts Commission. His work Mississippi Blues. as a Charles W. Moorman Distinguished is found in private and corporate collec- A rare Special Achievement Award Professor in the Humanities. tions worldwide. will be presented for The Passions of The 2009 fiction winner is Frederick Michael Loyd Young has won in Walter Anderson: A Dramatic Celebration Barthelme of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, the photography category for his book of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Artist. This for his novel Waveland. Published by Blues, Booze, and BBQ published by interdisciplinary work combines drama, Doubleday, the novel is set in post- Powerhouse Books. Young grew up in art, music, and dance in its tribute to Katrina Mississippi. Barthelme is the Tate County, Mississippi, and is cur- Anderson and was first performed at the author of 16 books, including the PEN/ rently working on a second book that 2009 Oxford Conference for the Book. Faulkner finalist Elroy Nights. He is the documents the hunting and fishing cul- Each winner in the juried categories director of the Center for Writers at the ture on the U.S. Gulf Coast. His prima- will receive a cash prize of $1,000.00 University of Southern Mississippi and ry interest as a photographer is photo- and a Mississippi-made gift. Past win- is editor of the Mississippi Review. graphing cultural symbols and explor- ners include Natasha Trethewey, Willie Winning the nonfiction category is ing the impact they have on daily life. Morris, Richard Ford, Walker Percy, Charles W. Eagles, the William F. Winter Violinist and composer Shandy Samuel Jones, and Ellen Douglas. Professor of History at the University Phillips, who grew up in Starkville, is Mark Wiggs of Jackson serves as pres- of Mississippi, for his book, The Price the 2009 winner for Music Composition ident of the Mississippi Institute of Arts of Defiance: James Meredith and the (Classical/Concert). A graduate of both and Letters. Jan Taylor of Jackson is Integration of Ole Miss. This meticulously the Juilliard School and the Boston treasurer, and Margaret Anne Robbins researched look at the events and Conservatory, Phillips won for Sonata of Pontotoc is secretary. For more in- circumstances surrounding James No. 2, a sonata for flute and organ. formation about attending the Awards Meredith’s entry into the University of In January 2011, the Starkville/MSU Gala on June 5, 2010, visit the Web site Mississippi is published by the University Symphony Orchestra will premier at www.ms-arts-letters.org. of North Carolina Press. Phillips’s concertino for violin, viola, In the Visual Arts category, the win- piano, and string orchestra. Mary McKenzie Thompson

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 11 continued from 1 Wilson and directed by Wilson is in excess of $200,000.

Wilson also credited his successes Courtesy Edward Aschoff to the continuing support he has received from history department chairs Bob Haws and Joe Ward, Center director Ted Ownby, Center associate direc- In Memoriam tor Ann Abadie, and College of Liberal Arts dean Glenn Hopkins. Admired and respected by his peers, Wilson holds memberships in the Southern Historical Association, American Society of Church History, American Studies Association, and Mississippi Historical Society. He has presented papers at conferences in Germany, Denmark, France, and Turkey and was a visiting professor at the University of Mainz last summer. Wilson is coeditor Patricia Aschoff, with her late husband, Peter, of the first important scholarly collec- shortly after the arrival of their son, Edward tion on religion during the Civil War, a revised edition of The Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, and the forthcom- Patricia Edwards Aschoff Dorothy (Dot) Falkner Dodson ing Mississippi Encyclopedia. Wilson was March 15, 1939–April 1, 2010 March 10, 1920–January 23, 2010) also a primary scholar in the Religion and Region series and Southern Spaces Patricia Aschoff, widow of longtime Dorothy (Dot) Falkner Dodson was the online documentary project. He is the Living Blues contributor and University daughter of John Wesley Thompson author of Judgment and Grace in Dixie: of Mississippi Anthropology professor Falkner Jr. and Sue Harkins. At her Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis and Peter Aschoff, was born in Louisville, death Dot Dodson was the last surviv- a new collection of essays on Southern Mississippi. She received her under- ing member of her generation of the religious history due out in 2011. graduate degree from Chadron State J. W. T. Falkner family. She could re- “Charles Wilson has been active and College and her master’s degree from member her grandfather telling stories influential as a historian, an essayist, the University of Mississippi. She was a at family gatherings and roller-skat- a great organizer, and editor,” Ownby dedicated activist and teacher through- ing with her cousins in the ballroom said. “Collaborative works can be frus- out her life, and her professional jobs on the third floor of J. W. T.’s home in trating and time-consuming, but he has included juvenile probation officer, di- Cofield Studios kept up an impressive record or pub- rector of the Cultural Center at the lishing his own work and always having University of Northern Iowa, the full- time for students and colleagues.” time director of the Domestic Violence Sam Shu-Yi Wang, F. A. P. Barnard Project for nine Mississippi counties, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and a special education teacher in the Engineering, was the inaugural recip- Oxford, Mississippi, school system. She ient of the Distinguished Research was a board member for the Mississippi and Creative Achievement Award in Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2008. Larry A. Walker, director of the a leading force in drafting Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products laws on domestic violence, and the first Research, was the 2009 recipient. director to train Mississippi law enforce- Award recipients receive a $7,500 ment on domestic violence procedures. monetary prize and a personal plaque. Raised by her late grandmother, Elisha Pharmaceutics International Inc. spon- Edwards, Aschoff is survived by her son, sors the annual award. CEO Syed Abidi Edward C. Aschoff, her father, her sis- is a University alumnus. ter, Jean Conley, an aunt, Christine Edwards, and a cousin, Charlestene Edwin Smith Daniel. Memorial donations can be made to the Domestic Violence Project, P.O. Box 286, Oxford, MS 38655. Dorothy (Dot) Falkner Dodson

Page 12 Spring 2010 The Southern Register and three story collections and won a Barry Hannah, 1998 Guggenheim, the Robert Penn Warren Lifetime Achievement Award, and the PEN/Malamud Award for excellence in the art of the short story. His 1996 collection High Lonesome was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Sick Soldier at Your Door, begun as a novel and completed as a collection of stories, will be published posthumously. Hannah was born in Meridian, grew up in Clinton, and earned a BA from Mississippi College and MA and MFA degrees from the University of Arkansas. He joined the University of Mississippi faculty in 1982, after serving as professor and writer in residence at Clemson University, Middlebury College, the University of Alabama, and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He was also writer in residence at the University of Montana– Missoula, Memphis State University, and Texas University–San Marcos, where in 2004–05 he held the presti- gious Mitte Chair of Creative Writing. His students remember him as someone

Tom Rankin Tom who encouraged imaginative thinking and good sentences. Oxford. Her father was the brother of Survivors include his Murry Falkner, the father of William wife, Susan Varas Hannah Faulkner, Dot’s first cousin. She was the of Oxford; daughter, Lee wife of John Oliver Dodson and moth- Hannah McDonald of er of four children: Damaris Dodson Tuscaloosa, Alabama; sons Grantham of Atlantis, Florida; John Howard Barry Hannah Jr. Anthony Dodson of Highland Falls, of Knoxville, Tennessee, New York; Charles Michael Dodson and Ted Hannah of of Highland Falls, New York; and Jeff Leeds, Alabama; step- Dodson of Tallahassee, Florida. She had daughter Shannon Magill one grandchild, Dodson Grantham of White of Lake Charles, Atlantis, Florida. Dodson worked for a Louisiana; stepson David number of years as a librarian in the U.S. Morgan White of Ponte Documents Library at the University of Verde, Florida; sister, Mississippi Law School. Dot Hannah Kitchens of Jackson, Mississippi; brother, Bobby Hannah

Howard Barry Hannah Rankin Tom of Destin, Florida; foster April 23, 1942–March 1, 2010 brother, Ralph Marston Geronimo Rex (1972), won the William of Richardson, Texas; and grandchildren Barry Hannah, one of Mississippi’s Faulkner Prize and was nominated for Ike, Isabelle, and Nick Hannah. most distinguished contemporary writ- the National Book Award. Airships, his Memorial contributions may be ers, died of a heart attack at his home 1978 collection of short stories about made to Barry Hannah Award in Fiction three days before the 17th Oxford the Vietnam War, the Civil War, and c/o Yalobusha Review, Department of Conference for the Book, dedicated to the modern South, won the Arnold English, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS him. The author of eight novels and five Gingrich Short Fiction Award. The fol- 38677-1848; to Friends of Pete, c/o Lele collections of short stories, Hannah was lowing year, Hannah received the pres- Gillespie, 1013 South Lamar, Oxford, writer in residence and director of the tigious Award in Literature from the MS 38655; or to the ASPCA Gift MFA program in creative writing at the American Institute of Arts and Letters. Processing Center, P.O. Box 96929, University of Mississippi. His first novel, He subsequently published seven novels Washington, DC 20077.

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 13 30 Years of Sacred Harp in Oxford David Wharton One of the first Sacred Harp recordings I ever heard was the 1970 Smithsonian Folkways recording of Stewart’s Chapel in Houston, Mississippi—only 50 miles southeast of Oxford. They sang loud, fast, and without restraint, each song lasting little more than a minute. I was viscerally struck by the passion, convic- tion, and raw emotion that these men and women of Mississippi brought to singing these old Sacred Harp shape- note hymns. What I didn’t realize is that I would be singing with them years later right here in Oxford. American shape-note singing is a tradition that goes back to the New England Leading the singing at a Sacred Harp program at Barnard Observatory this singing schools of the 18th century. Its spring is Anne Steel (standing). Seated around her, from left, are Mary purpose was to create an easy mnemonic Amelia Taylor, Alan Spurgeon, Ross Brand, and Mark Tew. device to sing written music and coun- teract the musical illiteracy of lined-out The tradition took root in the South Church records show that the Pine hymnody. Instructors developed a mu- and continued there long after it had Flat community here in Lafayette sical method that simplified the eight been replaced by newer methods in the County had an annual Sacred Harp notes of the major scale to four simple Northern states. With the publication singing in the 1870s on the third shapes on the page with accompany- of the Sacred Harp shape-note hymn- Sunday in June. This singing still suring vocal syllables—fa, sol, la, and mi. book by Georgians B. F. White and E. J. vives as a seven-shape gospel singing, a Groups were taught to sing for the simple King in 1844, shape-note singing was ce- late-19th century tradition descended joy of singing, not for performance. To mented as a Southern musical tradition. from the four-shape style. At that time, emphasize the point, the singers were or- Though its main area of popularity was Sacred Harp singing was so popular in ganized in a square with the sections fac- in Alabama and Georgia, the tradition northern Mississippi that there was an- ing each other. Every singer would have eventually spread west to Mississippi other singing that same third Sunday in the opportunity to lead a song of his or and took hold among the rural churches nearby Pontotoc County. As the singers her choice in the hollow square. No in- where impassioned singers would come diminished and tastes changed, people dividual singer is valued over another. together to sing for hours in fellowship. stopped coming and the Pine Flat singers decided to change from the Sacred Harp to seven-shape gospel music. About 1968, an annual singing was started at Pilgrim’s Rest on the Lafayette-Yalobusha County line. As the church deteriorated and was taken off the electric grid, the singing was moved to Taylor. That singing continues the second Sunday in October at Taylor United Methodist Church. The earliest regular singing record- ed in Oxford was at Antioch Primitive Baptist Church on Van Buren Avenue. It suffered from the same problem as the Pine Flat singing and was eventually discontinued, leaving no annual singing in Oxford. That would change when music professor Warren Steel, English professor George Boswell, and Taylor United Methodist Church, located in the village of Taylor, folklorist Bill Ferris worked together to Mississippi, has been the site of the annual Sacred Harp singing on the reinstate an annual singing in Oxford. second Sunday in October since 1988. Warren Steel Warren

Page 14 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Boswell began organizing events on the ings. In 1980, Steel and Boswell initi- this singing as a continuation of the University of Mississippi’s campus, usu- ated an annual singing in the City Hall Stewart’s Chapel singing in Houston ally in connection with folklore meet- courtroom on the Square. Steel saw where the Folkways recording was made. Since then, every second Sunday in March, people come from all over the country to sing with Mississippi singers

Warren Steel Warren in Oxford. Difficulties in serving dinner forced the event to move onto campus in 2008, but it surely didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the singers. The Oxford singing recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with no signs of diminution from lack of attendance. Students on campus have even rein- vigorated monthly singings in Barnard Observatory every first Thursday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Curious community members and students should take ad- vantage of such easy access to this rich musical tradition. Anyone interested in old American traditions, egalitarian Sacred Harp singing class, September 29, 1985, at Pilgrims Rest Primitive Baptist gatherings, boisterous music, or idiosyn- Church, Lafayette County, Mississippi, included adults, from left, Mark Davis, Fred cratic experiences will enjoy an all-day Kendrick, Warren Steel, Toxey T. Fortenberry, Teresa Lanetta, Bernice Embry, John Sacred Harp singing. Everyone is wel- Van Horn, Suzanne Flandreau, Mary Chrestman, J. E. “Dude” Carter, Ruby Easley, come in the hollow square. Cleo Hawkins, Sheree Lence, Bob Lence, Emily Boswell, and George Boswell. Pilgrims Rest was the site of the annual Sacred Harp singing on the second Sunday in October Ross Brand from 1968 until 1987. All-Day Sacred Harp Singings in Mississippi Summer and Fall 2010 Except where noted, all singings are in The Sacred Harp (1991 Edition). June 2010 • Fourth Sunday and Saturday before: Pleasant Grove • First Sunday: Sherman Baptist Church, Hwy 32, 10 Convention, Calhoun County, location to be announced. miles west of Bruce. Info: Mark Davis, 601-932-9188. • Second Sunday: Oak Springs Church, Derma. September 2010 • Saturday before Fourth Sunday: Newton County • Second Sunday and Saturday before: Black Mississippi Convention, Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church, State Convention, location to be announced. southwest of Decatur (Christian Harmony). October 2010 July 2010 • Second Sunday: Taylor United Methodist Church, • July 4: Mt. Herman Primitive Baptist Church, north of Taylor. Info: Warren Steel. 662-236-5356. Hwy 8, three miles west of Vardaman. • Saturday before Fourth Sunday: Chickasaw County December 2010 Convention, Enon Primitive Baptist Church, south of • Saturday before Second Sunday: Calhoun County Hwy 8, eight miles east of Houston. Nursing Home, Calhoun City. 1:30 p.m.

August 2010 Full listing of Sacred Harp singings in Mississippi is posted • Saturday before the Second Sunday: Calhoun County at www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/miss.html. Other sing- Musical Association, Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, ings in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom are list- Bruce. ed at www.mcsr.olemss.edu/~mudws/singings.html. • Fourth Sunday and Saturday before: Mississippi State Convention, Antioch Primitive Baptist Church, Hwy 21 between Forest and Sebastopol. Info: Mark Davis, 601-932-9188.

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 15 Movie Director Jodie Markell to Screen Teardrop at Williams Festival October 15–16

The 18th annual Mississippi Delta sure of Teardrop’s heroine Fisher Willow Tennessee Williams Festival promises with Tennessee’s other legendary ladies an exciting kickoff to the 2011 Williams from the Delta: Blanche DuBois, Alma Centennial Year with the presentation Winemiller, Lady Torrence, and Maggie of director Jodie Markell screening her the Cat. movie of the Williams screenplay The Kenneth Holditch will deliver the Loss of a Teardrop Diamond. conference keynote address, and Colby Featured at the October 15–16, Kullman will moderate the panel of 2010, festival sponsored by Coahoma scholars, including English professors Community College, Markell will speak Ralph Voss and Ann Fisher-Wirth; fiction about her experiences directing the un- writer Anna Baker, theatrical producer produced 1957 work with its setting in Robert Canon, and film critic and screen- the Mississippi Delta and Memphis. She writer Coop Cooper. Actors performing also will talk about her lifelong interest in on stages and porch plays include Erma Tennessee Williams since her portrayal Duricko, Johnny McPhail, Alice Walker, of Laura Wingfield in a high school pro- Marissa Duricko, duction of The Glass Menagerie. Jodie Markell Tim Brown, Jeff “Coahoma has been hosting this won- (inset) Teardrop movie Glickman, and derful conference since 1993; we are elat- marquee Sherrye Williams. ed and honored to welcome Miss Markell Rehearsing to our campus,” commented Vivian Williams’s dialogue. Her to take center Presley, CCC president. “An accom- first choice for the role stage also with plished actress and theater professional, of Fisher Willow was monologues and she is a native of Memphis and brings a Bryce Dallas Howard, scenes, fledgling unique understanding of Southern cul- and Markell describes high school actors ture to the screen,” Presley continued. her as “the best of her across Mississippi Prior to the movie’s December 2009 generation.” The cast- will compete in screenings in Memphis, New York, ing of Oscar-winning the festival’s elite and California, Markell comment- actress Ellen Burstyn, drama competi- ed, “As a young actress, I saw a num- Ann-Margret, Chris tion for $3,000 in ber of productions of Williams that Evans, Will Patton, cash prizes for their did not feel true to me. . . . Williams and Mamie Gummer school drama de- plays were being presented like awk- soon followed. partments. Markell ward, dated, and dusty museum pieces. Markell praises Williams’s “myste- will address the group, and Duricko will As a Southern woman, I felt a calling rious revelation of character” and his lead them through an acting workshop. to reclaim Williams and bring his vi- choice to leave many questions unan- Festival activities, receptions, din- sually poetic world to the screen with swered. She says, “He wanted us to revel ners, and porch plays laced with blues as much vibrancy and authenticity as I in the mystery and with each well-cho- and gospel music and Southern cuisine could achieve in the hope of inspiring a sen moment he reminds us that even in take place in Clarksdale’s Tennessee new audience to rediscover this original our own lives, every day, every moment Williams neighborhood. American voice.” is a mystery. In the end Williams wanted Produced by Coahoma Community While studying acting in New York his work to speak for itself, and with The College and supported by grants from City, Markell was introduced to Teardrop Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, I wanted to the Mississippi Arts Commission, the and says she was struck by the lead give audiences a chance to listen.” Mississippi Humanities Council, and the character, Fisher Willow, a young wom- Expected to generate additional in- Rock River Foundation, the festival is an struggling to find her voice and try- terest and intensity during the confer- free and open to the public. Reservations ing to understand how to connect with ence are interactions of scholars and are required for food events. For festival someone she loves. “I related to Fisher’s actors participating in panel discussions updates, visit www.coahomacc.edu/twil- call for understanding,” she says. and presenting readings from Williams liams or telephone Coahoma’s Public Markell says she realized she need- plays that continue to explore influ- Relations Department: 662-621-4157. ed a cast of “thoroughbreds” to handle ences of the Mississippi Delta on his the unique rhythm and musicality of works. Interesting also will be the mea- Panny Flautt Mayfield

Page 16 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Reading the South

Hollywood’s Tennessee: The sensational and challenging proper- Williams Films and Postwar ties attractive.” America. When in 1950 The Glass Menagerie was adapted for the screen and direct- By R. Barton Palmer ed by Irving Rapper, Williams’s career and William Robert developed in a new direction as he Bray. Austin: University of dealt with the concept of “the wom- Texas Press, 2009. 353 pag- an’s picture,” sometimes thought of as es. $30.00 cloth. the “weepie.” Barton and Bray deal with this phenomenon in chapter Deserving of “box office success,” 2, asking if the changes made to the Hollywood’s Tennessee: The Williams play’s original form “reflect in some Films and Postwar America concerns ways the lessons about Hollywood itself with the 15 Hollywood films, dramaturgy and generic conventions all of which are commercially pro- Williams surely absorbed both dur- duced plays except for one novella, ing his brief employment at MGM made “during roughly two decades and as an eager filmgoer during sev- of the early postwar era from 1950 eral decades of viewing the commer- to 1968.” The story that R. Barton cial product.” How did he handle Palmer and William Robert Bray are the imagined concluding triumph of most eager to tell evaluates the im- Laura Wingfield over her fears and pact that these films have had on her mother’s overly protective nature American culture. Maurice Yacowar’s ing survey of various archival mate- as the film complied to the strong Tennessee Williams and Film (1977) rial, including much previously unex- sense of uplift demanded by this fe- and Gene D. Phillips’s The Films of amined correspondence, Palmer and male-focused genre? Tennessee Williams (1980) contrib- Bray are brilliantly successful in their Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on the ute significantly to an understanding quest. films ofStreetcar , Tattoo, and Baby of these important films by Williams; What was it about The Glass Doll and the challenges they faced however, neither book focuses on the Menagerie that breathed life into a by the “thematizing of sexuality” considerable influence these films moribund theater when it opened in a Hollywood under the heavy- have had “on the forms and history in Chicago in December 1944? How handed censorship of the Production of American filmmaking.” Inevitably, did A Streetcar Named Desire break Code Administration and its ally, the comparing the films with their dramat- with Broadway tradition in 1947 Catholic League of Decency. The dia- ic originals is essential to any critical by probing sexual desire and graph- lectical struggle that resulted was one discussion of these masterworks. In- ic violence? When Williams’s in- of “accommodation” and the bending terested in what lies behind the dif- ventiveness embraced the com- of the code until its eventual demise ferences between these two art forms, ic and the primitive in The Rose in 1968. In dealing with the rape of Palmer and Bray, “unapologetically Tattoo (1950), what was the criti- Blanche by Stanley in the Elia Kazan promote a consideration of the adap- cal response to its celebration of directed film of Streetcar (1951), how tation as a cultural artifact of inher- “Dionysian bawdiness”? By consid- did Williams and Kazan remain in- ent interest and value” as they “trace ering Williams’s career on Broadway transigent (even if in a passive aggres- how the texts of Tennessee Williams as well as his enthusiasm for film and sively manner) to the demands of the served the commercial cinema of the Hollywood, chapter 1 places his per- PCA? What was the outcome? What is 1950s and the 1960s, suiting its often sonal story within a “historical survey the difference between what Williams desperate hunger for particular kinds of the American cinema in the ear- termed “taste” and “vulgarity” when of materials. Alive with the facts of ly postwar period that identifies those considering the sexual liberation of various production histories thanks particular conditions then prevailing Tattoo as a film directed by Daniel to their thorough research and result- in the industry that made Williams’s Mann (1955)? Was “redeeming social

Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 17 Reading the South continued

significance” ever to be found in the of the featured works of Tennessee of his death [1983], had seen his star play? Why did Baby Doll, directed by Williams as being decisively influ- fall for almost two decades.” In the Kazan in 1956, achieve more notoriety ential in this genre’s most successful present volume, these texts appear in than any other Williams movie? How production, The Long, Hot Summer an appendix intended only as a refer- did its “white-trash aesthetic” place (1958), which proved to be an ad- ence guide for those interested. Cer- it in a class with Erskine Caldwell’s aptation of several William Faulkner tainly, these later adaptations are God’s Little Acre, and how did this go texts. Palmer and Bray are particu- worthy of a book-length study of over with the censors? Palmer and larly skillful at showing this film’s their own, and Palmer and Bray are Bray note that from the outset the “shameless borrowings from the the critics up to the task. movie Baby Doll was “a collaborative era’s most successful Broadway play- Indicating that space limitations confection.” wright,” Tennessee Williams. Here precluded treatment of much of “the Chapter 6 deals with three of we also find insightful critical consid- interesting, but critically irrelevant, Williams’s films that were significant- eration of Williams’s movies The Last material discovered while research- ly accommodated to one of 1950s of the Mobile Hot-Shots (1970, directing Hollywood’s Tennessee,” Palmer Hollywood’s most important genres, ed by Sidney Lumet), This Property Is and Bray allude to the existence “the family melodrama”: Cat on a Condemned (1966, directed by Sydney of masses of back-up gossip, amus- Hot Tin Roof, Sweet Bird of Youth, and Pollack), and The Fugitive Kind (1959, ing stories, and surprising trivia sur- Suddenly, Last Summer. In Richard directed by Sidney Lumet). rounding these 15 films. May this ar- Brooks’s film ofCat (1958), Maggie is Concluding chapter 8 consid- chival material, much of which is of made a more sympathetic character, ers how Williams’s properties “be- popular interest, eventually finally Brick endorses Maggie’s lie and finds came increasingly irrelevant in the find its way into print perhaps in a renewed masculinity in her trust, 1960’s” as Hollywood lost its tradi- less formal, more anecdotal volume. and Big Daddy heals Brick’s psychic tional audience and began to woo As they say in Hollywood of a film wound enabling Brick “to accept the younger and hipper viewers, who that has the potential to earn a for- Abrahamian demand to be fruitful were less likely to be pleased by what tune, Hollywood’s Tennessee “has and multiply.” In the filming ofSweet Williams had to offer. Here we find legs.” May it inspire a sequel. Bird (1962), Brooks, again the direc- discussions of Williams’s The Roman tor, turns Chance into a “man on the Spring of Mrs. Stone, Summer and Colby H. Kullman make” rather than promiscuous or a Smoke, Boom!, and The Night of the hustler, and Chance and Heavenly Iguana. Iguana is considered as per- remain “whole” at the end of the haps the most artistically successful movie, capable of having a family film made from his works. Barton and Memphis and the Paradox of life together now that they have suc- Bray explain that “as a sophisticated Place: Globalization in the cessfully cast off her evil father. Sam exploration of American modernity American South. Spiegel’s direction of the film of and its discontents, it anticipates the Suddenly (1959) turns Williams’s more celebrated works of that second By Wanda Rushing. New play into “a clear-visioned morality wave of auteurs, the directors of the Directions in Southern play, its finale both an acknowledg- Hollywood Renaissance in the late Studies Series. Chapel Hill: ment of horrifying evil in the world sixties and early seventies.” How fit- University of North Carolina and a demonstration that this evil ting an end to Hollywood’s Tennessee need not destroy the innocent.” Ob- is Maxine’s response to Shannon as Press, 2009. 272 pages. $59.95 viously, significant accommodations they descend to the beach, “I’ll get cloth, $21.95 paper. were made to make these “family you back up, baby. I’ll get you back melodramas” conform to Hollywood up.” Quoting Williams’s own words, Those who are planning a trip to ideas of what would be popular with Palmer and Bray celebrate Williams’s Memphis any time soon, grappling the public and sell seats. The chapter characters “who are learning to reach with theoretical questions of how concludes with a short consideration the point of utter despair and still go the “global” and “local” are related, of Williams’s Period of Adjustment past it with courage.” or just wanting to know more about (1962), asking whether or not this A companion volume by Palmer the social and cultural dynamics of film is “a harmless trifle.” and Bray is to be hoped for, because understudied Southern cities should Chapter 7 celebrates “the transfer- the films produced since the 1970s, read Wanda Rushing’s book Memphis ence of notable literary works of the as Palmer and Bray note in their pref- and the Paradox of Place: Globalization Southern Renaissance to the screen” ace, testify “to the still growing popu- in the American South. Those who do and underscores the significance larity of a playwright who, at the time read the book will see Memphis with

Page 18 Spring 2010 The Southern Register True Places Northern Money, Southern Land A Lowcountry Preacher, His Church, and His People The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Stanley F. Lanzano Chlotilde R. Martin A documentary photographer’s vivid study of the Edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius daily and spiritual lives of an African American An enchanting mix of gossip and history from the era coastal community when parts of the Old South got new owners 124 pp., 91 illus., cl, $39.95 272 pp., 81 illus., cl, $34.95

Yoknapatawpha, Images and Voices Learning the Valley A Photographic Study of Faulkner’s County Excursions into the Shenandoah Valley George G. Stewart John Leland Foreword by Robert W. Hamblin Meanderings through a storied Virginia region with a A haunting photographic guidebook to an imaginary look at its significance from prehistory to the present place synonymous with Southern fiction 144 pp., 8 illus., cl, $24.95 120 pp., 84 illus., cl, $49.95; pb, $24.95 Flannery O’Connor, Hermit Novelist Uptown/Downtown in Old Charleston With a New Preface by the Author Sketches and Stories Richard Giannone Louis D. Rubin, Jr. A compelling study of O’Connor’s fiction as illuminated A series of briskly paced renderings of the Holy City’s by the teaching of the desert monastics dual identities, written by an acclaimed native son 312 pp., pb, $29.95 128 pp., cl, $29.95 New in paper City of the Silent The Southern State of Mind The Charlestonians of Magnolia Cemetery Edited by Jan Nordby Gretlund Ted Ashton Phillips, Jr. Rich insights into Southern life, letters, and culture Foreword by Josephine Humphreys in the new millennium Afterword by Alice McPherson Phillips 256 pp., pb, $24.95 A guide to more than two hundred of the most famous, infamous, and influential individuals now interred in Understanding Tim Gautreaux the iconic Charleston landmark Margaret Donovan Bauer 216 pp., 46 illus., cl, $39.95 An introduction to the works of a Cajun writer who finds optimism in his blue-collar tales 272 pp., cl, $39.95

800.768.2500 www.uscpress.com Reading the South continued

new eyes. As I was reading, I found al flows (immigration, slavery, dein- myself making a mental list of places dustrialization, et cetera). This book or events in Memphis that I wanted captures the “dynamic tensions be- to visit again (or for the first time): tween the global and the local in a The acres of “intermodal shipping specific urban location” and calls for containers” resting on trucking rigs our careful attention to place and or delivered by train to the Frank C. place building. Rushing writes that Pigeon Industrial Park or the huge “We can think of ‘place’ as unique- FedEx warehouses near the airport— ly situated in networks of global re- reminders of Memphis’s current (and lations and cultural flows, as well as historical) role as a critical hub for embedded in accumulated local his- the transportation and distribution tory and culture.” of goods; the parade route and mid- Each chapter exposes the reader to way for the Memphis Kemet Jubilee an in-depth study of the paradox of (formerly known as Cotton Maker’s place in Memphis. Rushing explores Jubilee) organized in recognition of the dynamic process involved in the African American’s exclusion from creation and protest of two unique the white Carnival Memphis (for- sites of Memphis commemoration: merly known as Cotton Carnival)— the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue both rituals designed to enhance civ- in Memphis’s Forrest Park (a symbol ic participation and community en- of place, but it is also written in an of the Lost Cause) and the National gagement, but also reflections of the accessible style and will be tempting Civil Rights Museum housed at the “perpetuation and contestation of so- to Memphis history buffs, or anyone Lorraine Hotel, the infamous site of cial power”; a stroll down the recent- interested in knowing more about Martin Luther King’s assassination. ly redeveloped Beale Street trying to Southern cities. Rushing explains The paradox is that “objects of com- imagine the “old” Beale street with that she uses a case study method in memoration are intended to convey its mixture of saloons, pool halls, gro- order to adequately capture the “nar- authority, stability, and permanence, cery stores, bordellos, a bank, doc- rative power and human interest” but they serve as reminders of dis- tors’ and dentists’ offices, churches— that is part and parcel of Memphis’s ruptions, discontinuities, and divi- all part of a “commercial and cultur- dynamic history. It is fair to say that sions.” She examines the class and al center and the unofficial capital of she does this very well. race dynamics surrounding “the cre- Black America” in the first half of the While there are many authors try- ation, development, and preserva- 20th century; a visit to the Peabody ing to tackle the complexities of glo- tion” of Overton Park as they relate Hotel knowing now that it went out balization and its relationship to our to recent efforts to develop Shelby of business in 1975 and was sold at daily lives, the resulting literature is Farms. She provides a fascinating auction for only $75,000, reopened often mired in unsatisfying abstrac- overview of the economic history of in 1981, and recently host to a his- tions and generalizations. This book Memphis from the time that “Cotton toric 2006 meeting between Chinese is not. In the introductory chapter, was King,” through deindustrializa- officials, Memphis cotton merchants, Rushing provides a very helpful over- tion, to its current postindustrial re- and FedEx officials working out the view of the pitfalls of thinking about development and recovery. And, of details of the sale and delivery of U.S. the South as a regional “exception” course, Rushing explores Memphis as cotton to China; or a walk around in the U.S. untouched by larger pro- a site of unique cultural innovation, Overton Park with the knowledge cesses of globalization or through the especially in regards to blues, rock that a highway construction project opposite kind of lens that suggests and roll, and soul music. In addition, nearly wiped out this old growth for- that global forces result in the ho- she introduces us to organizations est and neighborhood and that over mogenization of local places and dy- and festivals (Carnival Memphis and the years shifting claims from a va- namics, making everything the same. Kemet Jubilee) that have promoted riety of groups have worked to save Instead, she draws out the complex- commerce, civic participation, and “our park.” ity of the meaning of place as it shifts celebration while also solidifying This is an academic book in- over time in the face of unique dis- race, class, and gender divisions in formed by a sociological perspective ruptions (such the yellow fever epi- the Memphis community. that makes sophisticated arguments demic in the 1870s or the sanitation Memphis and the Paradox of Place: about the relationship between the workers’ strike in 1968) and in rela- Globalization in the American South global and local and the importance tion to global economic and cultur- leaves the reader with a range of con-

Page 20 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Reading the South continued

crete and complex examples of the With camera in hand, Sam flits ways that global processes and his- through the novel trying to sort torical change are played out in spe- out how she is a part of what’s hap- cific local contexts. Other scholars pening in Jackson during 1962 and interested in studying globalization, 1963. She’s confused by the role the South, or the intersections be- the Thomases’ black housekeeper, tween the two would do well to fol- Willa Mae, must play when the two low Rushing’s lead and prioritize the go shopping in town, her school- importance of a sociological under- teachers encourage their students standing of “place” in their work. “not to think so hard” about things, she’s afraid of rumblings from a new Kirsten Dellinger “country club KKK” known as the Citizens’ Council and the lists of people they watch, she’s jealous of her mostly well-off classmates, particu- Sources of Light. larly the most popular girl at school (and Stone’s sister), Mary Alice, who By Margaret McMullan. wears a bra and doesn’t “even try to New York: Houghton Mifflin hide the outlines the straps made.” Harcourt, 2010. 240 pages, And then there’s Stone himself. One $15.00 cloth. lips,” and “a strong man’s neck, not day they’re kissing in the hallway and a boy’s neck at all.” Unfortunately, then practically the very next, Sam Samantha “Sam” Thomas is 14 years Sam and her mother quickly discov- sees Stone and his father protesting a old when she moves to Jackson, er that Stone’s parents do not share black voter registration in McComb, Mississippi, with her mother in the their same open-mindedness when and Mr. McLemore beating a black summer of 1962. A self-proclaimed it comes to the race issue, and after woman outside a drugstore in down- Army brat, Sam is used to celebrating Martha Thomas gives an art lecture town Jackson during a sit-in riot. Sam around the country every few years, at the all-black Tougaloo College in can’t quite decide what side Stone is but this move is more permanent: it town (her picture splashed across the on (it’s difficult for the reader to de- follows the death of her father, who front page of the Jackson Clarion- cide, as well), and it will take a vi- was killed in action in Vietnam. Her Ledger the next day), Sam and her olent act caught on film that nearly mother, Martha, takes a position mother are officially branded as agi- crumbles Sam and her mother’s world teaching art history in a local col- tators and become victims of threats for her to make that choice. lege (those of us familiar with Jackson and graffiti. Sources of Light is a book that will might assume this to be Millsaps), and Early in the novel, Sam’s moth- introduce young readers to the civil the two tuck themselves into a leafy er befriends Perry Walker, a former rights movement in a way history les- subdivision in an attempt to get on war photographer for Life magazine sons just can’t: through the mind and with their lives minus a father and a and photography instructor at her heart of an extraordinary teenage husband. But a quiet existence is out college, who is white but lives in an girl who happens to brush up against of the question, what with the deaf- all-black part of Jackson and came perhaps the most important part of ening buzz of cicadas making it “near- to Mississippi originally to encour- Mississippi’s past. By reading Sam ly impossible to roller-skate, climb a age black people to register to vote. Thomas’s experiences in Jackson tree, or generally do anything a per- Though Sam at first resists his at- during 1962 and 1963, young people son would want to do outside.” tempts at friendship (and courtship of can see, through her eyes and camera At her high school, Sam is an out- her mother), Perry gives Sam a cam- lens, the violence and the fear that cast dressed in her cousin’s tatty hand- era and teaches her about finding the became a daily part of life for adults, me-downs, and her teacher, Miss sources of light. “A person can shoot yes, but especially for children. Sam’s Jenkins (“old and skinny, with peach from her head,” Perry tells her, “and story comes at a time when those fuzz hairs on her upper lip”), takes an she can shoot from the heart. The who witnessed the movement first- almost instant disliking to her new best pictures are both.” From that hand are growing older and many of pupil. However, it’s only a matter of point on, Sam manages to hide be- the stories might be lost unless they time before she meets the boy of her hind her camera, the way Perry tells are told immediately. dreams, Stone McLemore, two years her to. Hiding is something Sam un- I feel like it’s fair to say that I do older with a driver’s license, “Elvis derstands. “This I liked. This I got.” have one problem with Sources of

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 21 Reading the South continued

Light. In the end, when the cicadas ous brother Frank is the only other have started their chirping again, male narrator; five voices are wom- Sam and her mother have to leave en’s, ranging from the brothers’ wives Mississippi for good: Martha Thomas to Laurice, who helps run the office finds a position at a university in at the Wingate lumberyard. While Boston when she doesn’t receive Harriet Wingate’s monologue is set tenure at the Jackson college, and, just a week after her husband Jason’s in the book’s final chapter, we learn funeral, Laurice narrates the seventh that the adult Samantha Thomas segment a few years after the sui- winds up a professional photogra- cide and two years after the grieving pher in Chicago. It’s a shame that Harriet’s death from a sudden illness. for Mississippi children reading this Jason Wingate’s three children, book, a happy ending means leaving grown to adulthood, are at the heart Mississippi—a place that could real- of the novel. The seven chapters of ly use their help. For those of us who “Part Two: The Blind Princess” be- have grown up here and love it here gin with “November, 1981” and end but desire a better Mississippi some- with “Curtain Call.” The section ti- day, my hope is that kids like Sam tle alludes to a Tchaikovsky opera Thomas would stick around and con- princess whose father won’t allow his tinue to fight the good fight. subjects to mention the girl’s blind- ness; Jason Wingate told the story to Sally Cassady Lyon could help to explain Faulknerian Ellen when she was a little girl with echoes in the elaborate structure the nickname Princess. Between and the tragic plot of Jason Wingate’s November of 1981 and the follow- Legacies. Even though Wingate’s ing September, Ellen finishes writ- Jason Wingate’s Legacies: A daughter says she’d rather be called ing a play titled Family Circle and Novel. Texan than Southern, Broderick’s sees it produced in Philadelphia and Green Glade, Texas—with its family New York. Appropriately, the open- By John C. Broderick. New dysfunction, sexual passion, threat- ing pages of Part Two sound like stage York: Vantage Press, 2009. 324 ened landscape, and fatal greed— directions, starting with the lines: pages. $24.50 cloth. could be right down the road from “Saturday evening in Green Glade. Jefferson, Mississippi. There’s even a A large room in a large house, com- Rich in allusions to Shakespeare, Confederate officer in Mrs. Wingate’s fortably if casually furnished.” The Keats, and Mark Twain, Jason Wingate’s family tree. rest of Part Two is related in the past Legacies reflects the author’s long and The novel’s most striking stylistic tense from a third-person omniscient varied career as an English profes- feature is its division into three parts, point-of-view, a notable contrast to sor, poet, scholar, and senior officer each with a different organizing prin- the first-person narratives of Part at the Library of Congress. John C. ciple and a new focus of attention. One. Ellen Wingate tells her older Broderick, who died in Maryland this The seven segments of “Part One: brother Abner and younger broth- January, was a specialist in Emerson, Jason Wingate” are narrated by a se- er Mark that she originally intend- Thoreau, and other early American ries of townspeople, closely resem- ed to glorify their father (she was his writers; but his correspondence with bling Faulkner’s multiple perspectives favorite child), but she changed his Willie Morris can be found in the in As I Lay Dying. Six of Broderick’s character into an “absent” and “very University of Mississippi’s library speakers are related by blood or mar- unsympathetic one” as she revised archives, and William Faulkner’s riage, and their monologues begin the manuscript. Abner’s epiphany Yoknapatawpha saga has more than to reveal the terrible legacy of Jason that the daughter in the play seems one connection with Broderick’s sin- Wingate’s 1966 suicide (shades of to love her older brother leads to a gle novel, published at the end of his Quentin Compson in Faulkner’s The startling confession by Ellen and, productive life. Sound and the Fury). The first seg- eventually, a surprising marriage for Broderick was born in Memphis and ment, headed “Jason,” explains in his Abner. No wonder the actor Todd graduated in 1948 from Southwestern own words why the Harvard graduate sees “a touch of Tennessee Williams” (now Rhodes College); this prox- and successful banker-businessman in Family Circle. imity to Mississippi shortly before poisons himself because of his broth- Jason Wingate’s Legacies concludes Faulkner’s Nobel Prize recognition er’s betrayal. Interestingly, the devi- with “Part Three: Wingate, Texas,”

Page 22 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Reading the South continued University Press of MississiPPi Celebrating 40 Years whose title indicates Frank Wingate’s plan to re- name Green Glade as a monument to his Texas-sized Lost Churches of ambitions. This brief section, however, opens with a long Associated Press obituary on Frank’s death Mississippi By RichaRd J. cawthon at 63, datelined “GREEN GLADE, TEXAS. April A richly illustrated history of more than 23.” Broderick’s sly allusion to Shakespeare’s birth- one hundred structures lost to disaster, day affirms that the real legacy in the novel belongs demolition, or abandonment to Frank’s book-loving victim Jason. Although Vice $35 hardback; $35 Ebook President George Bush and evangelist Billy Graham are expected to attend the funeral, their failure to appear suggests that Frank’s influence is already fading. Fittingly, the heartless Frank dies of a heart attack in the bank he stole from Jason. In 1988, six years af- Under Surge, Under Siege ter the events of Part Two, Jason’s children have left The Odyssey Of Bay sT. LOuis Texas and become a world-famous playwright, a popu- and KaTrina By Ellis andERson lar actor, and—even more unexpectedly—a husband A survivor’s tale of the hurricane’s in distant California. Only the happily married Abner destruction and a community’s returns for their uncle’s funeral; he tells Frank’s long- enduring determination suffering wife Bess about his love and courtship, a story $25 hardback; $25 Ebook that rivals the dramatic plot of Ellen’s Family Circle. Like the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Horton Foote, who died in 2009, John C. Broderick memori- Losing Ground alizes the complications of 20th-century family life in idenTiTy and Land LOss small-town Texas. On the first page of Jason Wingate’s in COasTaL LOuisiana Legacies, the title character observes that Hamlet is By david M. BuRlEy “all about identity” and that Shakespeare’s “momen- FoREwoRd By saRa cRosBy tous questions” are “far beyond my petty concerns.” aFtERwoRd By t. MayhEaRt daRdaR Broderick makes these concerns paramount in his and thoMas daRdaR novel. Green Glade, Texas, could be down the road How residents of a changing coastline from Faulkner’s Jefferson; but it is also uncomfortably reconcile sense of place with the close to Hamlet’s troubled kingdom. Gulf’s encroachment $40 printed casebinding; $40 Ebook Joan Wylie Hall Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi LOve and arT aT shearwaTer By chRistophER MauRER with MaRía EstRElla iglEsias The story of Shearwater Pottery and the Mark Your Calendars! Anderson family’s artful enterprise $25 paperback; $25 Ebook March 20–24, 2011 8th Mississippi Delta Literary Tour Down on the Batture Based in Greenwood By olivER a. houck An extended meditation on a lively Visits to Indianola, Greenville, Clarksdale slip of wilderness abutting the Mississippi River $25 hardback; $25 Ebook March 24–26, 2011 18th Oxford Conference for the Book

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The Southern Register SpringSouthern 2010 RegisterSpring10.indd 1 Page4/29/10 23 12:17 PM The NEWSouthern Encyclopedia Foodways of Southern Register Culture Southern Foodways Register Sponsored by THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE at the University of Mississippi Published by THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS Chapel Hill

CHARLES REAGAN WILSON The Center for the Study of Southern Culture is currently in the process of producing General Editor The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, consisting of new material based on recent scholarship and updated material ﬁ rst published in the Encyclopedia Volume 1, Religion. of Southern Culture. The New Encyclopedia is being released as a series of clothbound and paperback volumes, making each individual section of the original Samuel S. Hill, editor. edition a handy, one-volume guide for those who are interested in a particular HB101.....$39.95 Friends....$35.96 subject, as well as making the volumes more accessible for classroom study. The PG102.....$19.95 Friends....$17.96 entire collection will contain 24 volumes in all. CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

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“I opened the safe, took a biscuit off a plate, and punched a hole in it with my finger. Then, with a jar of cane syrup, I poured the hole full, waited for it to soak in good, and then poured again.” –Harry Crews, A Childhood: The Biography of a Place

Cornbread Nation 5 on Sale Film Festival at a Bookstore Near You! The fifth volume in this pop- Acceptances ular series from the Southern Foodways Alliance spans the and Honors food cultures of the South. The SFA has been making short Cornbread Nation 5, edited by documentaries for seven years now. accomplished writer Fred W. Only recently have Joe York and Sauceman, celebrates food and Andy Harper, our colleagues at the the ways in which it forges un- Media and Documentary Projects expected relationships between Center here at the University of people and places. In this col- Mississippi, been regularly submit- lection of more than 70 essays ting those films to festivals and and poems, we read about the competitions. food that provides nourish- Over the last six month, the ment as well as a sense of com- SFA film program has made up for munity and shared history. lost time. Cud, Joe York’s portrait Essays examine Nashville’s of a Georgia cattleman, underwrit- obsession with hot chicken ten by Whole Foods, was an offi- and the South’s passion for cial selection at the Reel Earth congealed foods. There are Film Festival in Wellington, New stories of cooks frying green Zealand; the Atlanta Film Festival; tomatoes over campfires in and the Going Green Film Festival the Cumberland Mountains in Beverly Hills, California. of Tennessee and bakers turn- Smokes & Ears, York’s homage ing out tea cakes for Easter in to the Big Apple Inn of Jackson, Louisiana. Mississippi, has also been getting In a chapter on immi- good play. That film, commissioned grant cooking, we visit the by the Fertel Foundation, was an Mississippi Delta where a Chinese family fries pork rinds in official selection at the Tupelo Film a wok and a Lebanese restaurant serves baklava alongside coconut cream pie. Alan Festival in Tupelo, Mississippi, and Deutschman, a self-described “Jewish Yankee,” chronicles his search for the perfect the Crossroads Film Festival in country ham. Barbara Kingsolver extols on the joys of eating sustainably. Jackson, Mississippi. At Crossroads, Sara Roahen writes a veritable love letter to the venerable New Orleans Sazerac. York won the Ruma Award, for most Kevin Young delights with his “Ode to Chicken,” and Donna Tartt extols the virtues promising Mississippi filmmaker. of bourbon. Cornbread Nation 5 is a feast, and if you’re not hungry or thirsty when Smokes & Ears will play on June you pick up this book, you will be when you put it down. 26 as an official selection of the Editor Fred W. Sauceman is an associate professor of Appalachian Studies at East New York Food Film Festival. Tennessee State University. He is the author of four books, including the three-volume series The Place Setting, which explores Appalachian foodways. He directed and produced the documentary A Red Hot Dog Digest. Sauceman’s Food with Fred appears monthly on WJHL-TV, the CBS affiliate in Johnson City, Tennessee. SFA Internships in Oral History

True to its mission, the Southern addition to welcoming students from Luster, a graduate student in Heritage Foodways Alli-ance is as committed to other institutions, the SFA is commit- Studies at Arkansas State University, teaching as it is to documenting. In an ting to making one in-house intern- is the recipient of this year’s guided in- effort to mentor students in the field of ship position available each year for a ternship. Rachel will be collecting bar- oral history and initiate collaborations, Southern Studies graduate student in becue interviews in Arkansas for the the SFA has established an internship an effort to establish an academic part- SFA’s Southern BBQ Trail. program oral history. A wonderful by- nership with the Center for the Study Two SFA Greenhouse micro grants product of these collaborations will, of Southern Culture, where the SFA is were awarded this spring, as well. The of course, be the addition of new ma- headquartered. The SFA awarded two SFA Greenhouse is a small-budget ini- terial to the SFA’s permanentJoe archive. York in-house internships this year. Jung tiative geared to assist collectors in doc- Through these collaborations, as well as “Kevin” Kim, an undergraduate student umenting food stories in their local ar- its regular schedule of collecting field- in history at Swarthmore College, and eas. Rachel Bailey of Atlanta will be pro- work, the SFA looks forward to collect- Meghan Leonard, a graduate student in ducing a multimedia piece on Atlanta’s ing its 500th oral history interview this Southern Studies at the University of Buford Highway to premier just prior to year. Mississippi, will both be collecting oral this summer’s field trip to Atlanta, June Two types of internships will be of- histories for the SFA this summer. 24 through 26, which will celebrate the fered annually: in-house and guided. The guided internship is geared to- Global South. Emily Wallace of Chapel The in-house internship is intended wards students who already have ex- Hill, North Carolina, is writing a pa- for students with little or no experience perience in the field of oral history. per on the refrigerated salads industry in conducting fieldwork. In-house in- Individuals are invited to submit pro- with a focus on pimento cheese, which terns are invited to spend one to two posals to conduct oral history projects will be presented at the SFA’s 2011 weeks in Oxford working alongside anywhere in the South. Amy Evans symposium, the theme of which is the the SFA’s oral historian, Amy Evans Streeter will mentor the interns from Vegetable South. Streeter, to process existing materials afar, guiding them through SFA meth- For more information, please visit and conduct their own interviews. In ods and practices. Rachel Reynolds- www.southernfoodways.org. Mike Luster Mitch Stauts Sam Sneed Jung “Kevin” Kim

Meghan Leonard Rachel Reynolds-Luster

SFA Calendar Corinne Haxton Pavlovic al barbecue culture, since the begin- Corridor. With expert Southern Foodways ning. We’re proud to partner with the Sherpas in the lead, we’ll explore the strip good folks at Union Square Hospitality malls and reconfigured fast food bunkers Group, prouder still to produce a film where intrepid eaters feast on some of on barbecue culture each year, one that the region’s best (Chinese) barbecue and USHG underwrites and we premier on (Salvadoran) fried chicken. We’ll eat a the streets of New York City. Deep South dim sum lunch at Abattoir and explore Mexican cookery with Eddie Hernandez of Taqueria del Sol. Tickets are on sale now.

Potlikker NYC SFA 500: A Documentary June 11 Celebration Hill Country Barbecue Market September 26, 2010 1–5 p.m. New York City Blue Smoke and Jazz Standard New York City Join John Currence, of City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi; Ashley Christensen, Join SFA Oral Historian Amy Evans of Poole’s Diner in Raleigh, North Streeter and a host of SFA oral history Carolina; and Elizabeth Karmel, of Hill subjects to celebrate the collection of Country Barbecue in New York City, for our 500th Oral History and the making an evening of haute barbecue, cold beer, of the SFA’s 25th film. Look for more de- and a showing of the newest Joe York tails soon at www.southernfoodways.org. film, Cut, Chop, Cook, underwritten by Union Square Hospitality Group, an 13th Southern Foodways Symposium homage to Scott’s BBQ in Hemmingway, October 21–22, Greenwood, South Carolina. Summer Field Trip Mississippi June 24–26 October 21–24, Oxford, Mississippi Big Apple Barbecue Block Party Atlanta, Georgia June 12–13 Exploring the Global South along Save the date, and join us in Mississippi, Madison Park, New York City the Buford Highway International where we’ll continue our examination Corridor of the Global South. The SFA has been a part of this event, a grand exposition of American region- Travel the Buford Highway International

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, VISIT US AT OUR WEB SITE: www.southernfoodways.org or call Julie Pickett at 662.915.5993 or via e-mail at [email protected] Mississippi Delta Literary Tour Portfolio

Each year intrepid literary travelers from across the U.S. gather in the Mississippi Delta to explore the region’s writers, books, food, and lore. This year’s Mississippi Delta Literary Tour found 20 book-loving explorers roaming the Delta country- side in search of uncommon adventure. Their singular experience took them from Greenwood to Yazoo City to Greenville to Clarksdale, and all points in between. Jimmy Thomas Jimmy Thomas Proprietor of TurnRow Book Company, Jamie Kornegay, welcomes the group. Each year the tour begins in this Delta bookstore in downtown Greenwood.

Delta Tour participants gather at the entrance of the B. S. Ricks Memorial Library, where they heard author Gerry Helferich’s talk on Yazoo City writers, JoAnne Prichard Morris’s on Willie Morris, and Teresa Nicholas’s on Henry Herschel Brickell. Nicholas Basbanes Nicholas Basbanes Jimmy Thomas Anne Ford from Atlanta, Georgia, and Tim Kalich, editor of the Greenwood Commonwealth, discuss the future of Delta newspapers. Kalich, along with Jim Abbott, former editor of the Indianola Enterprise-Tocsin, spoke to the tour group on Delta newspapers and history.

(above) Yazoo City tour guide and host Sam Olden is pictured at the Sam B. Olden Historical Museum of the Yazoo Historical Society. The museum provides a historical account of Yazoo County and Yazoo City.

(left) Participants view the Henry Herschel Brickell Memorial/Yazoo Literary Walkway, which memorializes This unique headstone in Yazoo City’s the famous Yazoo City literary critic and Glenwood Cemetery marks the final book reviewer as well as dozens of other resting place of writer Willie Morris. writers that the small Delta town has pro-

Jimmy Thomas duced. The walkway opened only a week before the tour’s visit.

Page 28 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Jimmy Thomas Jimmy Thomas Artists Bill Dunlap, Maggie Dunlap, and Linda Burgess discuss their Tour organizer, Jimmy Thomas, poses with a bust of Jim art at an opening reception at the recently opened Gallery Point Henson and Kermit the Frog in the children’s room at the Leflore in Greenwood. Bill Dunlap was raised in Mississippi, and the William Alexander Percy Memorial Library in Greenville. Delta landscape is often the subject of his work. Henson, the creator of Kermit the Frog and other famous Muppets, was born in the Greenville and was raised in nearby Leland. Nicholas Basbanes Nicholas Basbanes The group stopped at the B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in the bluesman’s childhood hometown of Indianola. Since opening in 2008, it has become one of the state’s premier museums. King re- Each year, McCormick Book Inn in Greenville hosts the turns every summer to Indianola to play a free concert. Mississippi Delta Literary Tour. Storeowners Mary Dayle McCormick (pictured) and Hugh McCormick have been selling books to readers across the Delta since they opened the store in 1965.

The tour, en route to Clarksdale and guided by Luther Brown and Henry Outlaw from Delta State University, stop at Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church to see one of the reported graves of the “King of the Delta Blues,” Robert Johnson. The grave here at Little Zion is the musician’s most likely final resting place, although there are three possible sites. Nicholas Basbanes

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 29 17th Oxford Conference for the Book Portfolio J. Bingo Gunter

Nicholas A. Basbanes, the author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books and six other volumes that have established him as the leading authority of books about books, presented the keynote address at (from left) Claiborne Barksdale of the Barksdale Reading Institute, Young Authors Fair the J. D. Williams Library. “Common novelists Watt Key (9th grade) and Ingrid Law (5th grade), and moderator Elaine Scott Bond: A World of Books and Book discuss readers and reading during the “Endangered Species” panel. People” was his title.

Among the fiction writers who presented readings at the conference were (from left) E. Ethelbert Miller (above), in a session Steven Amsterdam (Things We Didn’t See Coming), John Brandon (Arkansas), and Donna with poets Beth Ann Fennelly and Mark Hemans (River Woman). Jarman, presented readings in celebration of National Poetry Month. Miller also gave Jamison Hollister a presentation on “The Craft of Writing the Political Poem” at the Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library.

(right) Discussing the topic “Writing about Politics” are, from left, Todd S. Purdum, national editor of Vanity Fair and former New York Times correspondent; Curtis Wilkie, member of the journalism faculty at the University of Mississippi; and Hendrik Hertzberg, editor and writer for the New Yorker and author of Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966–2004 and ¡Obamanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era.

Page 30 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Jamison Hollister The 17th Oxford Conference for the Book was sponsored by the University of Mississippi, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Della Davidson Elementary School PTA, Mississippi Library Commission, Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance, Southern Literary Trails, and Square Books. The conference was par- tially funded by the University of (from left) Ted Ownby, director of the Center, talked with two authors of memoirs that Mississippi, a contribution from discuss the issue of race within their own families: Bliss Broyard (One Drop) and Ralph the R&B Feder Foundation for the Eubanks (The House at the End of the Road). Beaux Arts, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, “Teaching Barry the Southern Arts Federation, the Hannah” panelists were Mississippi Humanities Council, (from left) Jay Watson, the Oxford Tourism Council, the Jamison Hollister Daniel E. Williams, John Parrish Peede, and Lafayette Oxford Foundation for Donald Kartiganer. Tomorrow, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. Jamison Hollister Jamison Hollister

The “Barry Hannah as Writer” panel featured comments by (from left) Wells Tower, Amy Hundley, William Harrison, Mark “Barry Hannah as Teacher,” moderated by fiction writer Tom Richard, and Darcey Steinke. Brad Watson (not pictured) also Franklin (far left), heard from three of Hannah’s former cre- spoke during the session. ative writing students: (from left) authors Cynthia Shearer, Jonathan Miles, and Anne Rapp.

“The University Press of Mississippi at 40 Years” was the top- Bruce Newman ic for seven panelists—former staff members JoAnne Prichard Morris and Seetha Srinivasan; current staff members John Langston and Leila Salisbury; and scholars Noel Polk and Peggy Whitman Prenshaw. As part of its anniversary festivities, the Press hosted a picnic at noon on Saturday and celebrated with cake and toasts during a party of Off Square Books that evening. Pictured here are, from left, Square Books owner Richard Howorth with three members of the Press staff: John Langston (art director), Leila Salisbury (director), and Steve Chancellor Daniel Jones (left) introduced John Yates (marketing Grisham, who talked about “Literary Oxford” at the director). conference. Clint Kimberling

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 31 Life Never Touched Him ’til the First Monday in March

I cannot recall a literary conference in- J. Bingo Gunter tersected by the funeral of its honor- ee, but such was the case for the 17th Oxford Conference on the Book (March 4–6, 2010) dedicated to Barry Hannah. By all accounts, Barry left this world quietly and gently, at home on Monday March 1st. Family, friends, scholars, students, peers, admirers, and the genu- inely heartbroken and bereaved gathered for the conference’s ubiquitous panel discussions with titles like “Teaching Barry Hannah,” “Barry Hannah as Writer,” “Barry Hannah as Teacher,” and “Literary Oxford.” (Oh, for that Golden Age when Willie Morris, John Grisham, Larry Brown, and Barry might all be sighted on the Square in a single day!) I had organized a panel called “Survivors Barry Hannah’s classmates and fellow rabble-rousers tell tales about of Geronimo Rex” with no thought as to their friend during the “Surviving Geronimo Rex” panel. From left, Harry the irony that title would come to carry. C. “Joe” Brown, John Quisenberry, Horace Newcomb, Peggy Whitman

Clinton High School’s yearbook The Arrow , 1960 Prenshaw, Bill Dunlap, Wyatt Newman, and Noel Polk.

Barry’s much celebrated first novel, the sounds, smells, speech patterns, and Geronimo Rex, became a manifesto for dark humor of our great, mutual place, our generation who came of age in mid- as well as the hypocrisy, mendacity, and 20th century Mississippi, especially those wrong headedness that emanated from of us who attended, or were attended to the pulpits, the press, and politicians by that bastion of self-discipline and of the time. He told his story using the moral certitude, Mississippi College. most unexpected and thrilling combina- In one slim volume, Barry captured tions of common nouns, verbs, and ad-

Courtesy Harry C. “Joe” Brown jectives. For a moment Barry seemed to literally give the English language a new lease on life. There was hope for us all. Three of the four people on Geronimo Rex’s dedication page came to Oxford. Horace Newcomb, Harry “Joe” Brown, and Wyatt Newman were joined by Peggy Prenshaw, John Quisenberry, and Noel Polk—all survivors of the early Clinton, Mississippi, days, Mississippi College, and lifelong friendships with Barry Hannah. On that very day an unusually cold, hard, and cruel winter subsided. Saturday was spring’s first day. On our panel a flowering of memory and rec- ollection came forth. The floodgates opened wide with profuse testimony and hilarious anecdote. This was the stuff of Barry fiction. There was much laughter Barry Hannah, Most Musical, 1960 Harry C. “Joe” Brown – Beat Night Joe and the occasional tear. His spirit, if not rested, was certainly palpable. All rose

Page 32 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Clinton High School’s yearbook The Arrow , 1960 Harry C. “Joe” Brown

Barry Hannah with “Vanessa,” Joe Brown’s “midlife crisis” Jaguar XK-150

south and west in the old part called St. Peter’s. In between, there are fine and good souls too numerous to name. Dick Prenshaw and Barry Hannah, 1960 I have never associated, in either this life or the next, Barry Hannah with py- romania. (He just set the literary world to the occasion. Only Barry’s seat at the said, “I think Geronimo Rex may be the on fire.) But the evening of his burial, a table went empty. only book of mine you’ve read, Bill.” huge conflagration erupted just off the Working on this project had given I assured him it wasn’t but that I had Square. The old Gin, one of Literary me welcome cause to be more in con- read it half a dozen times and it was the Oxford’s favorite but now defunct wa- tact with Barry than usual. At Big Bad only book of his I lived by. tering holes, was busy burning itself Breakfast in October he was not well, “I’ll be sure to take all my medicine,” down. The place was empty and no one but his humor was high and enthusiasm he said. was hurt. A crowd gathered, silent and for the conference real. “Not only that,” I told him, “but you respectful. It all seemed appropriately I called in late February to remind might want to fill your oxygen tank symbolic—a funeral pyre worthy of a that we fully expected him to be on the with nitrous oxide” because there was Norse god or Greek hero. panel. He said, “Sure, but in the back- sure to be some serious laughing come As fire danced against the night sky ground. I want others to shine.” I assured Saturday the 6th of March. and embers flew heavenward, it oc- him that he best be there in the inter- And that was the last sound I ever curred to me to ask—what would est of self-defense. “These folks know heard from Barry Hannah. Deep, rich, Geronimo do? What would have been the truth,” I said, “and if we do our job healthy laughter followed by “Okay, his parting shot? we’ll put the lie to the received wisdom Bill. I’ll be there.” As of this writing, no cause for the that Barry Hannah is some kind of cre- Barry is buried in the northeast- fire has been determined. ative genius. Hell, all that business real- ern most corner of Oxford’s Memorial I have come to believe Barry Hannah’s ly happened! You just wrote it down!” Cemetery. His grave, like the life he soul is finally at peace. Barry found this quite amusing and lived, is out on the edge. William Faulkner is there as well, back to the William Dunlap Clinton High School’s yearbook The Arrow , 1960 Clinton High School’s yearbook The Arrow , 1960 Clinton High School’s yearbook The Arrow , 1959

Horace Newcomb John Quisenberry Wyatt Newman

The Southern Register Spring 2010 Page 33

Southern Culture Catalog

Faulkner’s Mississippi: Land into Civil Rights in the Delta Legend Journalist Curtis Wilkie in conversa- Transforms the fiction of William tion with Patti Carr Black, Emmett Faulkner’s mythical Jefferson and Till’s cousin Wheeler Parker, Sumner Yoknapatawpha into the reality of residents Frank Mitchener and Betty Oxford and Lafayette County, and Bill Pearson, Henry Outlaw of the Mississippi, with quotations from Delta Center for Culture and Learning Faulkner’s writings correlated with at Delta State University, and former appropriate scenes. The first motion Mississippi governor William F. Winter. pictures inside Faulkner’s home are ht Courtesy Photo March 29, 2006. presented along with rare still photo- Color, 60 minutes. graphs of the writer. Narrated by DVD1148 ...... $20.00 Joseph Cotton. Script by Evans

Friends ...... $18.00 Appeal Commercial Memphis Harrington. Producer, Robert D. Oesterling, University of Mississippi Center for Public Service and Continuing Studies. 1965. Scene at courthouse in Sumner in 1955 Color, 32 minutes. during the Emmett Till murder trial DVD1069 ...... $25.00 Friends ...... $22.50

“AreYou Walkin’ with Me?” Sister Thea Bowman, William Faulkner, and African American Culture William Faulkner Stamp Ceremony Overview of A 22-cent Literary Arts programs Sister Commemorative stamp honoring Thea presented William Faulkner was issued by the at the annual United States Postal Service during a Faulkner ceremony at the University of Conference Mississippi on August 3, 1987. The from 1980 DVD of this program includes remarks through 1989. by author Eudora Welty, Faulkner’s Produced by daughter, Jill Faulkner Summers, and Lisa N. others. Howorth, Color, 34 minutes. Center for the Study of Southern Culture, 1990. DVD1231 ...... $25.00 Color, 30 minutes. Friends ...... $22.50 DVD 1016 ...... $25.00 Friends ...... $22.50

The Eleventh Oxford Conference for the Book Poster (2001) William Faulkner and Eudora Welty Poster features Richard Wright photograph by Carl Van Vetchen. This film features Eudora Welty at the M9903 ...... $10.00 Friends ...... $ 9.00 opening session of the 1987 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. The Dain & Cofield Welty reads from her story “Why I Collection Posters Live at the P.O.” and answers ques- High quality 18" x 24" duotone tions about her work and Faulkner’s. posters featuring timeless photo- Color, 34 minutes. graphs of William Faulkner DVD1104 ...... $25.00 Friends ...... $22.50 Dain Poster M1034 . . . $18.95 Cofield Poster M1033 . $18.95 Faulkner’s World Exhibit Poster M1789 ...... $10.00

Page 34 Spring 2010 The Southern Register Books All New, Limited Number of Copies Available Southern Culture Catalog The University of Mississippi International Orders The South: A Treasury of Art and Litera- Barnard Observatory • University, MS 38677 Other video formats ture Phone 800-390-3527 • Fax 662-915-5814 may be available. This richly illustrated volume includes well- Please call for information. selected texts and images from more than Sold To: 300 years of life in the American South. Edited—and signed—by Lisa Howorth. 384 pages; 120 color, 100 black-and-white Name illustrations. Only a few copies of this 1983 publication are left. Cloth. Address B1006 ...... $150.00 Friends.....$135.00 City State Zip Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference Proceedings Country Studies in English, Volume 14 1974 conference papers by Malcolm Cowley, Daytime Phone Elizabeth M. Kerr, and David Sansing along with transcripts of discussions by Joseph Blot- J Payment enclosed (check, money order, international money order in U.S. currency ner, Evans Harrington, and others. Paper. or international check drawn on a US bank; made payable to The Southern Culture Catalog) B1020...... $25.00 Friends...... $22.50 J Charge my: J Visa J MasterCard Account # Studies in English, Volume 15 1975 conference papers by Cleanth Brooks, Exp. Date Signature William Boozer, Carvel Collins, Blyden Jackson, Richard Godden, and Elizabeth M. How To Order Delivery Kerr along with transcripts of discussions by By mail: Southern Culture Catalog Orders for delivery in the continental United Victoria Black, Christine Drake, Howard Barnard Observatory • The University of States are shipped by US Postal Service unless Mississippi • University, MS 38677 Duvall, Robert J. Farley, Lucy Howorth, Mary other means of delivery are requested. Orders for delivery outside the continental United McClain, Phil Mullen, William McNeil Reed, By e-mail: Credit Card orders only: States are shipped by Parcel Post. Dean Faulkner Wells, and others. Paper. [email protected] B1021...... $25.00 Friends...... $22.50 Shipping and Handling Costs By telephone: Credit Card orders only: United States: $3.50 for first video or other item, 800-390-3527 (Monday-Friday, The South and Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha $1.00 each additional item sent to the same 8:15 a.m.-4:45 p.m. CST) in the US. 1976 conference papers by Daniel Aaron, address. Foreign: $5.00 for each item. Michael Millgate, Darwin Turner, John Outside the US call 662-915-5993 Pilkington, Evans Harrington, Shelby Foote, Posters. United States: $3.50 for any number of Linda Weishimer Wagner, Victoria Fielden By fax: Credit Card orders only: posters sent to the same address. Foreign: Black, and Louis D. Rubin Jr. 662-915-5814 (Daily, 24 hours a day) $10.00 for any number of posters sent to the Paper B1022.... $15.00 Friends...... $13.50 same address. Cloth B1023.... $30.00 Friends...... $27.00 Return Policy All sales are final. No refunds will be made. If an order The Maker and the Myth 1977 conference papers by Calvin S. Brown, contains faulty or damaged goods, replacements will be made when such items Albert J. Guerard, Louis P. Simpson, Ilse Du- are returned with problem(s) noted. soir Lind, and Margaret Walker Alexander. Paper B1024.... $15.00 Friends...... $13.50 Cloth B1025.... $30.00 Friends...... $27.00 Item # Title/Description Qty. Price Total

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Fifty Years of Yoknapatawpha 1979 conference papers by Joseph Blotner, Order Total Michael Millgate, John Pilkington, Merle This form may Wallace Keiser, James G. Watson, Noel Polk, Mississippi residents add 7% sales tax and Thomas L. McHaney. be photocopied. Paper B1028... $15.00 Friends...... $13.50 Faxed orders Shipping and Handling Cloth B1029.... $30.00 Friends...... $27.00 accepted. TOTAL

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