How Am I to Be Heard?

by Smith, Lillian; Gladney, Margaret Rose

• ISBN13: 9780807845806
• ISBN10: 0807845809
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

This compelling volume offers the first full portrait of the life and work of writer Lillian Smith (1897-1966), the foremost southern white liberal of the mid-twentieth century. Smith devoted her life to lifting the veil of southern self-deception about race, class, gender, and sexuality. Her books, essays, and especially her letters explored the ways in which the South's attitudes and institutions perpetuated a dehumanizing experience for all its people--white and black, male and female, rich and poor. Her best-known books are Strange Fruit(1944), a bestselling interracial love story that brought her international acclaim; and Killers of the Dream(1949), an autobiographical critique of southern race relations that angered many southerners, including powerful moderates. Subsequently, Smith was effectively silenced as a writer. Rose Gladney has selected 145 of Smith's 1500 extant letters for this volume. Arranged chronologically and annotated, they present a complete picture of Smith as a committed artist and reveal the burden of her struggles as a woman, including her lesbian relationship with Paula Snelling. Gladney argues that this triple isolation--as woman, lesbian, and artist--from mainstream southern culture permitted Smith to see and to expose southern prejudices with absolute clarity.

Author Biography

Margaret Rose Gladney is assistant professor of American studies at the University of Alabama

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xix
Becoming a Writer	p. 1
Making a Space, 1917-1942	p. 17
Dropping Bombs on Georgia's Peace, 1943-1946	p. 61
Confronting Limitations, 1947-1954	p. 113
Struggling to Be Heard, 1955-1959	p. 163
Mothering the Movement, 1960-1963	p. 238
Reweaving the Web, 1964-1966	p. 308
Notes	p. 355
Bibliography	p. 361
Index	p. 365
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