Writers of the American South Their Literary Landscapes

by Howard, Hugh; Straus, Roger

• ISBN13: 9780847827671
• ISBN10: 0847827674
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-11
• Publisher: Rizzoli

Summary

Flannery O'Connor, Peter Taylor, Thomas Wolfe. The South has long revered its literary luminaries. Their talent for evoking a sense of place in their settings and in their characters reflects an elemental connection to their home soil. William Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha County, Eudora Welty and the Delta, Pat Conroy and the Low Country. Renowned author and photographer team Hugh Howard and Roger Straus III set out to examine the imaginative link between Southern authors and their geography and the impact on their writings. The result is an intimate, engaging, and poignant look at twenty-two of the South's most important contributors to the pantheon of great American literature. We learn, for example, that three generations of writers, Faulkner, Shelby Foote, and Ann Patchett, share the same dreamscape: the battlefield at Shiloh. The compelling tension in Carl Hiaasen's life is the ruthless development around him in the fragile Florida Keys. And when asked who influenced them, most of the living writers profiled came up with the same three names: William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O'Connor. Through vibrant, evocative, and intimate photographs and a mix of prized storytelling and interviews, Writers of the American South offers an exhilarating opportunity to visit with Southern literary royalty and deserves a permanent place on the bookshelves of every American literature library.

Author Biography

Hugh Howard and Roger Straus III are also the collaborators of Natchez, Thomas Jefferson Architect, and Wright for Wright.

Table of Contents

Introduction	10	(10)
``Dave Robicheaux? He's the Medieval Everyman.''
James Lee Burke
New Iberia, Louisiana	20	(12)
``Don't Be a Lawyer. Be a Writer.''
John Casey
Charlottesville, Virginia	32	(10)
The Creole Bovary
Kate Chopin
Cloutierville, Louisiana	42	(10)
Word-Stung in Beaufort
Pat Conroy
Beaufort, South Carolina	52	(18)
The Master of Rowan Oak
William Faulkner
Oxford, Mississippi	70	(16)
The Civil War Finds Its Homer
Shelby Foote
Memphis, Tennessee	86	(14)
The Natural Archivist
Allan Gurganus
Falls, North Carolina	100	(14)
``It's a Beach House.''
Barry Hannah
Oxford, Mississippi	114	(8)
A Place to Come Back To
Ernest Hemingway
Key West, Florida	122	(12)
``The Trashing of the Planet, Write Large.''
Carl Hiaasen
Islamorada, Florida	134	(12)
``Charleston Is a City That Has a Hold on Its Young.''
Josephine Humphreys
Sullivan's Island, South Carolina	146	(10)
``A Whirlwind Among Breezes''
Zora Neale Hurston
Eatonville, Florida	156	(10)
A Visit to Mitford?
Jan Karon
Albemarle County, Virginia	166	(12)
``The Dump on Tight Squeeze''
Margaret Mitchell
Atlanta, Georgia	178	(12)
``Nothing Happens Nowhere.''
Flannery O'Connor
Milledgeville, Georgia	190	(16)
``A Matter of Mind Over Geography''
Ann Patchett
Nashville, Tennessee	206	(10)
``For This Is an Enchanted Land''
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Cross Creek, Florida	216	(12)
In the Tennessee Country
Peter Taylor
Eleanor Ross Taylor
Charlottesville, Virginia	228	(12)
The Father's Place
Christopher Tilghman
Centreville, Maryland	240	(14)
A Sheltered Life
Eudora Welty
Jackson, Mississippi	254	(14)
Dixieland
Thomas Wolfe
Asheville, North Carolina	268	(12)
Acknowledgments	280	(2)
Visitor Information	282	(2)
Index	284