Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers
A Gallery of Memorable Southerners
Will be published approx. on 29. November 2018
Book
Hardback
200 pages
978-0-932112-77-4 (ISBN)
Description
"I don't have any children, so I've decided to claim all the future freedom-fighters and hell-raisers as my kin," wrote journalist Molly Ivins. Ivins is one of the biggest hell-raisers profiled in this collection of essays by Hal Crowther, but there is plenty hell-raising and freedom-fighting to go around.
Crowther is a writer whose own career is marked by sharp political and social commentary in the pages of national and regional outlets, from Time to the Atlanta Constitution to The Oxford American. In this collection, he turns his attention to best and the brightest of the recently departed generation in the South.
These essays commemorate the passing of iconic Southern figures such as John Hope Franklin, Doc Watson, Judy Bonds, and James Dickey. Crowther has known most of the folks he profiles and has lived in their particular landscape for decades; he has some stories to tell, and he does so with a particular appreciation for his subjects' accomplishments, their surroundings, and even, in the case of politicos Jesse Helms and George Wallace, their particular brand of notoriousness. Novelist and commentator Silas House, author of Southernmost and A Parchment of Leaves, introduces the collection.
Crowther is a writer whose own career is marked by sharp political and social commentary in the pages of national and regional outlets, from Time to the Atlanta Constitution to The Oxford American. In this collection, he turns his attention to best and the brightest of the recently departed generation in the South.
These essays commemorate the passing of iconic Southern figures such as John Hope Franklin, Doc Watson, Judy Bonds, and James Dickey. Crowther has known most of the folks he profiles and has lived in their particular landscape for decades; he has some stories to tell, and he does so with a particular appreciation for his subjects' accomplishments, their surroundings, and even, in the case of politicos Jesse Helms and George Wallace, their particular brand of notoriousness. Novelist and commentator Silas House, author of Southernmost and A Parchment of Leaves, introduces the collection.
Reviews / Votes
"Crowther's astute and affecting portraits make me think there might be something in The South worth preserving, after all. What he's so very, very masterful at-and no easy trick-is describing goodness itself, and making it plausible." -Richard Ford"Hal Crowther hunts with live ammunition." -Bill Moyers
"Crowther's inimitable voice either soothes like bourbon or burns like whisky throughout this clear-eyed collection."-Publishers Weekly
"It is a rare man who possesses both a passionate conscience and a brilliant wit. Crowther's conscience compels him to distinguish right from wrong, to honor the right, and to decry the wrong." -Annie Dillard, forward to Unarmed but Dangerous
"Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers is aptly named, as it is a kaleidoscope of Southern trailblazers, ranging from poets and musicians to politicians and nuns. Hal Crowther creates his subjects with honesty and love, which is the only way to honor those who have had the courage to cut the path we now walk along." -Michael Farris Smith, author of The Fighter and Desperation Road
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Durham
United States
Product notice
With dust jacket
Illustrations
17 B&W illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 188 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-932112-77-4 (9780932112774)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Hal Crowther is an award-winning critic and essayist, a journalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Granta, and Narrative magazines, among many others, and in the Oxford American, where his column "Dealer's Choice" was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His columns and reviews have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Spectator, and many independent weeklies and journals. A recipient of the Baltimore Sun's Mencken Award for Writing, he is the author of four essay collections and An Infuriating American: The Incendiary Arts of H.L. Mencken. For his third collection of essays, Gather at the River, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle prize for criticism. He lives in Hillsborough, NC, with his wife, novelist Lee Smith.
Content
FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND HELL RAISERS
by Hal Crowther
Table of Contents
Foreword by Silas House
Introduction
Molly Ivins, The Red Rose of Texas
John Hope Franklin, A Long View, Unsweetened
Father Thomas Berry, Deep Greens and Blues
Lance Corporal Brian Anderson, A Farewell to Arms
James Dickey, The Last Wolverine
Sister Evelyn Mattern, Confession, Dedicated to a Fighting Nun
James Still, A Man of the World
Marshall Frady, Son of a Preacher Man
Kirk Varnedoe, A Prophet from Savannah
Jesse Winchester, The Tennessee Kid
Anne Braden, An Embarrassing Woman
Tommy Thompson,The Last Song of Father Banjo
Eubie Blake, A Century of Ragtime
Judy Bonds, This Land is Your Land
Frank M. Johnson, The Last Southern Hero
Jesse Helms, The Last of His Kind?
Will Campbell, God's Will
George Wallace, Requiem for a Bantamweight
Doc Watson, But Now I See
by Hal Crowther
Table of Contents
Foreword by Silas House
Introduction
Molly Ivins, The Red Rose of Texas
John Hope Franklin, A Long View, Unsweetened
Father Thomas Berry, Deep Greens and Blues
Lance Corporal Brian Anderson, A Farewell to Arms
James Dickey, The Last Wolverine
Sister Evelyn Mattern, Confession, Dedicated to a Fighting Nun
James Still, A Man of the World
Marshall Frady, Son of a Preacher Man
Kirk Varnedoe, A Prophet from Savannah
Jesse Winchester, The Tennessee Kid
Anne Braden, An Embarrassing Woman
Tommy Thompson,The Last Song of Father Banjo
Eubie Blake, A Century of Ragtime
Judy Bonds, This Land is Your Land
Frank M. Johnson, The Last Southern Hero
Jesse Helms, The Last of His Kind?
Will Campbell, God's Will
George Wallace, Requiem for a Bantamweight
Doc Watson, But Now I See