Southern Memoirs

Should we still read William Faulkner in this new century? What can his works tell us about the legacy of slavery and the Civil War, that central quarrel in our nation's history? These are the provocative questions that Michael Gorra asks in this historic portrait of the novelist and his world.

Most familiar with the Wild West know Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Morgan Earp for the famous shootout on the streets of Tombstone, Arizona. But few know the later years of the close-knit Earp family, which revolved around patriarch Nicholas Earp, and their last push at a major monetary coup in Los Angeles.

Set in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War, A Separate Country is based on the incredible life of John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army--and one of its most tragic figures. Robert E. Lee promoted him to major general after the Battle of...

A Black woman who suffered the outrages of apartheid - including the murder of her father - shares her outlook on her struggles with humanity and forgiveness.

In this moving collection of short stories and essays, Gordon Lee Johnson (Cupeño/Cahuilla) cements his voice not only as a wry commentator on American Indian reservation life but also as a master of fiction writing. In Johnson’s stories, all of which are set on the fictional San Ignacio reservation in Southern California, we meet unforgettable characters like Plato Pena, the Stanford-bound geek who reads Kahlil Gibran during intertribal softball games; hardboiled investigator Roddy Foo; and Etta, whose motto is “early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise”.

Mississippi Sissy is the stunning memoir from Kevin Sessums, a celebrity journalist who grew up scaring other children, hiding terrible secrets, pretending to be Arlene Frances and running wild in the South. As he grew up in Forest, Mississippi, befriended by the family maid, Mattie May, he...

This book is a roller coaster of self-induced situations my friends and I found ourselves in over the years. Our immediate goal was simple.... Take it as far as we could to the next level and still wake up the next day. Of course, after a while, we didn't care if we woke up or not. Join me as I take you on a journey into nothingness...a journey into the depths of intoxication at its best and worst. Follow me as I show you what life was like for some small-town Southern boys and how we managed to finally find our way out of the situations we so often enjoyed finding.

A collection of previously published columns describing life in Florida for North Carolinians.

From his humble beginnings in Sumter, South Carolina, to his prominence on the Washington, D.C., political scene as the third highest-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, U.S. Congressman James E. Clyburn has led an extraordinary life. In Blessed Experiences, Clyburn tells in his own inspirational words how an African-American boy from the Jim Crow-era South was able to beat the odds to achieve great success.

Back in the days before Vegas was big, when the Mob was at its peak and neon lights were but a glimmer on the horizon, a little Southern town styled itself as a premier destination for the American leisure class. Hot Springs, Arkansas was home to healing waters, Art Deco splendor, and America's original national park - as well as horse racing, nearly a dozen illegal casinos, countless backrooms and brothels, and some of the country’s most bald-faced criminals.

Sherry D. Henderson is an Adult Nurse Practitioner (ANP) with a nursing career expanding over thirty-nine years. Thirty-six years spent serving Veterans at the Denver Department of Veterans Affairs. Her experience includes Staff Nurse, Charge Nurse, Nurse Manager, Nursing Supervisor. She recently retired as an ANP. She loves to immerse herself in the deep thoughts of knowledge, especially those related to family history, genealogy and human behavior. She is a world traveler, adventure seeker and knowledge thirster.

By 1966, Hot Springs, Arkansas wasn’t your typical sleepy little Southern town. Once a favorite destination for mobsters like Al Capone and Lucky Luciano, illegal activities continued to lure out-of-state gamblers, flim-flam men, and high rollers to its racetracks, clubs, and bordellos. Still, the town was shaken to its core after a girl was found dead on a nearby ranch. The ranch owner claimed it was an accident. Then the rancher was found to be the killer of another woman - his fourth wife.

Come, sip a glass of sweet tea and sit for a spell with Ronda on the porch swing as she tells you stories of happiness and heartache, friends and family, and a faith that’s strong enough to handle anything life throws your way. As Ronda shares, Southerners don’t just talk about God, they...

Belle Brezing made a major career move when she stepped off the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and into Jennie Hill's bawdy house: an upscale brothel run out of a former residence of Mary Todd Lincoln. At 19, Brezing was already infamous as a youth steeped in death, sex, drugs, and scandal.

Baseball, religion, work, death, and the company store - these figured eminently in the lives of Southern cotton mill workers and their families during the early decades of the 20th century. In this firsthand account of his native Bladenboro, North Carolina, George G. Suggs, Jr., captures in rich detail the world of a thriving cotton mill town where the company was dominant but workers had forged a strong community. Here the focus is on the workers - their interests, personalities, and values - in their best and in their darker moments.

The listener who has grown up in the South will swear that he knows each and every character in these tales - from the "Indian doctor" with the secret hemorrhoid cure to the bull who couldn't keep his "loins" out of reach of the youngster's BB gun; he'll identify with Bubba gigging for Giant Southern Frogs and with the curious cat that burned the cabin down; he'll remember high-school teammates like "Shorty" and "Speedy", as well as college fraternity brothers like "Snake" and "Stud". And he'll laugh while remembering.

This is the life story of Pierre Charette, who became a key figure in the war on drugs in the United States and Europe. His adventures span a heart-pounding 33 years as a police officer, undercover detective, federal DEA agent. It includes some of the most famous cases ever developed by this agent. His investigative ability and imagination took him into the French criminal underworld, behind the Iron Curtain and all over the planet. He supervised, and with his agent solved the largest cocaine conspiracy in US history.

The Beak in the Heart is a memoir of growing up “Southern”. Betina Enzminger shares the poignant tales of women who preceded her - misfit women who defied authority and suffered the consequences in the repressive South Carolina of the 19th and 20th centuries. Entzminger links several generations of women from pre-Civil War years to the present, and also shares candid details of her rebellious youth and her own struggles with marriage and parenthood.

Prohibition. Mobsters, murder, and mayhem. FBI agents. Cops, robbers, and worse. Sound like the background for a Hollywood epic? It's Ernest Marquez's latest very true story of the renowned gambling ships that anchored in Santa Monica Bay in the 1920s and 1930s. It's the story of Tony Cornero, the cockiest gangster who ever bootlegged a bottle of scotch, the man who helped found Las Vegas, and the smooth operator of the most glamorous gambling ship in the Pacific, the Rex.

When a big city writer's small-town sister is diagnosed with cancer, her untimely death teaches him about life, faith and community. When she was diagnosed at age forty with a virulent form of cancer in 2010, Philadelphia journalist Rod Dreher was moved by the way the community he had left...