It was the year 1969. I had graduated from Vanderbilt in June, married Hinky in August. He started his first year at the University of Mississippi School of Law that September . My brother Mike and his friend John Evans, undergraduates, lived in a dark apartment that sunk toward the middle of the room and pans caked with the beans cooked a month ago sat on blackened burners.

After 4 years of constant intellectual stimulation and fireside chats at professor’s homes in Nashville, I felt adrift and alone, up in or down in (depending on one’s geographical perspective) Oxford, working as an assistant to the assistant to the Dean of the Graduate School at Ole Miss, “putting hubby through.” Just a few weeks into this existential isolation, I met Hinky’s professors one by one, either in the Grove or going by the law school after work to get Hinky from the law library with the one car we shared until he decided the one car was a tool to get to school and left me with my bicycle to get to and fro.

The first prof I met was Robert Khayat, outside the law school (sitting in my car while I still had one to use). He came over and introduced himself and I told him I was waiting for a student. He asked, “Which one?” I said Hinky, a name you don’t easily forget. He said, “Good choice. (in husbands?) He’s got a lot of promise. Very good student. And how are you?” I was charmed that this handsome, older (by 9 years) man who emitted downhome hospitality, gentility, charisma and smarts would take the time to chat with me. Ole Miss started to feel like a friendlier place that day.

I knew nothing about Mr. Khayat’s years at Yale, as an Ole Miss Hall of Fame student or his NFL football seasons as a kicker with the Washington Redskins. I started to hear from Hinky’s fellow students that this was the guy whose classes were on the prime list of most desirable courses. I learned that his students regarded him as a man of integrity and a mentor. To me, he was a most welcome ambassador to those of us who were making Oxford and Ole Miss our home for the next few years.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.” 

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-Pat

With The Fall of the House of Zeus, Curtis Wilkie has given us a portrait of Mississippi’s political and legal climate over the last 40 years. Zeus truly is a modern classic of Mississippi history. Zeus will endure, be taught in schools and considered by many as the primary study of these Mississippi times.

We all know the Scruggs story, but Wilkie weaves a path through the people with whom this powerful man came in contact. Political influences by those in charge are more intricate than the newspaper followers of the story, like myself, are aware of. Wilkie gives us first-hand insight into how this powerful game of charades seemed to be played. He exposes not just the flaws of legal character but the flaws of political gamesmanship as well. The quilt Curtis sews covers the gambit of a Mississippi Who’s Who of these two professions. It’s amazing how many characters are a part of the Scruggs web and how many willingly signed on or fell into the trap of Scruggs’s powerful ride to the top. It seemed there was no limit to how many Scruggs influenced with his personal display and hand-me-out payola.

Zeus drips with the sleaze of our system with its players constantly taking advantage of how it works for so much private gain. It appears Zeus hid behind the sharing of wealth for good causes, feeding his ego with the power his success bought. However, this is a confusing character front as Zeus slip-sided his way through the system’s maze to generate huge wealth. Wilkie exposes as much as he can figure out about Scruggs’s personal side, the public image he gave, and his ego.

Five months ago when I finished reading House of Zeus for the first time, I called Curtis to tell him how much I liked and appreciated his hard work. We both loved Willie Morris, and I told Curtis that Willie would have loved this book and would be very proud for him. I wished Willie were alive to experience the reactions to Zeus’s publication.

As I am now rereading House of Zeus, I believe Curtis Wilkie has given Mississippi a great enduring chronicle of our time. It’s impressive Mississippi journalism at its height. I’m very pleased to work on this fine book which I believe every Mississippian should read and talk about. The Fall of the House of Zeus could have long range positive effects on our system and how it should and should not work.

Click here to see other profiles in Mississippians. Editor Neil White will be signing Mississippians at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th. Purchase a copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

We hope to see you at the signing/reading event for The Fall of the House of Zeus with Curtis Wilkie on Thursday, October 21st. If you cannot attend, you can reserve a signed copy online.

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My first connection with Caroline Herring was spending several summers together at Camp DeSoto. I was a counselor, she a camper but I remember her sweet, shy smile and long blond hair. Several years later, I was visiting DeSoto and she was there, on staff, and was in charge of the singing!

I don’t recall hearing her sing alone until years later when she was in Oxford and doing Thacker Mountain Radio. She was still shy and sweet but she was developing a sense of strength and poise that comes with genuine talent. Her winsomeness was tempered with a fierce determination to be heard and people have been listening ever since. Caroline Herring has grown into being an acclaimed artist; an incredibly gifted songwriter and a southern voice that has a way of slipping into one’s mind and never leaving! To see her now, I am so proud and quite amazed at her progression. She is a treasure whose time has come. Caroline has worked to be where she is and I, for one, am thrilled to know an artist of her caliber–pure gold inside and out.

I will use her own words to convey my feelings:

From “Fair and Tender Ladies”:

You write about a place so dear
In all its good and evil
A loving cup, an aching scar
You need no thread and needle
To sew your name into your clothes
Or hem a ragged line
All muscular and luminous
Oh, heroine of mine

-Norma

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Purchase a copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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In late November of 2008, when Kathryn Stockett came to Lemuria to discuss a signing for her first book, no one had any idea that The Help would become the phenomenal success that it has, least of all Kathryn herself.

My first inkling of what was to come arrived in the form of a galley proof of The Help from Kathryn’s editor Amy Einhorn.  Accompanying it was a glowing cover letter explaining that as a 20-year veteran of the publishing business Ms. Einhorn had just been given her own imprint and from many options had chosen The Help as her first title.  After reading the manuscript it was obvious to me, as well, that Kathryn was a gifted storyteller with a book whose message would have universal appeal.

With the signing and reading set for mid-February, our next job was to get the word out.  By the time the event itself took place, the word was indeed out and consequently it was a huge success with a great turnout.  Meanwhile Joe and Maggie, after some debate, decided to make The Help a First Edition Club choice.

And—as they say—the rest is history.  Since its release in February of 2009, The Help has spent 73 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List–with many weeks at the number one slot. It has sold over 2 million copies world-wide and has been translated into 40 languages.

Through it all Kathryn has remained the charming, unaffected young woman she was when she was absolutely sure that her book would be read only by her family and a few close friends. -Billie

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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Beth Ann and Tom were with me on one of the most important days of my life – the birth of my little girl Harper. Well, not really there in the hospital… let me explain.

In the fall of 2005 my wife Wendy became pregnant with our first child – my reaction was varied – freaked out, scared, happy… you know, the normal stuff. I also started reading parenting books as fast as I could. I read “how to” books and I also read daddy and mommy memoirs. Then came the announcement that Mississippi’s favorite poet Beth Ann Fennelly was publishing a parenting book of sorts. Great With Child is a book of letters that Beth Ann wrote to a pregnant friend about being an expecting mother. Beth Ann’s book signing was on May 25th of 2006 – the very next morning we were due in the hospital for a scheduled induction – around 5:00 in the afternoon of the 26th Harper was born.

So Beth Ann was an interesting part of that very special event, but Tom was there as well – Tom’s third book Smonk was due out later in 2006 and I had just gotten my advance copy before that trip to the Hospital. So there I am reading Smonk on May 26 of 2006 waiting for Harper. Poor Wendy had to endure me reading key passages out loud from Smonk during that part of the day when contractions are far apart and not much is happening.

You get the idea, one of the most important days of your life and you have to endure your husband reading stuff like: “She gazed at her belly and wondered how a girl got knocked up. She was as skinny as a skeleton and no matter how much she ate she couldn’t put on no fat. But you got fat when you got knocked up. Maybe it was a pill you bought or something you shot. She bet a doctor could tell her.” On second thought, reading that passage on that particular day may not have been such a great idea.

At any rate – Beth Ann and Tom are two of the finest writers we have and, I think, the only married couple in Neil White’s Mississippians.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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William Faulkner very recently became one of my favorite Southern writers.  I somehow managed to complete all of high school and three years of college in Mississippi without encountering Faulkner. My first taste of his writing finally came during my senior year of college in a survey of contemporary American literature.  It came in the form of The Sound and the Fury, easily one of the most difficult texts I’ve studied because of the stream of consciousness technique used in the first three parts.  Needless to say I had to make detailed notes of character names, which events happened in which years, which of Benjy’s caretakers were present for different events in his life, etc.  It amounted to the most tedious note-taking of my college career.

But you know what?  At the end of the class I chose The Sound and the Fury as the novel for my final research paper. I loved it.  For me, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is a beautifully tragic story in which the Compson family clings to the deteriorating aristocracy of the Old South, and their daughter Caddy’s boldness, sexual awakening and self –sufficiency collide with her family’s languishing Southern ideals.

What’s your favorite piece of Faulkner writing?

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

-Kaycie

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“. . . On the most sensational inspirational celebrational Muppetational . . . This is what we call the Muppet show!”

Now I bet this has brought a smile to your face and Muppets are racing through your head…Kermit, Fozzie, Animal, Miss Piggy and last but not least Gonzo!!!  I don’t know many people that as children didn’t sit in front of the TV to watch Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.  Jim Henson is who we can thank for these memories but did you know that Jim Henson is from Mississippi?  In fact, Deer Creek in Leland, MS is the birthplace of Kermit, the Frog.

I have actually seen with my own eyes Kermit the Frog two times in my life!  The first time was 1981, The Art of the Muppets show at the New Orleans Museum of Art. My Aunt Patsy took my cousins, David and Dottie and myself to the show. We had a wonderful day!

My most recent foray with Kermit and the rest of the Muppets was this past year at the Mississippi Museum of Art for Jim Henson’s Fantastic World.  It was a great show that brought back so many memories from Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.  Jackson, Mississippi was so Muppet crazy that Malcolm White named a Muppet theme for the St. Patrick’s day parade — “It ain’t easy being green” — and Kermit the Frog was the Grand Marshall.  We all had so much fun building the floats and getting all of our costumes together and telling stories about our own Muppet experiences! Our childhoods were greatly touched by Jim Henson and his imagination.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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A late Saturday afternoon at my desk, I looked out my window, and there stood Willie. He was just back from New York, as excited as a kid could be about seeing the screening for My Dog Skip. He glowed with charm and excitement about what was to come. That was my last conversation with Willie. He died the following Monday.

Now being sentimental as Willie often was, I think fondly about the wonderful baseball prayer he wrote for my little league team. The result was a colorful book illustrated by another loving pal, Barry Moser. Willie’s gifts to Lemuria were many and generous.

If only that Saturday visit, ever so special, could have been longer.

Millsaps College is featuring David Rae Morris, Willie’s son, with H. C. Porter in “A Katrina Perspective.” Morris’ photographic exhibit “Wake of the Flood: Katrina at Five” documents the city of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina’s landfall and five years later. Click here for more details.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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Both John and Joe have worked a lot with Mike so I put their comments together.

John says:

Mike is a real bookstore hound. I’m sure he checks out the bookstores wherever his travels take him. He studies staff, inventory quality, in- store marketing, customer service while formulating judgment on the overall store. Needless to say, Mike is a great guy to toss around a few ideas. He is an avid book collector as he chooses titles for his beautiful home library, his place to read and write.

Mike’s books on the music business have been on the shelves of Lemuria for quite a while. More recently we have come to know Mike and his sons (Mike 3 and Marty) as they have published the much-loved volumes of Gridiron Gold and Ya’ll vs. Us, and the latest publication, Bull Cyclone Sullivan.

We’ve worked so hard together at Mike’s events that I consider him not only an author and publisher but a fine bookseller on the Lemuria team.

Joe says:

Like John said, we’ve been working with him for a while, but you never know what he’s going to come up with. When Mike calls and says he wants to set up a meeting my attitude is to totally clear the brain – he could say anything. I’m almost a little scared to see what he’ll come up with next, but it’s always fun to work with him mainly because you can tell he’s having fun. (We also really like M3, Marty, Judy, and Janice.)

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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On January 22, 1989 I learned one of those important “how to be a grown-up” lessons. It was the night of Super Bowl XXIII and I was 13-years-old. I had picked the Bengals because, as a thirteen-year-old, I thought the red tiger uniforms were cool. They also had a quarterback named Boomer and another guy named Ickey.

I didn’t grow up in Mississippi and didn’t know about “world” or “The Satellite Express” or that Jerry Rice had managed to be a Heisman trophy candidate coming out of little Mississippi Valley State.

Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee I didn’t even know who Joe Montana and Jerry Rice were before that night, but after a two touchdown fourth quarter and an MVP trophy for Jerry Rice I was a fan. In fact . . . I think that was the night I became a football fan. And (ask my wife) I really, really like football.

Click here to see all of “Lemuria Reads Mississippians.”

Editor Neil White will be signing at Lemuria on  Thursday, October 28th.

Reserve your copy online or call the bookstore 601/800.366.7619.

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