“Neighborhood: An Early Fragment of Ray” by Barry Hannah. Tuscaloosa, AL: Gorgas Oak Press, 1981.
Born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1942, Barry Hannah grew up in Clinton, Mississippi. After changing his college major early on from premed to English, he set his sights on writing and earned his Bachelor’s at Mississippi College. While studying for his Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Arkansas, Hannah developed the surreal and dark humor he is known for in his novels and short stories. Nominated for the National Book Award for “Geronimo Rex” (1972) and also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for “High Lonesome” (1996), Hannah gained national acclaim. Over his long career, he became a popular creative writing mentor among students, holding teaching positions at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Sewanee, the University of Alabama, and the University of Mississippi, among others.
While Hannah was teaching at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, he allowed the Gorgas Oak Press of the Graduate School of Library Services of the University of Alabama to design and print the book format for an early fragment of “Ray” called “Neighborhood.” The graduate students handcrafted a striking chapbook of handmade paper, hand-pressed with custom made ink, featuring the original interior etchings of Jill Valentine, and exterior wrapper drawings by Bruce Dupree. The print run was limited to 65 copies. The chapbook was not issued signed and signed copies are scarce today. This copy of “Neighborhood” is signed on the title page.
This fragment of “Ray” also differs from the complete version of “Ray” published by Knopf in 1980 as pages 12-26. The publication of Gorgas Oak’s “Neighborhood” provides a rare opportunity to compare an early draft of a literary text with its final form.
Original to the Clarion-Ledger
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