Gift Books – Page 5 – Lemuria Books

Category: Gift Books (Page 5 of 12)

Written by Jim Pathfinder Ewing

Meeting Katy Simpson Smith at a book signing and reading at Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS, I was immediately captivated by her infectious smile, her sweet presence, her unassuming grace. She seemed baffled that her first book, The Story of Land and Sea, had excited such interest in the book world.

As the publisher HarperCollins describes it: Set in a small coastal town in North Carolina during the waning years of the American Revolution, the novel follows three generations of family—fathers and daughters, mother and son, master and slave—characters who yearn for redemption amid a heady brew of war, kidnapping, slavery, and love.

But it’s much, much more.

It was happenstance that I was at Lemuria at all, much less buying her book. I had stopped by to have some signed first editions put in mylar so they might wear better on the shelf, and Adie and Maggie who work there, asked me if I was coming to the signing. What signing? I asked.

They told me about this young writer, 28, who grew up in Jackson and was making waves with her debut novel. In Jackson? How could I not know her? So, I bought the book and stayed, and was the first person to greet her when she arrived. We chatted and I thought, hmmm, sweet lady.

Little did I know that the surface of this woman was like the ocean she described — smiles and laughter like jumping fish and mermaids — covering unfathomable depths where leviathans live unceasing and unknown.

Once I picked up the book, I was hooked.

Lyrical, poetic, masterful, each page is a delight. I found myself not worrying about the plot, each page its own reward. My thoughts about the book became a barely conscious narrative itself:

I don’t want it to stop. She skirts through the puzzles of people’s hearts like sure fingers on combination locks, first left, then right, then left again, releasing understandings that roll through me like waves.

Young and old, they are all the same: transparent to her in magical ways. I am mesmerized as the pages glide by, getting my sea legs in this voyage of discovery. I cannot put the book down.

As the chapters flow, and I take breaks now and then, to rest, recuperate, gather myself. I plunge back again and again; from sea to land, from land to sea, taking deep breaths, from a gathering intelligence of who is who and how, to knowing I was unknowing, only thinking I knew. I gasp as each chapter forms a sea change in the facets revealed about each character.

In the first chapter, my feet on solid ground, I don’t like Asa, the grandfather. He’s a hateful, self-righteous man, through his clinging to religion. In the next, I see him as a young man, and my heart breaks for him; I am him. How did that happen? And I hate Helen, the mother, his daughter, for her cold, callous pretension; even, as before, I had felt the husband’s and the granddaughter’s longing and loss for her. Now, I see, I had only seen her as a ship on the horizon, her gallant sails, the dim outline, defiant and wonderful as she sailed into the golden sunset of memory. But wait! What’s this! Quick as a riptide, the roles change again. Helen, the mother, in love; Asa turning, turning … into what he will become.

We delve deeper and deeper, exploring, finding, shifting, changing.

As the pages turn and mount, I grow fearful the book will end, and where will I be? On sea or land?

Now, having made the voyage, I am spent; in awe and slightly resentful. Like the father, a privateer, she has stolen my admiration. It’s a prize hard won. Enduring.

Since I met her at the book signing, and sat with her, and conversed, and heard her speak to an audience, I wonder: How can someone so young, this author, fathom so many diverse people, and present them in all their mystery and unconscious revelation?

I think back to the photo I took of her, so full of life and easy laughter; how can such depth of knowledge reside there? Her bright face, her youthful demeanor, are like the book’s cover: beautiful, well crafted, but the inner pages tell a different story: of love and loss, poignant hopes and crushing realities. Unless you take the time to hear her words in your own mind, you will never know certain secrets that are universal, hidden in your own heart.

It is a joy and a wonder to have a Jackson author of such talent. She could live and write anywhere. But she doesn’t, building her castles between here and New Orleans.

I look forward to her next book, on land, sea or air.

Here’s a story about her in the New Orleans Times-Picayune: http://www.nola.com/books/index.ssf/2014/08/katy_simpson_smith_grabs_natio.html

Jim PathFinder Ewing has written six books, published in English, French, German, Russian and Japanese. His latest is “Conscious Food: Sustainable Growing, Spiritual Eating” (Findhorn Press, 2012). His next book — about which he is mysteriously silent — is scheduled to be released in Spring, 2015. Find him on Facebook, join him on Twitter @EdiblePrayers, or see his website,www.blueskywaters.com

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: Heat, Redfish, and Regret

By Lemuria

On October 8, 2014

In Gift Books, Southern Fiction

Written by Matthew Guinn, a Jackson native and author of the Edgar Allen nominated book The Ressurrectionist. The following selection is a part of an upcoming essay collection titled 601.

I came to Mississippi hoping to be a writer. I was just out of the University of Georgia, where I had read Larry Brown and been floored by his lyrical naturalism, and of course I was aware of the others—that grand pantheon running back to Faulkner and kept alive in that present day of 1992 by the likes of Larry, Barry, Steve Yarbrough, Richard Ford. Eudora Welty and Shelby Foote were still alive, and there were others to come: Tom Franklin, Cynthia Shearer, Donna Tartt. The concentration of literary talent was incredible.

Athens, Georgia, had that kind of artistic brilliance, but in music. The B-52s and R.E.M. had put the town on the map, and Widespread Panic was building its momentum; we used to go see them monthly at the Georgia Theater. I remember when ticket prices went up, from $3.50 to $4, some suspected that Panic had sold out.

It wasn’t too uncommon to cross paths with these musicians. Kate Pierson and Michael Stipe still lived in Athens then, and you might pass them on a streetcorner downtown, or shopping in Wuxtry Records, where the guitarist for Guadalcanal Diary worked. But Athens had a code regarding its celebrities: it was absolutely verboten to approach them. It was understood that you could perhaps nod in passing, but to speak would be a breach of decorum, and to engage one of these luminous talents in conversation would be downright gauche.

So perhaps you can imagine how I felt when, in the fall of ’92, in Jackson for the first time, with my soon-to-be fiancée and in-laws, eating at the Mayflower, I realized that the man at the table behind ours was Willie Morris. There, with a female companion and a brown-bagged bottle on the table, sat the former editor of Harper’s, the man who wrote North Toward Home and The Courting of Marcus Dupree. Eating broiled redfish like the rest of us.

“Don’t look,” I said, “but Willie Morris is at the next table.”

My future father-in-law looked over his shoulder—brazenly—at the table. Willie caught his eye and the two nodded to one another. “You should go talk to him,” my future in-law said. “Since you want to be a writer.”

I didn’t. Could not bring myself to interrupt his meal, to barge in, to impose on his time. I wouldn’t have in Athens and didn’t think I could in this new locale.

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What I didn’t realize at the time was just what it meant that Willie was a Mississippian, and a Jacksonian to boot. I hadn’t yet come to understand that in this new, strange terrain—with its flat vistas and searing temperatures—good manners took precedence over all else, that Mississippi holds itself to a higher standard of social graciousness than anywhere else. That Willie would have obliged me with a few minutes of his time—would likely even have asked me a few questions about myself.

I’ve come to suspect over the years—this has been my fourteenth Mississippi summer—that the heat has something to do with it. That manners do indeed, as Flannery O’Connor said, save us from ourselves. As though without them to hold us in check, we’d all snap from the heat index come July and August. And by September, we’d be down to the last Jacksonian standing.

God knows how much I could have learned from Willie Morris, how much a single conversation might have helped me with craft, tone, rhythm. In time, in Oxford, I would come to know Larry Brown. And find that he was a kind and generous man who made time to advise and help younger, struggling writers. That some unspoken standard obliged him to do it. I know now that Willie held himself to the same standard.

But I would never get to know Willie. Years later I was on a flight to Jackson from Atlanta with my squalling infant son on my lap, crying the entire trip. I’d shaken William Styron’s hand in the aisle when we boarded. I was thinking the entire flight, I hope Styron doesn’t put me together with this crying—I have aspirations to a writing career. Then, when we landed, I met Richard Ford at the baggage claim. From the same flight. Incredible. Staggering. Jackson.

They were flying in for Willie’s funeral. Too late to introduce myself, as I should have, that night in ’92, in the Mayflower. I could have. But I did not realize it at the time. Did not know, then, that Mississippi is that kind of place, that Jackson is that kind of a town.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: The Medgar Evers Historic House

By Lemuria

On October 3, 2014

In Gift Books

Written by Minnie Watson, curator of the Medgar Evers Historic House

For those visiting Mississippi, Jackson is fast becoming the most popular place to be in terms of good food, great entertainment, wonderful historical sites to see, and fantastic service–all delivered with warm welcomes and friendly smiles. How do I know this? Well, this is what I hear on a daily basis from tourists who visit the Medgar Evers Historic House. No matter what state or country they call home, they tell me, “People in Jackson are some of the friendliest people we’ve ever met. Everybody speaks to you, give directions as to the best places to eat, shop and sites you need to visit.” They usually end their comments with “This is my first time in Jackson but it certainly won’t be my last.” I simply smile and say, “We’ll welcome you with open arms and a big smile.” When the Medgar Evers’ Historic House opened its doors to visitors some 17 years ago, one could not have not imagined nor understood the impact that this modest house, home to Medgar, his wife, and their three children, would have not just on Jackson and Mississippi, but the entire world.

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As curator of this Historic House, it has been my pleasure to welcome visitors from basically every State in the United States and other countries as well as. I cannot tell you the impact that this position has had in my life. People come to see where “Medgar Wiley Evers, Field Secretary for the Mississippi NAACP, lived and died.” Contrary to what they may have heard about Mississippi in general and Jackson in particular, while visiting the House they get a chance to see the South, Mississippi, and Jackson through my eyes and experience, as one who has lived in Mississippi all of my life. We share experiences, both good and bad, that happened during our growing up in a world perplexed with many problems. We usually come to the agreement that no matter what state we lived in, problems existed then and still do in some form or fashion. The difference, perhaps, is how we dealt and/or deal with the problems. As curator, I cannot tell you how many repeaters I have welcomed to Jackson and to the Evers House. As time goes on, I am sure there will be many, many more in the future. After all, Jackson’s “Welcome Mat” is always out and the Medgar Evers Historic House doors are always open.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: St. Paddy’s Day Parade

By Lemuria

On September 29, 2014

In Gift Books, Newsworthy

IrishGirl_CMYK It’s huge now, but back in ‘82 or thereabouts, the germ of what would become Mal’s St. Paddy’s Parade had an unlikely start as the brainstorm of, um, shall we say, a handful of “happy” people at the old George Street Grocery. A bunch of Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News folk were sitting around and somebody – Orley Hood? Lolo Pendergrast? Raad Cawthon? — said: “You know, we ought to have a parade.”

Everybody thought that was a swell idea to just jump into their cars and go downtown whooping and hollering. Since at the time I had an MG convertible, they tried to get me to join the “parade,” so they could sit on the back with the top down and wave at people, but I had been “visiting” there for a while and didn’t want to get pulled over by police. They went on without me, circling the Governor’s Mansion, the Clarion-Ledger building, and other sites of interest, and came back all happy and boisterous — and thirsty for more liquid inspiration.

I don’t know if Malcolm White counts that as the first parade or not. But after that, the parade became a real event with several of the same characters involved. By the way, the chief of security at the bar was none other than longtime sheriff Malcolm McMillin, who was a moonlighting Jackson police officer at the time; so I guess you could say, he was in on it, too.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson: Thinking about one’s thinking

By Jamie

On September 25, 2014

In Gift Books

As I thumbed through Ken Murphy’s Jackson book, I was initially confused at the photo for Millsaps. While I was a student there, the observatory wasn’t used often. Occasionally, a campus-wide email would announce that the observatory would be open for viewing some lunar/ stellar/ otherwise spacey event, but I never managed to show up. And when I think of Millsaps, my iconography of the college revolves around other structures: the Christian Center, the Academic Complex, the bell tower.

Millsaps Observatory best_DSC2375

I didn’t understand Ken’s reasoning behind the observatory being the representative image of the college. But, since I have an English degree from Millsaps, I thought.

At the risk of sounding too metacognative, I thought about all of the thinking I did while I was there. [Metacognative: thinking about one’s thinking. A word I learned at Millsaps.] One of the texts I read my freshman year was Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” (thank you, Dr. Wilson) in which the philosopher challenges the idea that seeing something means it is absolutely true. When the poet John Milton met Gallieo, Milton’s understanding of what is versus what he could see was expanded beyond his own failing eyesight (thank you, Dr. Page). Despite my status as a WASP male, I was able to read and understand writers like Alain Locke (thank you, Dr. Smith) and Toni Morrison (thank you, Dr. MacMaster) and Palo Frerie (thank you, Dr. Middleton). I was introduced to Eudora Welty’s writing, and her stories have stuck with me like a kind memory (thank you, Dr. Marrs). With my minor in secondary education, I was given insight into the way students learn best (thank you, Dr. Schimmel, Dr. McCarty) and how to effectively transmit instruction to them (thank you, Dr. Vaughn, Dr. Garrett). I learned to see both broadly and tightly, to make connections between ideas and people that, at first glance, might be worlds apart. There is only one story that’s been written over and over and over again, and that story is the weird journey of humanity (thank you, Dr. Miller). So many of my professors forced me to think about things I had never considered, to look at things in a way that wasn’t easy or natural for me, and to understand that my view of the world isn’t the only way of seeing things.

It turns out, Ken was right. Observatories allow us to look beyond ourselves, to see what we normally wouldn’t be able to, just like Millsaps did for me.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: We got here as soon as we could

By Lemuria

On September 24, 2014

In Gift Books

Written by Richard D. deShazo, MD, a Billy S. Guyton Distringuished Professor, and professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University Medical Center. Dr. deShazo hosts a weekly radio health and wellness show on MPB stations throughout the state called “Southern Remedy”.

We came to Jackson and the University of Mississippi Medical Center after having lived in many other locations; including Washington, DC, Denver, CO, Birmingham and Mobile, AL, as part of my career as a physician educator, administrator, and researcher. The first thing we noticed about Jackson was the extraordinary hospitality of strangers we received at almost every turn. My wife was startled when she was tapped on the back by a stranger in the grocery store while she was searching for a grocery item. When she turned, fearing she was going to be accosted as would have been the case in other locations, she was met with a big smile from another customer who said, “Honey, can I help you find something? I have been shopping here forever.” This was something we had never experienced. When we visited churches, we felt welcome in every one immediately.

One of our initial roles was to recruit new faculty to UMC, and during the time I was a department chair here, we assisted over 60 new families in coming to Jackson to serve in various medical roles at UMMC. Their experiences were always similar to ours, and we never feared sending them into the community for a sampling of what life was like here because they were always pleasantly surprised. It was easy to recruit people to jobs at UMMC once we got them here to see what a great place Jackson is to live.

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As each day goes by, we discover new, interesting things about Mississippi. The convenient location and the hospitality and diversity of folks in the Delta, the pinelands, the coast, and of course, the greater Ole Miss community in the northeast are unique to our state. As the saying goes, our family was not born in Mississippi, but we got here as soon as we could.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson: A spoonful of sugar

By Former Lemurians

On September 20, 2014

In Gift Books, Newsworthy

As a little girl with an embarrassingly bulldog-like underbite, I frequently journeyed from my small town to Jackson to remedy my numerous orthodontic woes. To help quell my fear of the pain I’d endure each time, my thoughtful mother usually promised some spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down before our trek home on I-20. Often, this sweetener involved exploring the world of wonder that is Lemuria Books.

Sometimes reverently, sometimes with wild excitement, I’d behold the book-bricked walls striped with color. My soreness was quickly forgotten as I explored the store’s nooks and alcoves, like an underwater cave teeming with treasures waiting to be discovered. With the staff as my guides, I lapped up page after page and selected my own book-treasure to take home.

As an adult, I remain enchanted. Every morning when I walk into the store, my heart still swells with hope at all the potential represented by the books cocooning me. They are comical or heart-wrenching; they are about Jackson or set in places I’ll never physically visit. And they help me cope with the pain of life, not to avoid it, but to swallow it without gagging.

Every Saturday morning, bright-eyed children scurry past the towers of books for story time. As they snuggle up next to our big, friendly teddy bear, they swallow stories that stir up peals of laughter while giving them courage to start at a new school or to forgive people who have hurt them. I share their wonder and thirstily gulp down as much as I can, relishing the bitter turned sweet on the page and in their lives.

Compassionate customers come on behalf of those who can’t come experience the wonder for themselves, buying books to share with their neighbor who’s in the hospital or with an inmate who needs some humor to lighten her day.

Whatever your orthodontic pilgrimage, books help the medicine go down. Enjoy as many spoonsful as you can.

Written by Marianna

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson: She has her grip on me

By Lemuria

On September 16, 2014

In Gift Books, Newsworthy

“Later they took him to Jackson and that explained it; he was crazy.” – Shelby Foote, Follow Me Down: A Novel

“Justin, why in the world would you ever want to live in Jackson? You must be crazy.” There is no telling how many times I’ve been asked that question, and every time someone asks me, “Why Jackson?” I simply say, “For some reason, Jackson has always had her grip on me.”

Growing up in a small rural community outside of Pelahatchie, Jackson was the city where we would go eat and go shop once a month. I also remember as a child, my Godmother’s uncle was the day manager at the Sun-n-Sand Motel. Many of my childhood summer days were spent by the pool at the Sun-n-Sand, and our nights would end at The Iron Horse Grill. Even though I grew up in Rankin County, I had a very interesting and unique perspective of Jackson. It is one of the reasons I love Jackson.

As a high school student, I remember spending every Monday and Thursday on Seneca Street in Fondren. It was a beautiful ranch style house and my piano teacher lived and taught from her home studio. It was at her house that I learned how to play Debussy, Gershwin, Beethoven, and even Carole King. I can remember those afternoons and evenings of playing scales, trying to make my clumsy hands go up and down the keys of her Steinway grand Piano. As a reward for my practicing and playing, we would always go to Cups to treat ourselves to coffee. My piano teacher’s house was recently sold and she no longer lives there, but I often find myself driving down Seneca, remembering those piano lessons that seemed to have lasted hours upon hours.

Jackson: She has her grip on me. Jackson grabbed me as a child, held me as a teenager, and now she holds my hand as an adult. I stay here, and I live here because I love Jackson. I’ve found a place of belonging and a community that not only accepts me, but a community that makes me a better person. Will I always live in Jackson? Probably not; However, I get the feeling that no matter where the road of life takes me, Jackson will forever have my heart.

Written by Justin

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson: Lemuria defies e-book trend

By Lemuria

On September 15, 2014

In Gift Books

The following article was written by Jerry Mitchell and published on August 2, 2014 in the Clarion-Ledger.

Photography by Ken Murphy

In a day where many prognosticators regard bookstores as forgettable relics and e-books as the unstoppable future, one bookstore is defying the odds and publishing its own $75 book.

That bookstore is Lemuria, which is releasing a 183-page photo book about Mississippi’s capital city this week.

If there is another bookstore in the U.S. going into the high end of publishing like this, Richard Howorth, past president of the American Booksellers Association, doesn’t know about it.

Decades ago, some bookstores did dabble in publishing, he said. City Lights bookstore in San Francisco became a publisher. So did the Beehive in Savannah, Ga.

But that was before department stores gave way to mall stores and then to megastores and ultimately to online bookstores, such as Amazon.

John Evans was born in 1950 — 14 years before Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

In his early 20s, he spent much of his time buying records and books in his native Jackson. “I didn’t have much direction,” he said.

After Be-Bop Records opened in 1974, he decided to take his own shot at a business, he said. “I thought I might as well open a bookstore.”

He began writing book publishers and asking his friends to suggest books to order. Soon, sales representatives filled his small apartment.

Lemuria (named after the mythic civilization) was born, he said. “I formed the company two weeks after I was 25.”

By 2002, it had become such a beloved independent bookstore that when author Elmore Leonard decided to hold seven book signings in North America, Lemuria was one of them.

The fall of the economy and the rise of e-books began to devastate bookstores. In 2011, Borders closed its remaining 400 stores.

To survive, many bookstores moved beyond books to sell all sorts of other merchandise, and some even embraced e-books. Evans loved physical books, and that’s what he stuck with, he said. “I saw all that as opportunity to say, ‘We are a real bookstore, and we will live or die by that.’ “

Looking for ideas to rebrand Lemuria, Evans read “The New Rules of Retail” by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart.

In that book, authors suggested retail in 2020 might look most like Apple, with a product created, produced and marketed by the same company.

Would there be a way, Evans wondered, of producing a product that neither Barnes & Noble nor Amazon could sell? If so, that could become a way to redefine Lemuria, he thought.

Not long after, photographer Ken Murphy contacted Evans to get his opinion on whether he should do a sequel to his successful book that featured photos on Mississippi.

In studying that book, Evans noticed only a few photographs from the capital city and suggested to Murphy there was more of a need for a photo book about Jackson than a second statewide book.

They eventually decided to do just that, he said. “I didn’t want it to just be a book of photographs. I felt like there needed to be a photographic plot, a stream of consciousness.”

For the next year, Evans juggled his two jobs of running Lemuria and editing the photo book. “From a cash flow perspective, it was difficult — cash flow and having the energy,” he said.

The printing, including a planned second printing, cost six figures.

While Evans remained busy, something happened in the book industry.

Over the past year, the sales of hardcover books rose 9.5 percent, and the sales of e-books fell 0.5 percent, said Howorth, who once taught Bezos at a class for prospective bookstore owners. “That helps to explain why Amazon’s stock is down 10 percent. We’re reaching a plateau.”

Jamie Kornegay, owner of Turnrow Books in Greenwood, praised what Lemuria has done and said he hopes it becomes a model for what others can do.

He sees his job as the battle to preserve the physical book, he said. “If we cede e-books to this generation, that’s it.”

Evans doesn’t believe he retains as well when he sits and reads at a computer. “I think the jury is still out on how memory works,” he said.

He sees many in this new generation favoring the tactile over the virtual. “My best young bookseller is choosing to read physical books,” he said. “They’re real.”

By the time Evans arrived in May at the Book Expo in New York, word of what his little bookstore in Mississippi had done had spread.

Some booksellers told him it was a great idea.

He shot back, “It’s a lot of work.”

Evans believes the physical book will not only survive but endure.

“Yes, a physical book takes a little more effort, but the opportunity you have to read a physical book is about as pleasurable as any experience you can have,” he said. “It’s irreplaceable.”

Contact Jerry Mitchell at (601) 961-7064 or jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Let’s Talk Jackson: Q&A with Ken Murphy and Lisa Newman

By Lemuria

On September 10, 2014

In Gift Books

The following article was written by Jana Hoops and was published on August 2, 2014 in the Clarion-Ledger.

With a desire to support and promote “what is good about Jackson,” photographer Ken Murphy and Lemuria Books owner John Evans have teamed up to create Jackson: Photographs by Ken Murphy, the first published pictorial account of Mississippi’s capital in more than 15 years.

Nearly two years in the making, the book includes close to 200 photos that capture the culture and vibrancy of the city, as it documents many of Jackson’s most familiar places and scenes.

Murphy, who lives and works as a commercial/art photographer in his hometown of Bay St. Louis, holds a BFA in documentary, editorial and narrative photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He has authored and published two other award-winning coffee table books: My South Coast Home and Mississippi. His third book, Mississippi: State of Blues, was a collaborative effort with Scott Barretta.

Also contributing to the book was Lisa Newman, who wrote the plate details for all 186 photographs. Newman grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, then lived overseas and in various places around the South before she made a “very conscious decision” to move to Jackson seven years ago. With a background in teaching, she joined the staff at Lemuria as a bookseller and has written for the store’s blog for several years.

The oversized volume is being offered with a choice of four different covers: Lamar Life (standard), the Welty House, Fondren Corner; and Lemuria Bookstore.

Ken Murphy

Please tell me about your association with John Evans and Lemuria Books. How and why did the two of you decide to do this book?

Ken: I met John while selling my first book, “My South Coast Home,” back in 2001. I found him to be very knowledgeable and very willing to share that knowledge. From then on, I referred to him as my “book guru.” I would run all of my ideas by John to see what he thought. That is how Jackson came about. I was bouncing around the idea of a “Mississippi Volume II” book when John thought of the Jackson book. His belief in the project made me believe in it as well, even though I was a little dubious at first. Being from the Coast, I did not know Jackson, so I wasn’t sure that I could make enough photographs for a 180-page coffee table book.

Can you give an overview of the types of subjects in this book?

Ken: We tried to include everything that makes Jackson what it is, and that is its people, restaurants, historic buildings, museums, clubs, parks, and events. What you will see in this book are only positive aspects about Jackson. We will leave the negative stuff to the media.

How many images are in the book? How long did it take to complete the photography?

Ken: There are 186 photographs in the book. We started talking about Jackson in August of 2012. We pulled a deal together and got started shooting on St. Paddy’s Day 2013. I spent right at 12 months making photographs, so I would say it has taken two years from conception to having the books in the store, which is a record for me. I’m not sure how many shots I really took but we had a good list to work with, from the beginning. As we went down the list, it would change, depending on the location and my ability to get a photograph to represent it.

How did you choose which subjects made the cut?

Ken: The places and/or people in the book were selected by John and his team at the bookstore based on its, or their, importance to the Jackson culture. But this doesn’t mean that the photographs in this book are the only defining features about Jackson. That would not be true. As for making eliminations, it was simple. Either the place was no longer there, the person was unavailable, or it was just too hard to make what I thought would be a satisfactory photograph.

What is your hope for this book?

Ken: I hope it energizes the Jackson culture in a way that will be positive and beneficial to the citizens of Jackson as well as the rest of Mississippi. I hope this book will educate people about the true Jackson, while enlightening lifelong residents and visitors alike with an entertaining armchair tour. One of the reasons I wanted to publish a photographic coffee table book was to help dispel negative stereotypes about Mississippi.

I only hope that the world sees Mississippi in a positive light, literally. If my books can help do that and folks are inspired to get out and experience the real place, Mississippi, then I feel I’ve been successful.

Lisa Newman

Why did Lemuria Books decide to publish this photographic account of 21st century Jackson?

Lisa: We were continually getting requests for a photographic book on Jackson. The last one was published in 1998 by Walt Grayson and Gil Ford Photography and is now out of print.

A book celebrating the beauty of modern Jackson was long overdue, and Lemuria knew the work of Ken Murphy would result in one of the classiest books on Jackson — ever.

As the writer for the plate details of nearly 200 photos, your work covers eight full pages. How long did it take you to fact-check and write?

Lisa: It took me several months, but keep in mind that I was writing them at Lemuria while continuing many of my usual bookseller responsibilities.

How did you conduct the research?

Lisa: Ken requested input from every place he visited, and we received some response. I also immersed myself in every Jackson history book I could get my hands on.

The online catalog for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, along with other historical preservation sites, were great sources, as were current websites of many of the businesses.

Were there details that surprised you?

Lisa: The main courtroom in the Old Federal Building had one of the most surprising stories. It features a mural commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in 1938. Ukrainian painter Simka Simkovitch was asked to paint a typical representation of life in Mississippi. For many years, the mural was kept behind a curtain because of the reminder of the cruel injustice which was the backbone of the Old South economy. Today, the building is being repurposed as a multi-use facility and has taken on the name of Capitol & West. I think this photo of the courtroom is a great example of how Jackson is moving forward to create a new identity. We will have to see what happens to the painting.

We also included exterior and interior shots of Tougaloo’s Woodworth Chapel. The breathtaking chapel was a hub for civil rights workers.

Jackson

Photographer: Ken Evans

Publisher: Lemuria Books

Price: $75

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.

Category: Gift Books (Page 5 of 12)

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: Building Castles between here and New Orleans

Written by Jim Pathfinder Ewing

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: Heat, Redfish, and Regret

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: The Medgar Evers Historic House

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: St. Paddy’s Day Parade

Let’s Talk Jackson: Thinking about one’s thinking

Let’s Talk Jackson Guest Post: We got here as soon as we could

Let’s Talk Jackson: A spoonful of sugar

Let’s Talk Jackson: She has her grip on me

Let’s Talk Jackson: Lemuria defies e-book trend

Let’s Talk Jackson: Q&A with Ken Murphy and Lisa Newman

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