“‘John Grisham sold out the South just like Hillary and Bill Clinton did!'”

Each year we marshal the troops for another subscription drive in order to bring Southern Cultures to a larger audience, and often during these efforts we encounter the war stories of subscribers who have been burned before when they’ve tried out a new read. Ed Talley from Arkansas wrote just after signing up with us that Southern Cultures “had better not be like The Oxford American. When it came time to renew, the address was some place in Beverly Hills. Not in Dixie!” For good measure, he then added that “John Grisham [famed author and major Oxford American underwriter] sold out the South just like Hillary and Bill Clinton did!” We won’t go nearly that far in our assessment of Mr. Grisham (or of The Oxford American, which we like), but we do confess to having a dust jacket photo of the novelist hanging in our office. Under his friendly visage, someone has penned a few words: “Wanted, for bankrolling the competition.”