Vol. 9, No. 2: Summer 2003

Vol. 9, No. 2: Summer 2003

Is it true that a woman once threw a punch at Shelby Foote and hit Walker Percy? Is that Dollar Bill on the diner radio again? Do southern birds of a feather really flock together? Who said that he must be measured by his soul? Did you ever thank God for the weather and yourself for that brand new transmission? Does anyone remember Top Hat and Zip Coon? Have you ever searched the fruits of your memory for an orchard where snakes rise from the dead? Summer 2003 answers all these and more!

Front Porch: Summer 2003

by Harry L. Watson

"Take a little Shakespeare here, add a little Scripture there, rework a bad joke, and voilĂ , another masterpiece."

A Conspiracy of Dunces? Walker Percy’s Humor and the Chance of a Last Laugh

by Bryan Albin Giemza

"Percy took a punch intended for Foote -- from an outraged woman, no less -- and had the good grace to earmark the scene for fictional purposes."

Quoting, Merging, and Sampling the Dream: Martin Luther King and Vernon Johns

by Ralph Luker

"'I must be measured by my soul -- the mind is the standard of the man.'"

To the Land I Am Bound: A Journey Into Sacred Harp

by David L. Carlton

"As I found myself climbing over clay and gravel, negotiating switchbacks and sudden steep upgrades, I found myself thanking God for the weather and myself for my brand new transmission."

Images of African Americans in Southern Painting, 1840-1940

by A. Everette James

"Southern paintings showed African Americans as largely dehumanized caricatures, black stereotypes rather than distinct individuals."

Dollar Bill

by Michael Chitwood

"Outside, in the parking lot, sparrows bathe in the dust. Empires rise and fall. He'll notice and say nothing of it on the air.""

Birds of a Feather

by John Shelton Reed

"Do southerners prefer one another's company?"

The Fruits of Memory

by Amy E. Weldon

"The orchard was still hot, still rustling and green, still haunted by the terror of snake bodies writhing to life under your feet."

The Last Days of Big Grassy Fork (Review)

by Fred C. Hobson

University of Kentucky Press, 2002.

Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History (Review)

by David W. Blight

Louisiana State University Press, 2002.

Don’t Get Above Your Raisin’: Country Music and the Southern Working Class (Review)

by Patrick Huber

University of Illinois Press, 2002.