As luck would have it, Hunter James began his employment at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the same day that Ralph McGiIl, the newspaper's celebrated columnist, won a Pulitzer Prize. With excitement all around and his mind pondering the McGiIl legend, James had difficulty completing his assigned task of rewriting civic club announcements. It was not the only time from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s that the author found himself somewhat out of sync with events swirling in the South.