Male Southern Authors

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01]: In today's episode, we are going to discuss male Southern authors.

[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Now, Southern writers are a bit at an advantage in that the South has a powerful sense of place.

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_01]: But mostly, we know characters.

[00:00:16] [SPEAKER_01]: We are characters.

[00:00:17] [SPEAKER_01]: We come from families and neighborhoods and churches and kinfolks that our stuff you

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_01]: think is only made up, but only slightly.

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_01]: We love an embellished story.

[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: We are storytellers.

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And to be Southern is to be a good storyteller.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_01]: So join us at the table as we discuss male Southern authors.

[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Steel Magnolias Podcast.

[00:00:39] [SPEAKER_01]: We are two sisters here to have uplifting conversations about life in the South.

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_02]: The South is full of beautiful diversity in landscape, people groups and culture.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And we want to showcase each part.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_02]: We've got plenty of room at our table.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_02]: So pull up your chair.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the table.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Laura Beth.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Lainie.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And we are diving into kind of a deep subject.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it took a ton of research on this one.

[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_01]: It did.

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_01]: And if I'm honest, I've been putting this one off because it feels like you're

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_01]: never going to be able to do this subject in perfect justice.

[00:01:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, justice.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a good word.

[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say in the most honoring way that you can.

[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I don't know that I can ever do it justice.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: There's so many good Southern writers, men and women.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_02]: I know, I know.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, I mean, first of all, what is a Southern writer?

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Like, does that mean they were born here?

[00:01:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Does that mean they write about the South that they spent a majority of their

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_02]: life in the South?

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.

[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm sure we're leaving people off and will include people you think we

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_02]: shouldn't.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_02]: We did the best we could.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: That's so true.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01]: I almost texted you, like, OK, if are you just looking at people that were

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_01]: born here and then if they spent their life up in the Northeast, do they still count?

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's hard to know.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_02]: I did try to pick people who spent a majority of their time here.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. And their themes are I was going to say, and they lend them.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, everybody I have isn't doesn't have Southern themes.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_01]: That's true.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's going to be a hodgepodge.

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to do the very best we can.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: We did already do an author or excuse me, an episode on female Southern

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_01]: authors years ago.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I know. So I'll link to that episode in the show notes.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_02]: If you're one of those episodes like so many that I got schooled,

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_02]: like I'm like, OK, I need to read that.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_02]: I need to read that. Oh, I tried to read that.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I didn't like that.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_02]: That's how I was as I was researching.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And another thing I found is it seems

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_02]: to be on the in the intellectual academia

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_02]: world of being a good writer.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Your subject matter has to be heavy.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe I'm wrong. Heavy slash dark, right?

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Yes. Or like, yeah, weird or and then if you're just silly and witty,

[00:03:08] [SPEAKER_02]: you're not taken as seriously.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_02]: And in this day and age, I'm finding so much more joy in wittiness

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_02]: and cleanliness and media.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_02]: I just cut my Netflix, y'all, like literally today.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, and I'm not trying to toot my own horn.

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm just sick of it.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sick of how sleazy everything is.

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_02]: So like some of the ones I kind of have two lists,

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_02]: like the iconic ones and then the really epic fun ones.

[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, that's kind of how I divided right.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_02]: That's good. Just a little bit.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let's start with William Faulkner.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. Exactly.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Where you have to start?

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Let's start. And by the way, we've mentioned this before,

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_02]: but Mississippi, I mean, hats off to Mississippi.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Something's in the water down there

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_02]: with causing people to be able to write because they have so many.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: If I was going to write a book, I would go get an Airbnb in Mississippi

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_01]: and go to something apparently is shack up in.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Cleveland, the Delta, the Delta. Yeah.

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's just something about Mississippi.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_02]: So William Faulkner is probably the most iconic southern writer.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe do you have Mark Twain on your list?

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's true. I do.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_02]: So OK. But Faulkner.

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I kind of, yeah, I did a lot of Mississippi

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_02]: in the heavy in the beginning, but he was born in 1897.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Died in 1962.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I kind of like seeing that as I do to name because it helps you with

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_02]: what they went their era, what they lived through and stuff like that.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_02]: So he was really known a lot in the like late 20s up through the 50s

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_02]: for his books.

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_01]: We've actually gotten to visit his home there in Oxford, Mississippi.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. Very close to like the downtown Oxford.

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_01]: But yet on this beautiful estate where you feel like you must have driven

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_02]: miles, yeah, treeline. Oh my goodness.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you can see why he would want to live there.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, right. You can actually tour it.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things I thought was interesting is just like you said

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: that the ages when or the age he was alive, the span of time that he wrote

[00:05:31] [SPEAKER_01]: was like he had stuff published for like 40 years.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. That's one to Pulitzer Prizes 55 in 1963.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_02]: And also a Nobel Prize in Literature.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow. In 1949.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_02]: But he's got several famous books and.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_02]: I've tried.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_02]: They're just heavy and dark.

[00:05:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, and he's considered one of the greatest Southern Gothic riders.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And Gothic style is just that's tough.

[00:06:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Work. Yes.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_02]: There's podcasts just for that.

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. As I lay dying is probably well, that one, the sound of fury,

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_02]: the sound and the fury and Absalom, Absalom, I think are probably the three most

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_02]: famous. Yeah. But for sure, Absalom, Absalom.

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: The Flags in the Dust title, which was published in 1973 would have been

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_01]: published 10 years after his death.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So I believe that was the last publishing.

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So I said, you know, a large span of time, but 10 of that he was already

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_01]: long gone. So wow.

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_01]: OK. Interesting.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, you.

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, he's kind of known for writing this style of like a stream of consciousness.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So you can get in into the depths of someone's thoughts.

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_02]: That was kind of unique to his writing style.

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_02]: Now, maybe I have a hard time with that.

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know. Yeah.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Now we just have Facebook posts for that stream of thoughts.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. So true.

[00:07:04] [SPEAKER_02]: He also shifts from time periods and sometimes even who the narrator is.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_02]: That's very hard to follow. And that's hard to follow.

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_02]: But he's but he's pretty epic.

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he is. Let's go Mark Twain.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, let's I mean, because somebody just went, why did they say?

[00:07:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Why didn't they say Mark Twain?

[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So let's go ahead and say Mark Twain.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Samuel Langhorn Clemens.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that would be his official birth name.

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So I mean, I feel like you say Mark Twain with reverence.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, why is Mark Twain?

[00:07:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think we need to talk about that.

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm going to say 1835 to 1910.

[00:07:41] [SPEAKER_02]: And his most famous two books were

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. So Tom Sawyer came out in 1876

[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_01]: and Huck Finn was 1885.

[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_02]: And still stands the test of time as a great book.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_02]: But that's wild.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_02]: I remember the language being a little shocking in reference to race.

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, but he was actually known as being super creative

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_02]: to use wit and humor to deal with hypocrisy in Southern society

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_02]: and racial issues like he was a very much a justice for sure.

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Minded person.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I believe he was born into a slave owning family,

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_01]: but that doesn't mean that he was for it.

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Was excited about that or, you know, an advocate for that for any by any means.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, laughter brings down walls.

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: I think we all know that that's you see comedians tap into issues

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: sometimes that you're laughing at and you're like,

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe I just laughed at that.

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_01]: But it's because of the way they just they're delivering me into that.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. Yes.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_01]: So I think that's yeah, like you said,

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: that is brilliance to be able to discuss difficult issues

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_01]: like slavery, social class and with humor.

[00:08:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And so many of our Southern authors

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_02]: have tackled those hard subjects because that was a big divide in our country

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_02]: and in even not just in our country in families

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_02]: and what people thought about that.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_02]: And yes, all of that.

[00:09:16] [SPEAKER_01]: But what an incredible way to use your influence.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, how many people?

[00:09:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I don't know how many people, you know, kind of in real time

[00:09:25] [SPEAKER_01]: were reading his books, but let's just imagine the influence

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_01]: that he was shifting people's minds and perspective.

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. In a way that maybe they didn't think

[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: they were about to get walked into.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_01]: But I just think it was really interesting to think of

[00:09:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and he influenced Faulkner and he influenced Hemingway.

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And so he yeah, I'm not just yeah.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. He was he was a big deal.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Really big deal. He still is.

[00:09:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. Yes.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he influences writers today.

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_01]: So born in Missouri.

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Did we already say that?

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We did not.

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And he did live he at a very young age, four or five years old.

[00:10:09] [SPEAKER_01]: He moved with his family to Mississippi

[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_02]: and he actually worked on the Mississippi River, which I think

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_02]: or for a period of time, he did, right, which gave him a lot of

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_02]: things to write about. Yeah.

[00:10:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And characters he'd been along the way.

[00:10:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. Yeah. Go hang out near a river and oh, there's characters in a van

[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_01]: down by the river.

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And you don't need to do it to people.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. Well, I'm going back to Mississippi.

[00:10:34] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. And

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_02]: I mostly chose people who had, you know, numerous books.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. But some of these people had just such a poignant book.

[00:10:47] [SPEAKER_02]: The one hit wonder still counts that they deserved a nod.

[00:10:51] [SPEAKER_02]: And William Percy, 1885 to 1942,

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_02]: wrote an autobiography describing life in the Mississippi Delta

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_02]: called Lanterns on the Levy. OK.

[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And it dealt a lot with

[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_02]: basically like the shifts in society after slaves were emancipated.

[00:11:12] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. So there was a lot of figuring things out in that.

[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's this new normal. Right. Yes.

[00:11:18] [SPEAKER_02]: That's what his book was about.

[00:11:20] [SPEAKER_02]: And then he had a nephew named Walker Percy,

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_02]: who was born 1916 and lived up to 1990.

[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_02]: I actually have read his book, The Moviegoer. OK.

[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_02]: That was a pretty famous book.

[00:11:34] [SPEAKER_02]: It was kind of a key theme was the search for meaning

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_02]: and the decay of values in society.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. That kind of stuff interests me. For sure.

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_02]: But it's called The Moviegoer because the lead character daydreams

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_02]: a lot and finds a lot of more meaning in cinema than in his kind of routine life.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow. So that's cool.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_02]: It was an interesting thing. Yeah.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER_02]: And then he was good friends with another Mississippi author

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_02]: who was born the same year, 1916 and lived to 2005.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Shelby Foot. Yes. Yes.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_02]: His book, The Civil War, a narrative was like, I think a three.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a trilogy. Yeah.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah. So in his 88 years, he

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I thought this was interesting.

[00:12:25] [SPEAKER_01]: His process was he wrote in longhand with a dip pen.

[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_01]: 1916 and then sentences were typed up on his typewriter.

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_01]: And so his trilogy, the Civil War trilogy that you just mentioned,

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: had over one million words.

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_01]: What?

[00:12:45] [SPEAKER_01]: My hand is like getting arthritis, right?

[00:12:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Just thinking about dipping a pen.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. But yeah, he actually appeared in a Ken Burns film

[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and that brought him some fame, which he had not previously experienced.

[00:12:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Is that right? So.

[00:13:01] [SPEAKER_02]: All right. Another born in Mississippi famous dude

[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_02]: and is probably one of my favorites in this episode

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_02]: that I will mention Thomas Lanier Williams.

[00:13:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, otherwise known as Tennessee Williams.

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Yes.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_02]: So born in 1911 died in 1983.

[00:13:25] [SPEAKER_02]: His book, The Glass Menagerie was one of my favorite books

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_02]: when I was in school. Oh, cool. Very impactful.

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_02]: You know how there are certain ones that stand out?

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. So it would have been like required reading.

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Like Steinbeck stood out to me.

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_02]: There's just certain ones. Yeah.

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, Glass Menagerie was really impactful on me as a child,

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_02]: but also a streetcar named Desire in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or screenplays.

[00:13:54] [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote that became famous movies.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote a lot on the themes of gender roles,

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_02]: sexuality, family responsibility and unfulfilled desires.

[00:14:06] [SPEAKER_02]: So again, themes that kind of touch everybody.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I know. Timeless. Yeah.

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, Mississippi hits a home run.

[00:14:15] [SPEAKER_02]: I know. I love it.

[00:14:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, one more Mississippi guy.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_02]: I got to include Richard Wright 1908 to 1960.

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_02]: So he wrote a lot on racial themes, particularly being African American.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote a lot on what the

[00:14:38] [SPEAKER_02]: African Americans went through during the late 19th to mid 20th centuries,

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_02]: suffering, discrimination and violence.

[00:14:46] [SPEAKER_02]: So his two most famous works, I think, are called Black Boy and Native Son.

[00:14:52] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. So another Mississippian who deserves a nod.

[00:14:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Can we go to Pat Conroy?

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. OK.

[00:15:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Is he in South Carolina?

[00:15:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Is he in your other section?

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_02]: No movies. No, we could have been.

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. OK.

[00:15:09] [SPEAKER_02]: He had enough works that I know he's.

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. OK.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_02]: So 1945 to 2016. Wow.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Hadn't been too long.

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_02]: So recent. Pat Conroy.

[00:15:21] [SPEAKER_01]: He might be the one that's most recently passed on my list.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, so Buford is how you say

[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_01]: the South Carolina city that he calls home called home.

[00:15:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember one place says Beaufort, one place says Buford,

[00:15:38] [SPEAKER_02]: because there's a North Carolina and a South Carolina.

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't remember which is which.

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think South Carolina is Buford. OK.

[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, so, I mean, yeah, you said this could be in the

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: movie section.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_01]: But when he was just five years old,

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I read that his mother read gone with the wind to him.

[00:16:00] [SPEAKER_02]: I cannot imagine.

[00:16:02] [SPEAKER_02]: I can't imagine reading that to Jacob at almost seven.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So his mother apparently read gone with the wind every year.

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: And so I guess when he was five, I wonder he loved the sound.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: He was of the age to.

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. So the Big Chill movie was made in Buford.

[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_01]: The house is there.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_01]: OK. It's famous in that movie.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Prince of Tides was is a huge title.

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. By Pat Conroy, The Great Santini.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Those were actually all of these were made into films so far.

[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, The Great Santini is somewhat his story.

[00:16:41] [SPEAKER_02]: And I tried. It's I don't know.

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_02]: It was a very difficult book.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_02]: It's about the abuse of his that his father put on him.

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And it was just too hard.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Heavy, heavy.

[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Is is it known that it's his story?

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Or you just knew that when you started reading it?

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_02]: I knew it. I mean, it's not.

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think he shied away from saying that.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_02]: It's not like the lead character is not named Pat.

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Right. It's not a memoir.

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_02]: It's fictional. Yeah.

[00:17:07] [SPEAKER_02]: But he's kind of known for novels and memoirs like.

[00:17:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. That's.

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_02]: And and those being in the Low Country.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. Yes. He likes that Low Country setting.

[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_02]: Low Country. Yes.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_02]: I also have read beach music

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_02]: and South of Broad by him.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_02]: He also has a couple books that were about his time at the Citadel.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, he went to the Citadel.

[00:17:33] [SPEAKER_02]: So if that's of interest, the Lords of Discipline and My Losing Season,

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_02]: I think he was a football player. Oh, OK.

[00:17:41] [SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, we totally looks like he could have been a football player.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. Wow.

[00:17:45] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. So, I mean, like I said in the intro,

[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_01]: place is a powerful thing here in the South.

[00:17:53] [SPEAKER_01]: We've got some real just, I don't know, iconic places.

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: And I would put the Low Country as one of those areas.

[00:18:01] [SPEAKER_02]: You can see how it would get into your skin

[00:18:02] [SPEAKER_02]: and you'd just have to write about it. Yeah.

[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And I would put the Delta in there.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_01]: So we've covered lots of places where I would say have strong personality.

[00:18:13] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. Well, North Carolina is probably most famous, right?

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_02]: So, I think that the most famous writer would be Thomas Wolfe.

[00:18:22] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think you include him.

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I was I'm glad you went there next because I also read that Pat Conroy

[00:18:28] [SPEAKER_01]: was highly influenced by Thomas Wolfe. OK.

[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_02]: So, well, he was highly respected by Faulkner, too,

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_02]: which I think would be a pretty impressive nod to get.

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. So he was 1900 to 1938.

[00:18:41] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah. I know.

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Anybody that's lived a shorter life than you're currently at is hard to hear.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_01]: It freaks you out. It does, yes.

[00:18:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, look, Homeward Angel fictionalized his experiences in Asheville

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_02]: and kind of chronicled street he lived on and that kind of thing.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_02]: So it's it's probably, I guess, his most well known work.

[00:19:05] [SPEAKER_02]: There was one called The River.

[00:19:07] [SPEAKER_02]: You can't go home again and the web and the rock.

[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_02]: But most of his stories again, coming of age stories,

[00:19:14] [SPEAKER_02]: search for identity in the themes.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Those kind of speak to everyone, I think.

[00:19:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, for sure.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's why those are so popular and become classics

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_02]: because those themes hit us all.

[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I want to mention Peter Taylor.

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_01]: He's 1917 to 1994.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Tennesseean. Yes.

[00:19:37] [SPEAKER_01]: He's considered to be one of the finest American short story writers.

[00:19:42] [SPEAKER_01]: That's this is more my speed, short story.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_02]: I read a summons to Memphis this year.

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_01]: You did? Cool.

[00:19:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I couldn't believe how prestigious his family line is when I started

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_01]: do tell looking into it.

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_01]: His great grandfather was a private under Nathan Bedford Forest

[00:20:00] [SPEAKER_01]: in the Confederacy. Wow.

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_01]: And then Taylor's dad mentioned that these days.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_02]: That should be. I know.

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Just because of that now because you were just because of that.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_02]: We've yeah, right.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_02]: That's right. I didn't know that.

[00:20:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Seacious, but right. Yeah.

[00:20:18] [SPEAKER_01]: His dad, Peter Taylor's dad was president

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_01]: of Great American Life Insurance Company.

[00:20:24] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, Peter Taylor attended Vanderbilt University.

[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_02]: I would also add, like I said, I read that a summons to Memphis.

[00:20:32] [SPEAKER_02]: It actually won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. Wow.

[00:20:36] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's like a book about the responsibilities of parents,

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_02]: friendships between men and the relationship between

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_02]: the Old South and the New South.

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_02]: And also dealt with the theme of revenge.

[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, wow. Yeah.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Interesting. Yeah.

[00:20:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd be so interested to read in this, like today,

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_01]: what he had to say about men and friendships.

[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I think that needs to be discussed more.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think in a day and age when

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_02]: there's such a hamster wheel spinning, strive for money.

[00:21:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Peek men feel a lot of pressure

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_02]: and don't put a lot of time into relationships.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Low priority in terms of like what the.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And I know that's not a blanket every single man statement,

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_02]: but in general, in America, I would say.

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have Robert Penn Warren on your list?

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I do. All the Kingsmen received

[00:21:39] [SPEAKER_01]: a Pulitzer Prize for that title in 1947.

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_01]: What were the years that Warren was alive?

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_01]: 1905 to 1989.

[00:21:49] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, he's from Kentucky.

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Kentucky. He is amazing.

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Graduated high school at age 15.

[00:21:57] [SPEAKER_01]: His mom gave him what you would now probably call a gap year.

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Right.

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I figure people do that now.

[00:22:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Figure out your life.

[00:22:05] [SPEAKER_01]: But then so then at age 16,

[00:22:08] [SPEAKER_01]: he entered Vanderbilt University here in Nashville

[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_01]: and he graduated in the summer of 1925.

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Summa cum laude. Wow. Smart dude.

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_01]: That is unfathomable to me

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_01]: to finish high school that early and to go after your gap year to college.

[00:22:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That's wild.

[00:22:27] [SPEAKER_01]: To a, you know, difficult college.

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:22:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, now his that was a famous movie.

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, for sure.

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_02]: But pulled surprise winning book.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's actually inspired by the real life story

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_02]: of Senator Huey P. Long in Louisiana.

[00:22:45] [SPEAKER_02]: OK.

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if you if you remember me talking about when I went to Baton Rouge,

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_02]: there was a big statue to Huey P. Long

[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_02]: and their people had put flowers like very beloved.

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, that state. OK.

[00:22:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, that story, all the King's men was supposed to be

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_02]: loosely about or inspired by him. Inspired by.

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And it so I mentioned the pulled surprise,

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_02]: but it also won Best Picture in 1949.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow. So cool.

[00:23:13] [SPEAKER_02]: If you've seen that movie or want to see that movie,

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_02]: add that to your list.

[00:23:20] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a guy named Farrell Samms from 1922 to 2013.

[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow. And he was a Georgia guy.

[00:23:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Here's an interesting two job titles you don't see together very often.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_01]: He was a physician and a novelist. Oh, funny.

[00:23:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I just think that's interesting because I think if if you are a physician

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: and you have any time to write, you're writing up medical journal.

[00:23:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. Things, right?

[00:23:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that physicians don't know how to write.

[00:23:51] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying time wise. Yeah.

[00:23:53] [SPEAKER_01]: How do you write a novel?

[00:23:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I think he was one of those that like got up at four and started one of those

[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_01]: started writing.

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_01]: He was famous for Run With the Horseman,

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: which that was actually his first book,

[00:24:08] [SPEAKER_01]: and it was published in 1982 when he was already 60 years old.

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER_01]: OK. OK. Where to next?

[00:24:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, some might question this person

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_02]: because they weren't born in the South,

[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_02]: but lived a significant amount of their life in the South.

[00:24:26] [SPEAKER_02]: And that's Edgar Allen Poe. Oh, yeah.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you put him on your list.

[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't. But when you say required reading,

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_01]: that's my gosh, right? The Raven. Yes.

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_02]: 1809 to 1849.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_02]: So also not very well. He died.

[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_02]: It was mysterious. Yeah.

[00:24:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Potentially so sad. We're not sure.

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_02]: But very haunting writings.

[00:24:49] [SPEAKER_02]: Very dark themes.

[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Death, crime, guilt, paranoia.

[00:24:55] [SPEAKER_02]: Things that probably shouldn't be reading when you're in high school.

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, the Telltale Heart is a very.

[00:25:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And he did a lot of poetry, but also some stories as well.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_02]: That's the one I remember the most.

[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. The Telltale Heart.

[00:25:10] [SPEAKER_02]: The Raven was 1845.

[00:25:13] [SPEAKER_02]: So that one was the fall of the House of Usher.

[00:25:16] [SPEAKER_02]: Critics kind of recognize him for his versatility and range of talents.

[00:25:21] [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, I just see him as dark again.

[00:25:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Again, right? Dark.

[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_01]: And you could get you too could get recognized.

[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_02]: You might not have a great ending, though.

[00:25:32] [SPEAKER_02]: I'd rather I'd rather write about the light instead of the darkness.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. So where did he live?

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, he was born in Boston, but lived most of his life in Virginia

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_02]: and Maryland, which technically will allow it.

[00:25:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Maryland, even parts of Virginia, you question if we're still in the South.

[00:25:51] [SPEAKER_02]: But anyhow, Edgar Allan Poe is we'd be remiss

[00:25:55] [SPEAKER_02]: if we didn't mention him for sure.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_02]: All right. So Kentucky, born and still alive, born in 1934.

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Wendell Berry. Oh, cool.

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I just finished my book.

[00:26:08] [SPEAKER_02]: I've just finished as a Wendell Berry.

[00:26:10] [SPEAKER_02]: What was that title?

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_02]: It was called Andy Catlett. OK, so.

[00:26:15] [SPEAKER_02]: His themes are mostly rural life, community, agriculture.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_02]: He writes a lot about a fictional town in Kentucky called Port William.

[00:26:24] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. And that's where this Andy Catlett took place.

[00:26:28] [SPEAKER_02]: He's got several books and overlapping characters.

[00:26:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Like one of his titles is called Jay Burcro.

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. And he's the

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_02]: barber in the town of the book I just read.

[00:26:41] [SPEAKER_02]: So I'm like, OK, Jay Burcro, I know who he is now.

[00:26:44] [SPEAKER_02]: I love that. So anyway, very clean,

[00:26:48] [SPEAKER_02]: like just kind of sweet.

[00:26:49] [SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't say 20 years from now,

[00:26:52] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to remember the themes of this book, but it was sweet.

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. And it was actually his.

[00:26:57] [SPEAKER_02]: His name was recommended by a listener is why I thought I'm going to jump on

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_02]: and I wondered how you got to that. And I listened to it through Libby.

[00:27:04] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, Libby out. So anyway, he's a Kentucky

[00:27:09] [SPEAKER_02]: still living author that is renowned enough.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to put him on for sure.

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_02]: One more from Tennessee. Oh, yeah.

[00:27:18] [SPEAKER_02]: James Aggie. I've heard of him.

[00:27:21] [SPEAKER_02]: 1909 to 1955.

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Is it Aggie or A.G.?

[00:27:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know. A.G. maybe because we had James A.G.

[00:27:30] [SPEAKER_01]: stuff around UT's campus.

[00:27:31] [SPEAKER_01]: He went to UT. So.

[00:27:33] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's probably James A.G. OK.

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_01]: James A.G. it is a death in the family

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_02]: when the Pulitzer Prize in 1958.

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_02]: And it's an autobiographical novel based on events which occurred

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_02]: in 1915, when his father went out of town to see his own father,

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_02]: who had suffered a heart attack and on the return trip was killed in a car crash.

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, jeez.

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_02]: He also wrote a well known book called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

[00:28:08] [SPEAKER_02]: And that one looks really interesting to me because he and a photographer went

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_02]: and lived for a short period of time with some cotton farmers.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow. And took pictures and listened to their stories.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_02]: And wow. Anyway, so that's

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_02]: that is a very interesting title.

[00:28:26] [SPEAKER_02]: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Isn't that interesting? Yes.

[00:28:31] [SPEAKER_02]: And then he was the screenwriter for African Queen

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_02]: and The Night of the Hunter, which were two big movies.

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_02]: So that's pretty cool, I think.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_02]: The photographer he was with in that story that I mentioned,

[00:28:44] [SPEAKER_02]: they were living among the sharecroppers that was in Alabama.

[00:28:48] [SPEAKER_02]: And the photographer is Walker Evans.

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_02]: So you may have seen some of the images from that time.

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_02]: But it was pretty interesting because they went for eight weeks on assignment

[00:28:59] [SPEAKER_02]: for Fortune Magazine and then Fortune did not publish the article that was written.

[00:29:05] [SPEAKER_02]: And so he later turned it into a book.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, and it's now considered a masterpiece.

[00:29:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. So it's just kind of funny that

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_02]: Fortune missed out on their fortune in that particular instance.

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_01]: That's fun.

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_02]: And it was that book was actually placed among the greatest literary works

[00:29:26] [SPEAKER_02]: of the 20th century by the New York School of Journalism.

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow. It is amazing if you will actually get in with people like that's no small

[00:29:35] [SPEAKER_02]: thing to go live for eight weeks.

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_02]: No.

[00:29:40] [SPEAKER_02]: With the sharecroppers in Alabama,

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_02]: like not everybody would take that assignment. No.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's how you learn people's stories

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_01]: and see what life really looks like.

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't be a photographer because I don't know how you earn trust

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_01]: in your subject matter when it's hard things.

[00:29:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I know.

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_02]: And then there's still so weird.

[00:30:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I won't even I'm just remembering a really sad story of a

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_02]: photographer that like went to see starvation in Africa and stuff

[00:30:11] [SPEAKER_02]: and then just couldn't live with himself afterwards.

[00:30:15] [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, you kind of sometimes have to dive into the.

[00:30:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Reality to actually know what's really going on.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so kudos to James.

[00:30:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Agey, agey, agey.

[00:30:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so many writers that are still alive that I absolutely love.

[00:30:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I want to kind of move into some of the more witty fun.

[00:30:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Not that that stuff wasn't important, but right.

[00:30:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes we just need lighter themes.

[00:30:47] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes. So let's go.

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_02]: Louis Grisar. Yes.

[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah.

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's not living still.

[00:30:54] [SPEAKER_02]: He's not living, but Georgia born and raised in most of his life.

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Lived, I think 1946 to 1994 has.

[00:31:03] [SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know how many books like so many.

[00:31:06] [SPEAKER_02]: There's no way you could put them all.

[00:31:08] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to mention about all of them.

[00:31:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I have a fun fact about Louis Grisar.

[00:31:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Do tell.

[00:31:13] [SPEAKER_01]: He made his acting debut on one of our absolute favorite shows of all time.

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Designing women.

[00:31:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh, I think I saw that actually.

[00:31:24] [SPEAKER_01]: He was Clayton Sugar Baker, Julia and Suzanne's half brother.

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I did say this.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And I think he like I think his storyline was maybe he was not really all there.

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Like he had some mental.

[00:31:37] [SPEAKER_01]: OK. But he wanted to do stand up comedy or something like that.

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, Louis Grisar.

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_02]: There's a quote, I'll butcher it, but it comes from Dixie Carter.

[00:31:47] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think it comes from that show and who knows it may come from that episode

[00:31:51] [SPEAKER_02]: where it says something along the lines of here in the south, we don't put our crazy.

[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_02]: We don't hide our crazy.

[00:32:00] [SPEAKER_02]: We put them on the front porch with a drink in their hand or something like that.

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_02]: Something cute. I know you're talking about that show, man.

[00:32:07] [SPEAKER_02]: That's been printed on tea towels everywhere.

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure. Yeah, we put our crazy out on the porch.

[00:32:13] [SPEAKER_02]: I love some of his titles, though.

[00:32:15] [SPEAKER_02]: They just crack me up Elvis is dead and I don't feel so good myself.

[00:32:20] [SPEAKER_02]: If love were oil, I'd be about a quart low.

[00:32:24] [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you just yeah, that just sets a tone for for joy.

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_02]: But he's definitely a humorist known for his southern demeanor

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_02]: and just his commentary on the American South.

[00:32:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if you know Sean Dietrich from Alabama,

[00:32:43] [SPEAKER_01]: we've had him on the show a couple of times.

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_01]: He often gets compared to Lewis Grisard and by you sharing those titles.

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Don't you? Yes. You can see why.

[00:32:54] [SPEAKER_02]: If you don't know Lewis Grisard now, you're Sean's hearing the world's most

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_02]: OKist writer in that one of his like, yeah, just so cute and fine.

[00:33:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so I will comment on Sean.

[00:33:07] [SPEAKER_01]: He lives in Alabama and also right. 1982 born.

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah. Though his soul is so much older than that.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right. You would think he's at least in his 60s the way he writes.

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_01]: You don't know Sean's work.

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_01]: I would recommend starting with his memoir,

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

[00:33:25] [SPEAKER_01]: It's his life story and it is absolutely incredible.

[00:33:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So good. Get ready to buckle up.

[00:33:32] [SPEAKER_01]: It's you will laugh.

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_01]: You will cry and you love him after it.

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_01]: You will come out hopeful.

[00:33:38] [SPEAKER_01]: If you want a good daily short reading,

[00:33:41] [SPEAKER_01]: you should subscribe to Sean's blog.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_01]: He writes every day.

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_01]: He's wrote he's written for 10 years every day.

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_01]: A short story on something that happened that week, that day, that month.

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it's wild to me how even if it's a heavy topic, you leave encouraged.

[00:33:58] [SPEAKER_01]: How?

[00:33:58] [SPEAKER_01]: How did he spin it in 500 words to leave you hopeful for the not just for the day,

[00:34:04] [SPEAKER_01]: but for the American race or you know, general population?

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a really good way to start a day.

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Lift your spirits.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_02]: It is. It's started a day into day.

[00:34:14] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, whenever you do that.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, I agree.

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Especially I'll say this even in a year that's really divided in our country.

[00:34:24] [SPEAKER_01]: We get them that aren't now.

[00:34:26] [SPEAKER_02]: I know political times are the worst.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_01]: They get worse.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_01]: They get more highlighted, I guess.

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, he will he will make you put he will point out people that are still.

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it'll give you faith in humanity.

[00:34:38] [SPEAKER_01]: There you go.

[00:34:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Well said.

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_01]: He actually gave me a list of his favorites.

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, come on.

[00:34:44] [SPEAKER_01]: I know Sean was like, I can't give you a list of, you know, I'm not that well read.

[00:34:49] [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, come on, I know you're just self deprecating.

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_01]: He said, well, they're mostly all dead.

[00:34:54] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, that's almost a prerequisite.

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: I was like, no, they don't have to be alive.

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, oh, OK.

[00:35:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And then the floodgates, that floodgates opened.

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_01]: So he said in one of these that I'll mention right after Sean, actually,

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know that I knew.

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm glad that I asked him.

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Feral Sam's Erskine Caldwell, Samuel Clemens.

[00:35:18] [SPEAKER_01]: He would, of course, say, call him Samuel Clemens.

[00:35:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Winston Groom, Lewis Grisard, Carl Heisen.

[00:35:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Henry, Ambrose Spears and Shelby Foot.

[00:35:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Those are some of Sean's favorites.

[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So the name Oh, Henry didn't stand out to me.

[00:35:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Henry lived from 1862 to 1910.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_01]: He was born in North Carolina under the name William Sydney Porter.

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_01]: But he was better known as his pen name Oh, Henry.

[00:35:47] [SPEAKER_01]: If you have ever read, I feel like this this little short story goes around

[00:35:52] [SPEAKER_01]: at Christmas time every year.

[00:35:54] [SPEAKER_01]: The gift of the Magi. Oh, yeah.

[00:35:57] [SPEAKER_01]: So it's this little I mean, it's such a precious story.

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it was published in 1905.

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Tells the story of this young husband and wife

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and how they're dealing with the challenge of they don't have money

[00:36:10] [SPEAKER_01]: and they're trying to buy each other a Christmas gift in secret.

[00:36:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes. And like she ends up

[00:36:18] [SPEAKER_01]: getting receiving these expensive hair clips.

[00:36:21] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, she's cut all her hair off to sell it to him.

[00:36:25] [SPEAKER_01]: A gold watch. It's just so sweet.

[00:36:27] [SPEAKER_01]: So sweet. So I didn't know that Oh, Henry wrote that just because

[00:36:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I had awesome.

[00:36:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, really cool to know more about him

[00:36:36] [SPEAKER_01]: in that same Sean Dietrich vein would be Rick Bragg.

[00:36:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, love him born in 1959.

[00:36:42] [SPEAKER_02]: He's an Alabama guy, too.

[00:36:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. And he actually wrote it one time for the New York Times,

[00:36:50] [SPEAKER_01]: which I can't see at all.

[00:36:52] [SPEAKER_01]: He's a very regular column columnist on Southern Living's publication now.

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, he's in print every issue on the very back page.

[00:37:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Usually Rick Bragg has

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_01]: very just a one page little commentary that he writes.

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Oftentimes he does write about Alabama.

[00:37:11] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah. Well, one of his best books to me is called

[00:37:15] [SPEAKER_02]: All Over But The Shouting.

[00:37:17] [SPEAKER_02]: It's the story of Bragg's father.

[00:37:20] [SPEAKER_02]: Who was a big drinker and had a habit of running out on the people who needed him the most.

[00:37:27] [SPEAKER_02]: I really liked that one.

[00:37:30] [SPEAKER_02]: And then I really enjoyed it's kind of a food memoir and cookbook, actually.

[00:37:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Best cook in the world.

[00:37:38] [SPEAKER_02]: It's a loving tribute to his mother.

[00:37:41] [SPEAKER_02]: And maybe I liked it so much because I read this

[00:37:44] [SPEAKER_02]: at the center of the memoir is Bragg's mother, who went 18 years without a new dress

[00:37:52] [SPEAKER_02]: so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton

[00:37:56] [SPEAKER_02]: so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare.

[00:37:59] [SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, well, no wonder I like it.

[00:38:01] [SPEAKER_02]: That's our mom.

[00:38:03] [SPEAKER_02]: She's always sacrificial to you.

[00:38:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Whoa. So anyway, yeah.

[00:38:08] [SPEAKER_01]: That's sacrifice.

[00:38:09] [SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't believe I've had to give up experience.

[00:38:15] [SPEAKER_02]: If you enjoy memoirs and food, that's definitely a good read.

[00:38:21] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's very cute.

[00:38:24] [SPEAKER_02]: And Roy Blunt, Jr.

[00:38:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Did you have him on your list?

[00:38:27] [SPEAKER_02]: He's another I would put in that same category.

[00:38:30] [SPEAKER_02]: He's Georgia and Louisiana.

[00:38:32] [SPEAKER_02]: He's got, I want to say like 24 books.

[00:38:35] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow. Under his name.

[00:38:36] [SPEAKER_02]: He's also sometimes writing in some of the Southern publications.

[00:38:40] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. So you've probably seen his name, but he has a

[00:38:45] [SPEAKER_02]: bunch of books, but there's one called crackers.

[00:38:47] [SPEAKER_02]: That's really funny.

[00:38:48] [SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, he's a he's a funny Southern writer too.

[00:38:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, one of my favorites is still on the list.

[00:38:55] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, go. Nicholas Sparks.

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.

[00:38:58] [SPEAKER_02]: Did not even put him on my list.

[00:39:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Are you serious? I did not.

[00:39:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry. OK, well, listen to his first three releases in order.

[00:39:06] [SPEAKER_01]: See if any of these drinks.

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_01]: No, I know what all he's written.

[00:39:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The notebook message in a bottle.

[00:39:11] [SPEAKER_01]: A walk to remember.

[00:39:13] [SPEAKER_01]: Hi. Hello, Hollywood.

[00:39:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. Just keeping you in business over there.

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_02]: The romance.

[00:39:18] [SPEAKER_02]: He has God. Yes.

[00:39:20] [SPEAKER_02]: He's the romance God. Yes.

[00:39:23] [SPEAKER_01]: He has a new novel out called Counting Miracles

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_01]: that comes out this fall.

[00:39:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, his catalog is so, so thick.

[00:39:32] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how many novels he's written, but it's a lot.

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_01]: And he's doing a book tour.

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER_01]: So if you want to try and catch him.

[00:39:38] [SPEAKER_01]: That's fun.

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_01]: And assigning this fall, it's mostly East,

[00:39:41] [SPEAKER_01]: you know, the Eastern United States and the South a lot.

[00:39:44] [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, you can check him out.

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Nick, sure. That'll be a movie coming sometime soon, too,

[00:39:49] [SPEAKER_02]: with some handsome couple.

[00:39:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Yep. We did not.

[00:39:53] [SPEAKER_02]: I did not include because he has his own episode.

[00:39:55] [SPEAKER_02]: John Grisham. Oh, yeah.

[00:39:57] [SPEAKER_02]: Also, Mississippi, his own

[00:40:01] [SPEAKER_02]: we get huge collection of mostly, you know, law and crime stories.

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_02]: So we give him is an episode.

[00:40:09] [SPEAKER_02]: You can put a link in the notes or something.

[00:40:10] [SPEAKER_02]: If you want to dive into Grisham.

[00:40:13] [SPEAKER_02]: But anyhow, I have I'm done with my main list.

[00:40:17] [SPEAKER_02]: I just have some kind of

[00:40:21] [SPEAKER_02]: important one. Yeah.

[00:40:24] [SPEAKER_02]: Book to mention people.

[00:40:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Should we mention Ernest Hemingway?

[00:40:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Are we going to count? So I know I didn't know

[00:40:31] [SPEAKER_01]: if West Florida does not feel Southern.

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, it's so southern that it's not Southern.

[00:40:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[00:40:41] [SPEAKER_02]: And did he live most of his life in Florida?

[00:40:44] [SPEAKER_02]: Or was he? Well, we'll take him

[00:40:46] [SPEAKER_02]: because he's epic. Yeah, you can visit his house.

[00:40:49] [SPEAKER_02]: I believe you can.

[00:40:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Our parents have been there.

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. Not stuff.

[00:40:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. So if you if if those

[00:40:57] [SPEAKER_02]: if you've exhausted all of those or you just want a book

[00:41:02] [SPEAKER_02]: maybe for a vacation or something and you're like, OK,

[00:41:06] [SPEAKER_02]: I want a Southern story.

[00:41:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Put these on your list as well.

[00:41:12] [SPEAKER_02]: Charles Portis, 1933 to 2020.

[00:41:16] [SPEAKER_02]: So he's sooner died than the one on your list.

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. He's from Arkansas and he wrote True Grit,

[00:41:24] [SPEAKER_02]: which was a pretty popular movie twice now.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it was an old movie.

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_02]: And I think it got redone.

[00:41:30] [SPEAKER_02]: It did. I haven't seen it.

[00:41:31] [SPEAKER_02]: But story of revenge and very much a Western kind of story.

[00:41:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Charles Frazier still living.

[00:41:41] [SPEAKER_02]: He was born in 1950 in North Carolina.

[00:41:44] [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote Cold Mountain.

[00:41:45] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.

[00:41:46] [SPEAKER_02]: Which is a story of war and survival and community.

[00:41:50] [SPEAKER_02]: So that would be a good southern book to read.

[00:41:54] [SPEAKER_02]: Civil pre will kick off to the Civil War. Right.

[00:41:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Alfred, I have no idea how to say this.

[00:42:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Erie.

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, from Georgia was born in 1936, still living, driving Miss Daisy.

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh my goodness, of course.

[00:42:14] [SPEAKER_02]: I also love the movie The Holiday.

[00:42:18] [SPEAKER_02]: Winston Grume was on Sean Dietrich's list of favorite authors.

[00:42:23] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he was 1943 to 2020.

[00:42:26] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, for Scop.

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, hello.

[00:42:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he's from Alabama.

[00:42:30] [SPEAKER_02]: I said it's in a Wenderschon.

[00:42:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.

[00:42:34] [SPEAKER_02]: He wrote Forrest Gump and some a couple other books.

[00:42:36] [SPEAKER_02]: But that's kind of a epic one.

[00:42:40] [SPEAKER_02]: Another Tennessean, Cormac McCarthy.

[00:42:43] [SPEAKER_02]: That's his right writing name.

[00:42:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Our bookseller in our downtown area in Franklin here.

[00:42:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Here he's a ton of six.

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_01]: It's not him.

[00:42:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. Well, he wrote a book called Suchry.

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_02]: It's semi-autobiographical.

[00:43:00] [SPEAKER_02]: That's a long word of 1950s Knoxville.

[00:43:04] [SPEAKER_02]: So you might actually enjoy that one.

[00:43:07] [SPEAKER_02]: It follows a character named Cornelius Sutry

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_02]: and he it's about his former life of privilege

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_02]: and he leaves all that to become a fisherman on the Tennessee River.

[00:43:22] [SPEAKER_02]: Wow.

[00:43:22] [SPEAKER_02]: So he also wrote

[00:43:27] [SPEAKER_02]: all the pretty horses and no country for old men, which became movies.

[00:43:33] [SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, Sutry is the one I wanted to kind of highlight.

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_02]: And Cormac McCarthy is his writing name.

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember what his real name is, but anyhow.

[00:43:44] [SPEAKER_02]: And then one more, I didn't want to not mention

[00:43:48] [SPEAKER_02]: John Kennedy Tull from Mississippi, another Pulitzer Prize winning story.

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_02]: A Confederacy of Dunces.

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_02]: OK, he was 1937 to 1969.

[00:44:03] [SPEAKER_02]: And this book deals with racial

[00:44:06] [SPEAKER_02]: prejudice in the South during the 1960s.

[00:44:09] [SPEAKER_02]: OK. So it was kind of interesting

[00:44:11] [SPEAKER_02]: because Walker Percy, another author we mentioned earlier,

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_02]: he actually took this manuscript to a publisher

[00:44:19] [SPEAKER_02]: after Tull had already passed away

[00:44:22] [SPEAKER_02]: because it had been rejected when he was alive.

[00:44:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, my goodness. And it got published and

[00:44:29] [SPEAKER_02]: is now very renowned story.

[00:44:32] [SPEAKER_02]: So wow.

[00:44:34] [SPEAKER_02]: I know it's interesting how many books has that happened to

[00:44:37] [SPEAKER_02]: you know, they feel about it like a publisher.

[00:44:40] [SPEAKER_02]: He actually died of suicide, too.

[00:44:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So, see for the public, yes, we got the gift of getting it in our hands.

[00:44:48] [SPEAKER_01]: But for the author, they never knew that.

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_01]: I know to not get to open that box and see the cover.

[00:44:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Their new book, hold it in your hand.

[00:44:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I know. That's not right.

[00:45:00] [SPEAKER_01]: That's not right.

[00:45:01] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, maybe if I don't know if he had children or anything.

[00:45:04] [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, maybe he has a legacy that got to experience that anyhow.

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_02]: We've got some good authors.

[00:45:10] [SPEAKER_01]: We do. I don't know how many we just went through.

[00:45:12] [SPEAKER_01]: But like I said at the beginning, I'm sure it wasn't enough or exhaustive

[00:45:17] [SPEAKER_01]: because there's just so many authors that you know,

[00:45:20] [SPEAKER_01]: you really can't know them all.

[00:45:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But we and we have some characters like I said in my intro.

[00:45:26] [SPEAKER_02]: So did this get you kind of hungry to read more?

[00:45:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Like I even want to dive into some classics, some old Hemingway.

[00:45:33] [SPEAKER_02]: And so, you know, I wouldn't mind revisiting some of the old.

[00:45:37] [SPEAKER_02]: I haven't reread Glassman, Ashery, and so long I may dive back into that.

[00:45:41] [SPEAKER_02]: See if it moves me at all at this age, you know.

[00:45:45] [SPEAKER_01]: OK, well, happy reading.

[00:45:48] [SPEAKER_01]: You've just finished summer, so you're probably finished with maybe a beach read.

[00:45:54] [SPEAKER_01]: So now you can go heavy dark in some of these classics.

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_01]: Just kidding.

[00:45:59] [SPEAKER_02]: Well, make sure you don't dive into Edgar Allen Poe

[00:46:02] [SPEAKER_02]: or anybody like that in the winter months, because that's true.

[00:46:06] [SPEAKER_02]: That's just too much darkness at one time.

[00:46:09] [SPEAKER_01]: That is true.

[00:46:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Once it's stay in the light, stay in the light, y'all.

[00:46:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I'm really glad to get this checked off the list

[00:46:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and deserved an episode.

[00:46:19] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm really glad that we got to do this.

[00:46:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So y'all let us know your favorite Southern authors

[00:46:25] [SPEAKER_01]: that are men and what titles that we should check out of theirs.

[00:46:31] [SPEAKER_01]: In peace be with you as you read.

[00:46:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Y'all have a good week.

[00:46:39] [SPEAKER_01]: You've just listened to an episode of the Steel Magnolia's podcast,

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