The Courting of Marcus Dupree [Paperback]

Willie Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992

At the time of Marcus Dupree's birth, when Deep South racism was about to crest and shatter against the Civil Rights Movement, Willie Morris journeyed north in a circular transit peculiar to southern writers. His memoir of those years, North Toward Home, became a modern classic. In The Courting of Marcus Dupree he turned again home to Mississippi to write about the small town of Philadelphia and its favorite son, a black high-school quarterback. In Marcus Dupree, Morris found a living emblem of that baroque strain in the American character called "southern."

Beginning on the summer practice fields, Morris follows Marcus Dupree through each game of his senior varsity year. He talks with the Dupree family, the college recruiters, the coach and the school principal, some of the teachers and townspeople, and, of course, with the young man himself. As the season progresses and the seventeen-year-old Dupree attracts a degree of national attention to Philadelphia neither known nor endured since "the Troubles" of the early sixties, these conversations take on a wider significance. Willie Morris has created more than a spectator's journal. He writes here of his repatriation to a land and a people who have recovered something that fear and misdirected loyalties had once eclipsed. The result is a fascinating, unusual, and even topical work that tells a story richer than its apparent subject, for it brings the whole of the eighties South, with all its distinctive resonances, to life.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Winner of a Christopher Award in 1984 for "affirming the highest value of the human spirit," the classic account of a young black athlete who became a metaphor for the complex culture of Mississippi

Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878055851
• ISBN-13: 978-0878055852
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #244,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #89 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Tennis
  • #100 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Racket Sports

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars South Towards Home- W. Morris returns to a greater state., March 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Courting of Marcus Dupree (Paperback)

In "North Towards Home" Mississippi born author Willie Morris suggested that he was able to fully understand his home state only after he had lived for a time away from it. In "The Courting of Marcus Dupree", the inimitable Morris returns to his beloved Mississippi, acutely and painfully aware of both the greatness and the terrible tragedy of the place which has basically made Morris the writer and person he is.

Morris returned in 1980 to a radically changed and changing place, and although the locale for 80% of the book is Philadelphia, a Central Mississippi "hill" town, rather than the edge-of-the-Delta Yazoo City of his boyhood, Morris, as usual, evocatively captures the scenes, images, and activity of this town and the state as a whole, in his account of a high school senior All-State running-back and the nationwide recruiting for his talents. Actually, I remember firsthand the media sensation surrounding Marcus Dupree from Philadelphia High School in the fall of 1981, partly because I was a sophomore in high school in another Mississippi town about 150 miles away. In his descriptions of the high school and town itself, the students, the often uneasy yet usually unaffected black-white relationships by that time, and the fervor of high school athletics itself, especially fall football was all, to me, right-on-target and accurate. Morris' eye for detail in the area of social interaction; the picking up of the subtle look or gesture, or offhand comment, reported as indeed, non-fiction, rather than creating fictional characters, is one of his strong suits.

The other of Morris' strengths displayed in this book, is of course his use of a main subject, the 1981 football season for Philadelphia High School, to provide a backdrop for the greater story of how race relations had changed in that town since 1964, the infamous summer of the Schwerner/Goodman/Chaney killings etc.. Morris neither moralizes nor whitewashes, in either talking about the past or the present.

Morris lived in the small motel a few blocks from the center of town in getting his information, and basically reports the events Sports Illustrated feature story-style during the progression of the season, ultimately leading up to the climactic February post-season signing day and where Dupree would end up playing college football. Morris befriends not only Dupree, but also Dupree's family, his coach, a few of the recruiters, and gives a different angle on the situation from all sides. Marcus Dupree, although being from a lower-income black family, is supremely talented and is treated as a star by the entire community, with young people and adults alike asking him for his autograph. Of course all of this creates a ridiculous pressure for the 17 year old senior, and you can probably figure out the questions Morris raises and the problems which arise. But the strength of this narrative is, once again, the ability of Morris to create portraits of people and events which are captivating and entertaining.

The only problem with the book, (and these are my own pet problems with all of his works), is Morris' tendency to ramble off into one of his left-leaning political speeches, as if ghostwritten for the Democratic National Convention keynote speaker. But that is forgiven and forgotten quickly as he relates the poignant passage about the dying of his dog Pete at a rented hunting lodge, and his unforgettable recount of a boyhood trip with his father to an Ole Miss football game in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl in the rain in 1941,just a few weeks before Pearl Harbor.

Marcus Dupree (no giving anything away; this happened after the book was published) played briefly for the USFL and doesn't, to my knowledge, play professional football anymore. The names of the coaches of the colleges which attempted to recruit him have all since changed, in some cases, for the third or fourth time in the last 17 years. Philadelphia, Mississippi, and even the nation has changed even since then. Even so, 1981 doesn't seem all that long ago. "The Courting of Marcus Dupree" is an excellent story about football, social relations, history, and childhood memories; it is also vintage Morris, about himself, his state and his time.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An all-time favorite, August 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Courting of Marcus Dupree (Paperback)

I was expecting a good read about the recruitment of a football player, and got that along with a fascinating tale of civil rights in the South. This is on my top 20 list of the best sports books ever written, partly because it's not solely about sports.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read even if you are not a football fan, November 9, 2000

By 

V. Ravindran (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Courting of Marcus Dupree (Paperback)

As an OU fan and a person who remember Marcus Dupree light up Norman during his brief time, I was very excited to have a little bit more background on this fascinating person.

The book hits several different topics. Obviously his recruitment of many football schools at times take center stage. But much of the book also discusses the effect of a black athlete becoming a state hero in Mississippi and gaining fans of all races. The foil of Dupree's time to that of two decades earlier when three cival rights activists were brutally murdered by the Klan. And the author, Willie Morris, contrasting and comparing his life with what he sees around him while following Dupree.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a great personal account that takes you back to 1981 Mississippi, civil rights, and the power of football.