The Oxford Book of the American South: Testimony, Memory, and Fiction [Hardcover]

Bradley C. Mittendorf (Author), Edward L. Ayers (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1997

The Oxford Book of the American South resonates with the words of black people and white, women and men, the powerless as well as the powerful. The collection presents the most telling fiction and nonfiction produced in the South from the late eighteenth century to the present. Renowned authors such as James Agee, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Lee Smith, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor appear in these pages, but so do people whose writing did not immediately reach a large audience. For example, Harriet A. Jacobs' book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, which is now recognized as one of the most illuminating narratives of a former slave, was neglected for generations. And Sarah Morgan's powerful Civil War Diary has only recently come to widespread attention. The Oxford Book of the American South presents compelling autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and journalism as well as stories and selections from novels, and runs the spectrum from the conservative to the radical, the traditional to the innovative. Editors Edward L. Ayers and Bradley C. Mittendorf have arranged these diverse readings so that they fit together into a rich mosaic of Southern life and history. The sections of the book The Old South, The Civil War and Its Consequences, Hard Times, and The Turning unfold a vivid record of life below the Mason Dixon line. We see the antebellum period both from the perspective of those who experienced it first-hand, such as Thomas Jefferson and former slaves Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass, and then from the perspective of authors looking back on that era, including William Styron and Sherley Anne Williams. Likewise, we see the Civil War through the eyes of witnesses such as Sam Watkins, through the eyes of later writers trying to make sense of the conflict, such as Robert Penn Warren, and through the eyes of those using the war's intense passions to fuel their fiction, such as Margaret Mitchell and Barry Hannah. The classic authors of the Southern Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s appear here in the context of the hard times in which they wrote. The years since World War II are chronicled in the powerful words of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," George Garrett's "Good bye, Good bye, Be Always Kind and True," and Peter Taylor's "The Decline and Fall of the Episcopal Church, in the Year of Our Lord 1952." The editors have selected these readings, their Preface tells us, to convey "the passions that have surfaced time and again in more than two hundred years of Southern writing." Indeed, the struggles, defeats, and triumphs chronicled inThe Oxford Book of the American South speak not just to the South, but to all of the American experience. They document and evoke some of the most dramatic episodes in the nation's life

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Ayers (history, Univ. of Virginia) and Mittendorf, a writer and political consultant, here delve into both Southern fiction and nonfiction, trying to create a unified book rather than a series of unconnected writings by Southerners about the South. Diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays from over 50 writers from the Colonial period to the present represent a variety of social, racial, and gender groups. The anthology is divided into four sections that correspond to major periods of Southern history. A brief introductory essay by the editors relates the history of the era and establishes the emotional and philosophical mood of the times. Within each section, the editors have attempted to present the period as an unfolding drama, with eyewitness accounts followed by writers of subsequent generations who view the era. The editors acknowledge that several genres such as poetry, folklore, and professional history have been omitted because they could find no effective way to integrate them with the remainder of the volume. For a more specialized view, the multivolume Georgia Voices (Vol 1: LJ 11/1/92; Vol 2: LJ 7/94) offers the reader an excellent anthology. The Oxford Book of the American South is an ambitious publication that the general reader will find useful.?Charles C. Hay III, Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Can anyone deny that southern prose writing represents one of the most vital segments in the American canon? Well, let someone try to deny it after sampling this anthology, which gathers the best from far and wide throughout the history of the literature of the South. Not limiting themselves to fiction (short stories and novels, either in full or in extract), the editors also gather memoirs, diaries, and essays. From both genders and races, from opposite poles on the economic scale, from an eighteenth-century naturalist to a former slave, from Thomas Jefferson to Eudora Welty, these writings give ringing voice to the experiences that have engendered a distinctive southern culture. Brad Hooper

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1St Edition edition (April 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195085221
• ISBN-13: 978-0195085228
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #260,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good overview, October 11, 2000

By 

Stephanie B Williams (Charlotte, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oxford Book of the American South: Testimony, Memory, and Fiction (Hardcover)

As far as anthologies go, with a name like "Oxford," you know it is going to be quality. And it is. As a teacher of Southern Literature, I use this for my classes, and i don't get bored because I can choose from a variety of time periods, writers, and literary forms. I learn from this book and enjoy it at the same time--and so do my students.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant, masterful., February 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Oxford Book of the American South: Testimony, Memory, and Fiction (Hardcover)

From the p.c. of the historian of the south comes another elegant, masterful work. Precise and felicitous with his language, Edward Ayers weaves a rich and descriptive tapestry integrating social, literary, and political history into a descriptive masterpiece which, with characteristic richness and depth, captures the essence of the South he so remarkably presented in Promise of the New South. It's a must read for any student of the South