From Publishers Weekly
In her introduction to this attractive album, Howorth, who teaches Southern culture at the University of Mississippi, observes that there are many Souths: gracious living and literary sophistication have coexisted with violence, prejudice and illiteracy. Juxtaposing letters, memoirs, essays, stories, eyewitness accounts, song lyrics and poems with paintings, sculpture, etchings and folk art, this volume provides a revealing window on Southern life and art in all its diversity. "Outsiders" such as Alexis de Toqueville and Bostonian Henry Adams take a wickedly incisive look at the Old South while the convulsions of the modern South and the 20th-century efflorescence of Southern writing are reflected in selections by Richard Wright, Wendell Berry, Alice Walker, Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and others. Also featured in this panorama are Romare Bearden's paintings, Harriet Powers's narrative quilts, Walker Evans's photographs and writings by Rosa Parks, Truman Capote, W. C. Handy and Jean Toomer.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This richly illustrated volume is published in connection with the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture and has a brief but cogent introduction by Howorth, who works at the center. Illustrated with both black-and-white and color reproductions of Southern art, from 18th-century oils to mixed-media works by Robert Rauschenberg, it is nonetheless more than a coffee-table extravaganza. In fact, the illustrations are beautifully arranged to coincide with an extensive, chronologically organized array of prose writing by Southerners, from William Byrd to William Styron. This handsome volume offers both a history of the region and an attempt to define honestly the Southern character. For both lay readers and scholars.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
