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Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary (Southern Literary Studies) Hardcover – June 21, 2006

by Joseph M. Flora (Editor), Amber Vogel (Editor)

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This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century.

What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned.

Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.

Print length

504 pages
Language

English
Publisher

LSU Press
Publication date

June 21, 2006
Dimensions

7.16 x 1.42 x 10.26 inches
ISBN-10

0807131237
ISBN-13

978-0807131237
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This revision covers writers connected to the South by birth, rearing, or subject matter. The first edition, published in 1979, proved popular with scholars and students, but much has changed in the 25 years since the original. This edition builds on a solid foundation and adds new authors to the pantheon of southern writers.

The format of the first edition was retained, but new tools such as the Internet have made revisions easier. The articles come in 3 lengths: 350 words for most authors, 750 for important figures, and 1,000 for the major ones. The 1979 edition had 379 entries, while the new edition has 604. For those writers with no new information, the original article was retained, but for others, revisions were made based on the latest scholarship, and new authors were added. Many of the newer southern writers, such as Rebecca Wells,are included. Unusual writers, such as Forrest Carter, who created the character Josey Wales, enliven the work.

The articles are arranged alphabetically by last name, and the table of contents lists author and contributor. The articles contain dates, education, marriages, children, and other biographical information that connects the writers to the South. There are some errors; for example, Margaret Mitchell's dates appear as 1889-1973 in the heading for her entry; the correct dates, which are noted in the entry text, are 1900-1949. Cross-references would have been helpful.

Southern Writers is a good, up-to-date reference work that will be of use where the previous edition was held. It is a useful guide to students, teachers, and devotees of southern literature who are interested in how an author's background affects his or her writing. Recommended for academic and large public libraries and for smaller libraries in the South. Abbie Vestal Landry
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

Bryan Giemza, Assistant Editor

Publisher ‏ : ‎ LSU Press; First Edition (June 21, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 504 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807131237
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807131237
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.29 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.16 x 1.42 x 10.26 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,602,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #565 in Literature Encyclopedias
- #618 in Reference & Collections of Biographies
- #670 in Literary History & Criticism Reference

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Good, comprehensive biography with some errors and omissions

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2013

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This book is an encyclopedia of Southern authors, from the colonial period to 2006. I do not call the book a biography of authors up to the "present" because there are many well-known Southern writers who are conspicuously absent. For example, Natasha Trethewey isn't included. Neither are Annie Dillard nor Pinckney Benedict. Though they form a majority of entries, the catalog is not limited to writers of fiction. If a non-fiction writer's body of work has a fundamental relationship with the South, chances are good that writer will be included here.

The editors have chosen to include Texas in their definition of "Southern," which is fine as long as we understand that this region is only partially represented by the entires. You won't find Larry McMurtry, John Graves, or Monroe K. Spears in these pages, but you will find Katherine Anne Porter and William Humphrey. Texas is hit and miss, with writers who more readily identify with the South (as opposed to the West) included in the catalog.

One area that is NOT hit and miss is the awesome collection of frequently overlooked colonial and early federal writers from the South. Very nice feature. We get entries for important early writers such as William Gilmore Simms and Augustus Baldwin Longstreet.

Each entry is written as one would expect. There is personal, academic and professional background, and a relatively extensive bibliography of each writer. Most of the entries are a couple of paragraphs, but more important authors get a few pages. There are no writing samples. This book is not an anthology.

The editing isn't absolutely perfect. There are minor typograhical errors, but they are very, very few. They are not a major distraction.

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Inclusion seems arbitrary

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2018

After extensively studying the sample and the list of authors covered, I am not willing to spend $45 on this book. Authors included and excluded seems to be very arbitrary. Why John S. Mosby and Albert Pike but not other Southern veterans who wrote extensively after the war? Why newspaper columnists Molly Ivans and Florence King but not Paul Greenberg and Charlie Reese? (Well I actually understand the inclusion of King no matter who else got left out.) Some of the authors covered may have been born in the South but are not really Southern writers, having been educated elsewhere, lived elsewhere for most of their lives and in general had very little to do with the South.

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reader

5 stars

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2018

Excellent read; on page 142, this book mentions a 1905 book which you may also want to read: Following the Sun-Flag: a Vain Pursuit Through Manchuria (1905)

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