Mississippi Books and Writers

Fiction by Johnny Neal Smith

Sunstone Press ($24.95, ISBN: 0865342474)

Publication date: September 1996

Confessions of an Accidental Businessman: It Takes a Lifetime to Find Wisdom

Nonfiction by James A. Autry

Berrett-Koehler ($24.95, ISBN: 1576750035)

Publication date: September 1996

Description:

This business autobiography of a corporate executive relates the management and leadership lessons which Autry, a Fortune 500 executive, has learned on his way to the top. According to Autry, knowing what to do is only part of becoming a leader; the only part is knowing how to be.

Lost Mansions of Mississippi

Nonfiction by Mary Carol Miller

University Press of Mississippi ($35.00, ISBN: 0878058885)

Publication date: September 1996

New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 1996

Short Stories edited by Shannon Ravenel; stories by William Faulkner, Ellen Douglas, et al.

Algonquin ($10.95, ISBN: 1565121554)

Publication date: September 1996

Description:

Now in its 11th year, this book has become the annual anthology to watch. The stories featured here continue the tradition of excellence, presenting the work of exciting newcomers alongside that of the established masters. This year’s volume includes “Rose of Lebanon,” a new story by the colossus of Southern literature—William Faulkner.

Midwest Book Review:

The jewel in the crown of this superlative “1996 Year’s Best” short story anthology is a new story never before published in book form by William Faulkner. The work of the other contributors measures up to the best that Faulkner had to offer in his prime. Moira Crone, Jill McCorkle, Marcia Guthridge, Robert Olen Butler, Susan Perabo, Annette Sanford, Lee Smith, Kathy Flann, Robert Morgan, Tim Gautreaux, David Gilbert, Tom Paine, J. D. Dolan, and Ellen Douglas all have one thing in common with the legendary Faulkner—they tell a story so well that the reader is caught up in the lives and events and characters from the first word to the last. New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 1996 is a “must” for all Faulkner fans, and will introduce readers to a galaxy of new names whose work is to be read just as enthusiastically!

Roads from the Bottom: A Survival Journal for America’s Black Community

Nonfiction by C.K. Chiplin and Gwen McKee

Quail Ridge Press ($15.95, ISBN: 0937552739)

Publication date: September 1996

Terror in the Night: The Klan’s Campaign Against the Jews

Nonfiction by Jack Nelson

University Press of Mississippi ($16.00, ISBN: 0878059075)

Publication date: September 1996 (Reprint Edition)

Uproar at Dancing Rabbit Creek: The Battle over Race, Class and the Environment in the New South

Nonfiction by Colin Crawford

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company ($24.00, ISBN: 020162723X)

Publication date: September 1996

Brief Review:

The creek of the title is in poor, mostly black Noxubee County, Mississippi, and the uproar was over the possible siting there of a chemical waste dump. Environmental lawyer Colin Crawford tells this cautionary, near-tragic tale from the perspective of the leaders of each faction: Martha Blackwell, the wealthy white woman who leads the opposition to the dump; Ike Brown, the political boss of the black community, who favors it; and Ed Netherland, the company man searching for a site for the dump and trying to sell it to the citizens of Noxubee. The clash of race, environmentalist fear, greed, and class makes for a fascinating story—and one without a happy ending.

Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier

Nonfiction by Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith

Smithmark Publishing (Hardcover, ISBN: 0831772204)

Publication date: September 1996

Description from Booklist:

The rarely seen and startlingly vital black-and-white photographs in this volume capture the fortitude and pride of the clear-eyed women of the frontier, women who had to practice all the tender arts of nurturing a family under the most rugged of circumstances. Peavy and Smith cut through all the myths of frontier life in their frank and engaging commentary, getting down to the cold, gritty facts under such headings as “Keeping Spirits Up,” “Night Fears,” “Warding Off Insects and Animals,” and “Little Ones Lost.” This litany alludes to the loneliness and isolation of pioneer existence, where every act, from securing clean drinking water to making clothes, required long, hard labor, and where pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood often involved as much tragedy as joy. Little-discussed issues, such as marriages between Anglo men and Indian and Hispanic women, are examined, as are the lives of women who found employment outside the homestead as teachers, physicians, businesswomen, journalists, and even prostitutes. A book as fresh and inspiring as a bright, breezy day on the plains. —Donna Seaman