Barthelme brothers indicted for cheating at blackjack
March 1998
Mississippi writers Frederick
and Steven
Barthelme have been indicted for violating Mississippi's state gaming
laws after they were accused of cheating at blackjack at a casino in Gulfport,
The New York Times reported. A trial date is set for April 13. If convicted,
both men could face up to two years in prison. In an ironic twist, Frederick
Barthelme's most recent book is titled Bob the Gambler, in which a middle-class
architect from Texas finds exhilaration in losing while gambling. Though Barthelme
concedes there are parallels between the book's protagonist and himself (likewise
a Texan and former draftsman), the author has said the book is not autobiographical.
The Barthelmes will be represented in court by Boyce Holleman, a former district
attorney who is also a part-time professional actor with several movies to his
credit. The Gulfport courthouse where their case will be heard is located on
Boyce Holleman Boulevard.
Mississippi writer and comedian Jerry
Clower died in Jackson, Mississippi, on August 24, 1998, five days after
undergoing heart surgery. He was 71 years old. Renowned for his comic tales
of rural life in Mississippi, Clower released his first comedy album in 1970
and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry three years later. In addition, he
wrote four books.
Mississippi writer Margaret
Walker Alexander died in Chicago on November 30, 1998. She was 83 years
old. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1915, she went on to chronicle in poetry
and prose her life as a black woman in the Deep South. She is best known for
her poem "For My People," which won the Yale Award for young poets in 1942,
and Jubilee, a 1966 novel which tells the life story of the daughter
of a slave and a white plantation owner.
Uncollected story by Eudora Welty published
December 1998
A story by Eudora
Welty not previously published in any of her short story collections
has been published in the Winter 1998-1999 issue of Brightleaf
Review. "Hello and Goodbye," a humorous early short story first published
in The Atlantic in 1940, is the centerpiece of a 14-page special section
honoring Welty that includes a tribute by Mississippi writer Anthony Grooms,
a profile of Miss Welty by Boston writer Sally Jacobs, and reviews of Welty's
recently released Collected Works and Ann Waldron's new biography.