Welcome to the Mississippi Writers Page Newsletter for November 28-December 4, 2003

In this issue:

• This week in Mississippi Literary History
• Author events: readings, book signings, and appearances
• On the horizon: events coming up in the weeks and months ahead

The following events all happened during this week in Mississippi history.

Year:
1729: Indians of the Natchez tribe attacked French settlers at Fort Rosalie, burning the fort and killing 138 men, 35 women, and 56 children.The Natchez revolt would spread throughout the area, with a massacre at Fort St. Pierre, overlooking the Yazoo River near present-day Redwood. The French eventually sent 1,400 men from New Orleans to drive them out of the Grand Village near Fort Rosalie; over the next two years they would lay siege to the Natchez, virtually destroying them as a nation. (Nov. 28)

1894: Librarian and etymologist Margaret Samuels Ernst was born in Natchez, Mississippi. (Dec. 4)

1905: Poet and educator Eddie Gathings McNail was born in Prairie, Mississippi. (Nov. 28)

1908: Librarian and medical writer Thomas Edward Keys was born in Greenville, Mississippi. (Dec. 2)

1923: Historian Kenneth K. Bailey was born in Coldwater, Mississippi. (Dec. 3)

1923: Malcolm Franklin was born in Shanghai, China. (Dec. 3)

1929: Philosopher John Howie was born in Jackson, Mississippi. (Dec. 3)

1930: Law professor Eugene F. Mooney was born in Jackson, Mississippi. (Dec. 2)

1932: William Faulkner published “Mountain Victory” in the Saturday Evening Post. (Dec. 3)

1934: Willie Morris was born in Jackson, Mississippi; within half a year, the family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi. (Nov. 29)

1936: English professor Walter Everett was born in Mississippi. (Nov. 28)

1937: Tennessee Williams’s play The Fugitive Kind premiered with the Mummers of St. Louis, directed by Willard Holland. (Nov. 30)

1942: Fiction writer and poet Sybil P. Estess was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. (Nov. 28)

1942: English professor Roger Johnson was born in Columbus, Mississippi. (Nov. 28)

1947: Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. At the same time the play also debuted in New Orleans (without the Broadway cast). (Dec. 3)

1951: Eudora Welty’s story “The Bride of the Innisfallen” was published by the New Yorker. (Dec. 1)

1953: William Faulkner left for Paris to begin work on the movie Land of the Pharaohs for Howard Hawks. (Nov. 30)

1960: Richard Wright died of a heart attack in Paris. (Nov. 28)

1970: I Can't Imagine Tomorrow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, by Tennessee Williams, were televised together under the title Dragon Country by New York Television Theatre. (Dec. 3)

1981: Psychiatrist Harley Cecil Shands died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm in New York City. (Dec. 4)

1998: Poet Margaret Walker Alexander died of cancer in Chicago. (Nov. 30)

October 27-Feb. 29, 2004: National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.

Passionate Observer: Photographs by Eudora Welty, highlighting over 50 of Welty’s black-and-white photographs from the 1930s, will be exhibited at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. For more details, visit the museum web site at www.nmwa.org.

If you know of upcoming literary events by or about Mississippi writers, please let us know by writing us at mwp@olemiss.edu.

The following events are planned for the coming weeks and months. You may wish to begin planning now to attend or participate.

February 12, 2004

Reading and lecture by Richard Ford. Johnson Commons Ballroom, The University of Mississippi, 7 p.m. Sponsored by the John and Renee Grisham Visiting Writers Series and the Department of English at the University of Mississippi.