Mississippi Books

Enhanced with more than one hundred color and b/w illustrations, Mississippi Escapade: Reliving The Grand Excursion Of 1854 is a superbly organized and presented documentation and celebration of an 1854 journey by a group of notable and fashionable people which brought worldwide attention to what was then America's western and wilderness frontier. Ten years in the making, Grand Excursion 2004 proved to be a catalyst from significant and grandiose civic improvements in more than forty Upper Mississippi communities, including Minneapolis and St. Paul. Of special note will be the largest steamboat flotilla in a hundred years that will travel the Mississippi from the Quad Cities to the Twin Cities from June 25 to July 5, 2004. A highly entertaining and informative work which is especially suited to school and community library American History collections, co-authors Paul Clifford Larson and Pamela Allen Larson are to be commended for their collaborative expertise and excellence.

We received this book at our public library after lots of anticipation. The photographs are beautiful, and it is a nice representation of the towns along the Mississippi River. The book is geared toward students; but I believe any history buff --or anyone who loves the beauty of Mississippi River towns will enjoy looking at it. The book has the breezy style of a Dorling Kindersley book; lots of information condensed and simplified for easy reading. I noticed for my particular area (McGregor, Iowa & Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin) there's misinformation (number of Ringling brothers born in McGregor is wrong (5 not 4 as is stated in the book) -- and the statement that Pike's Peak State Park is the highest point in Iowa (not true -- although it may be the highest vantage point along the river -- it's not the highest point in Iowa) This makes me think other facts are glossed over or misrepresented. Mistakes like these are rampant in history books; people tend to believe incorrect information when they don't check more than one source.

Re: Charlie Rich:

"If you're trying to find somebody who truly epitomized Memphis
music, he did it better than any other person." - Knox Phillips, "Memphis Commercial Appeal," 7/26/95.

"He will be remembered as a musician's musician...I've never
seen anybody else span the musical spectrum the way he did...
nobody, nobody, nobody ever exceeded him in versatility, in
what he could do with music." - Sam Phillips, "Billboard Magazine," 8/5/95.

"It is doubtful that any artist in the "All Music Guide" presents more of a challenge to pigeonhole than him. His roots
stretch across racial boundaries and genres in a totally
unselfconscious way." - Hank Davis, "All Music Guide," 1st edition.

"For the next two hours, in the blasted heat of that afternoon, he played the blues...his voice rolled out of that mickey mouse
P.A. system like honey and I sat in that cow pasture transfixed,
with tears in my eyes." - Michael Bane, "White Boy Singin' the
Blues," 1982.

Re: James Talley:

"He writes with a skill and a sociological relevance that places
him far above most of the current hit-makers in country music." -
Robert Hilburn, "Los Angeles Times," 3/28/76.

"What sets James Talley apart most of all is his earnestness.
The albums are testaments to the best that Nashville and country
music have to offer." - Peter Guralnick, "The Village Voice," 3/15/76.

"A true American Original sings some of the most affecting songs
imaginable..." - Gil Asakawa, "Westword Denver," 11/6/85.

"Tryin' Like the Devil" establishes Talley as one of the most
compelling, perceptive and haunting of all country and folk singers. The stories are of workingmen, their wives, their pasts, and maybe their futures. This is an honest man making honest music." - Nat Hentoff, "Cosmopolitan," 7/76.

Mr. Dickerson has a fine book and, of course, he couldn't put
every deserving artist in his book but I think the two men above should have been included. They are definitely within his "triangle." Rich was born in Colt, Arkansas, about twenty miles from Memphis, lived about the same distance in Forrest City, Arkansas for many years and then spent decades living and recording in Memphis(Sun; Hi labels) and recording in Nashville (Groove/RCA; Epic/CBS). His early career for about fifteen years was playing clubs all over the South and clubs such as the Vapors, Sharecropper and Rivermont in Memphis. Of course, he spent 1958-1962 at Sun Records in Memphis, and eventually performed all over the world. He has numerous awards and honors including the University of Memphis "Distinguished Achievement Award" in the creative and performing arts and, unfortunately to date, two deserved honors that are missing - induction into the "Rock and Roll" and "Country Music" Halls of Fame. Many
fans of his hits have no idea Rich was an excellent jazz pianist.

James Talley has lived, worked and recorded in Nashville for decades. He is a true American troubadour who writes and sings about common people and their lives. He hasn't had any "number ones" but if you can resist a ballad like "Little
Child" or the upbeat "Up from Georgia" (both from "Love Songs and the Blues" CD, Bear Family Records, 1989) with his fine voice and guitar skills, I would be mystified.

I am not going to "knock" any artists mentioned in the book but I
certainly do not agree with the "inclusion" of a few and the "exclusion" of these two brilliantly talented singers, songwriters and musicians. I would also liked to have seen a mention of Fred Ford, longtime Memphis saxman, who played with Charlie Rich, B.B King and many others.

If you read only one book this year--and you enjoy music and literature--it should be this one. It is the only book I've ever read that traces the South's musical development from Native Americans to the arrival of blues, jazz, country, and rock and roll, and then blends that history with the region's literary history.

But this well-written book is no dry history. It comes alive with interviews with the people that made music history in Memphis, Nashville, New Orleans, Muscle Shoals and the Mississippi Delta--Johnny Cash, B.B.King, Garth Brooks, Bobbie Gentry, Dr. John, Bobby Bland, Chips Moman, etc.

Any book that can make sense of William Faulkner's and Tennessee Williams' connection to Elvis Presley and Howlin' Wolf is OK by me. This book kept me awake for three nights.

I agree with Jim Frazier that this book is worth the read. This is a compelling portrait of a wickedly alluring slice of North America, replete with "boogeymen" and victims, deep wounds in the psyche of our great country begging to be healed. Scathingly simplistic photographs add to the feeling of having enjoyed a piece of cake, even though the cook forgot to frost it.Yes, folks, strange fruit still hangs from the trees in these parts. May God keep a watchful eye o'er the skies of Mississippi.

My Mississippi by Willie Morris is the quintessential guide to the Magnolia State, brilliant authors, beautiful landscapes, warts and all. Morris covers every aspect of Mississippi, its people, culture, history, landmarks, and leaders, in his own inimitable way. No one turns a phrase better than the late Morris, and this, his final effort, creates no exception to that rule. The tone is conversational, almost as if you're listening to the author holding court, as he was wont to do, at one of his favorite Jackson restaurants. It's all here--the Civil War, civil rights struggles, the old 18th Century Natchez District, the state's incomparable literary heritage, the pathetic public school system, Ole Miss football, beauty pagents, catfish farms, the histrionic Delta. All beautifully and lovingly described by Morris. The only disappointments are the photographs, which are frequently amateurish and, unlike the prose, seem oddly disconnected from their subject-- down home Mississippi. Even so, this is a great book.

Having studied the history of attitudes toward death, mourning, funerals, and the rules and etiquette that were ever changing in Great Britain and America over the past two centuries for 20 years, I always wanted to look into obituaries as well. This book is a great place to start, discussing the very changes I'd always wondered about. A fun read, too!

This book takes a look at obituaries over time in American culture. It's an interesting look at a piece of human life that often falls by the wayside. Over time our memories and conceptions concerning death, the way our lives have been led and those we have lost change. A great longitudinal study for those interested in public memory.

These interviews... They overlap and conflict with themselves, they run contrary to what we think we know about Orson. However they do make sense. The man is incredibly well read and so inteligent.

Your reaction to this man and what he says is your own, I highly recomend this to you. From a point of view looking at how the book is compiled and the editor's job this book still maintains a 5-star rating. It is well put together from interviews that span his tumultuous career. Fantastic.

I watched Citizen Kane again just before this arrived from Amazon. I read the book and then I saw one of Welles' later movies F for Fake (criterion and very highly recomended.) and that made the book and movies come to life in new and great ways.

do yourself a favor and check them out! There is nothing like hearing what the artists have to say about their work! University Press of Mississippi has a very broad series of books with interviews of film makers. I recomend, as well, takign a look at them!

For any fan of Welles, this is a must-have book, with some great pieces culled from 50 years of published newspaper and magazine articles. Just reading his words as he pontificates on a wide range of subjects, with special attention to his chosen fields of film and theatre, is to be in the presence of a wise, learned, and witty man who comes off as exuberant, vigorous and joyful, despite his physical condition during the later interviews and whatever financial problems he was embroiled in at each of the times he was interviewed. He manages to stimulate and/or revive the reader's interest in history, literature, cinema, theatre and the arts in general. I will not begrudge the editor and his team the honors they deserve for the hard work it took to compile these pieces and prepare them for the book, especially the ones that needed translating from another language.

The issue of translation, however, brings up a major problem I had. Four pieces were originally published in French, including two lengthy interviews co-conducted by the famed critic and theorist, Andre Bazin. All four are credited as being translated for this collection by Alisa Hartz. Nowhere does the editor indicate whether the interviews were conducted in English or French. Bazin's forward to the second of his interviews makes clear that it was conducted in English. Assuming this was so of all four interviews, it would mean the interviews were translated into French for their original publication and then re-translated into English for this volume, taking us two removes away from Welles' original words. Did the editor make an effort to find any original English transcripts or recordings, if they existed? I would like to have known that. Was any special effort made by the translator, when re-translating back into English, to try and capture Welles' particular style of speaking? The editor's failure to address this issue is a sore point for me. (One can, of course, turn to Peter Bogdanovich's collection of Welles interviews, "This is Orson Welles," Da Capo Press/1998, to read how Welles told some of the same stories to yet another interviewer.)

Also, minor problems stem from the constant accumulation of tantalizing hints of Welles projects-in-the-works and varying states of completion. A reference to a completed version of "Moby Dick," which Welles supposedly directed for English television, is left hanging. In more than one interview he insists that "Don Quixote" is almost finished. In one piece it is stated that he bought back "It's All True" from RKO and in the next, nearly two years later, it is stated he is still trying to find money to buy it back. He claims to have written a third of Howard Hawks' famous gender-bending comedy, "I Was a Male War Bride" and also claims that much of Buster Keaton's footage in Charlie Chaplin's "Limelight" was cut out by Chaplin. Were these claims corroborated in any way? Some explanatory footnotes would have been helpful throughout the book. Granted, other books have come along to straighten all this out, and I'm admittedly asking too much of the editor here to add to his own considerable task. But since I don't have the books that might answer the questions raised by these tidbits, I can't help but feel hungry for more.

Even so, there's tons of good material to savor, including an item about H.G. Wells suing Orson Welles over the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. There are plenty of Welles' thoughts, both positive and negative, on other film directors, including such predecessors as John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, such contemporaries as John Huston and Nicholas Ray, and such successors as Stanley Kubrick. Welles admits he would have sold his soul to play "The Godfather." His passion for Shakespeare got me to wondering what Gore Vidal, another voracious reader of the classics, thought of Welles and if they ever even met. Sure enough, at the end of the book, there's a piece by Vidal called, "Remembering Orson Welles," which answered my questions. So I recommend the book highly, despite my reservations.

Although this isn't the greatest novel ever written it is definitely a very unique and enjoyable read. Original ideas for novels are very few and far between these days so accolades have to be given to Anthony Horowitz for an outstanding effort idea wise. The book does drag on a bit in parts though especially encounters with characters you know are never going to come up again in the book as Guy chases the origin of the distasteful joke which the author goes on with in lengthy details. Still it is an interesting book and one I think most people would enjoy.

The basic plot of the book is Guy Fletcher, an actor who has very limited work and does not look like ever getting the big break goes to a seedy bar to get drunk and forget his troubles. He overhears a distasteful joke about his recently departed famous mother and comes off second best when he confronts the teller. With no hope of getting an acting part until his face heals he sets off to track down the thugs who were telling the joke, not for retribution but to find out who made up the joke as he knows the thugs would not have the intelligence to think it up themselves. His search takes him across England and it is not long before he starts to hit dead ends. As he returns to his life in London stereotypical comedy things start to happen to him such as a fly in his soup, a train station full of nuns, almost getting run over by a steamroller and being stalked by an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman, all to warn him off his pursuit. Soon as dead bodies start turning up he knows he will have to commit 100 percent to finding the source of the joke or he'll end up in jail or dead.

Other great thriller adventure books revolving around stand up comedy lines are Dan Barton's masterpieces Killer Material and Heckler.

Just like half the fun in a joke is in sharing it with others, I would also recommend and lend this book to my friends. This is probably the funniest thriller I've read. It's craftily written ("We're being attacked by stereotypes!") and doesn't bore one bit. The book starts and ends like a joke, and it follows the path of our protagonist Guy Fletcher who embarks on a mission of searching a sick joke to its origins. In the process, various jokes come to life as they try to make his quest more difficult and he gets chased by an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman, an army of nuns, posses of Jews, blacks and homosexuals, finds a fly in his soup, sees a blind man riding a bicycle etc. Ultimately, the riddle "why did the chicken cross the road" leads him to his final destination. There's a love angle thrown in, but it never becomes overbearing so as to lose the focus of the book. A great read!

I felt the book was excellent and here's why. I thoroughly enjoy Civil War history but having never been in the military, I wonder what the commanding generals consider when reviewing terrain etc. Using the framwork already provided by such remowned secondary sources such as Sear's At the Gates, the author introduces the term OCOKA and uses it eplain the criteria used to evaluate a field of battle. It was the first time I have been exposed to that concept and enjoyed the insight.

The writing was well done- not a spare word. I liked the treatment of Jackson and his underperformance due to exhaustion. And after so many books recently have attacked McClellan, the author details the excellence of his retreat- giving credit where credit is due. In short, it was an even-handed approach.

I was doubtful that anyone could possibly have something new to write about the Peninsula Campaign. Unlike other studies, this book does not dwell on what has already been written about the Peninsula Campaign, but uses the campaign to highlight the complexities of "joint" military operations. The authors argue that Major General George McClellan essentially lost the element of surprise on the Peninsula, his "turning movement" evolved into a frontal assault. Although the Union Army had mass on their side, a lack of communication with the Navy and difficult terrain further hindered the success of the operation. In addition, the author shows how McClellan failed to "synchronize his military strategy with the political," (p.161.) as illustrated by his combative working relationship with President Lincoln. I enjoyed reading the back index, which provides readers with a useful guide to the Peninsula's Civil War sites. On a negative note, the maps are really poor and of little use and the author did not use enough primary sources, citing secondary sources instead. Moreover, it would have helpful for the author to place "joint" in historical context, i.e. when the United States became succesful at such operations. Nonetheless, it was a thoughtful analysis of this early campaign.

I found two volumes of this "Conversations With Filmmakers Series" at a university library in Japan, and as soon as I could, I bought both for my personal library: Jim Jarmusch and Peter Greenaway. The reason: I think that, if you do a map of contemporary filmmaking, the North Pole and the South Pole would be these two gentlemen. Everything else is somewhere in between. I don't know if any of these two directors is actually so clear, so witty and so self aware, or if it is just good editing work, but very few times you'll find books of film criticism to be so insightful, so revealing and yet, so simple. I know this sounds vulgar, but I'd give up stuff like Film Semiotics if only the University Press of Mississippi had published more books of these series. I just ordered a third book: Akira Kurosawa.

A good way to clear the table of unwanted guests is to mention the name Peter Greenaway. These five syllables are known to cause pink cheeks and raised voices in both lovers and haters of pretentiousness in cinema. I would then recommend the perfect gift to these "art lovers": Peter Greenaway: Interviews, edited by Vernon Gras and Marguerite Gras.

One of the many aspects of Greenaway's work that I admire is the way he always causes walkouts during screenings of his films, which include The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover; A Zed and Two Noughts; and The Belly of an Architect. At every Greenaway film I have seen there have been noisy exits by disgusted moviegoers. Not only that, but total strangers have come up to me in the theater lobby and said, "Isn't that the worst movie you have ever seen?" That alone makes me a Greenaway fan for life, aside from the fact that his work is completely involving, beautiful, and lots of fun. Especially fun is Greenaway's obsession with lists and numbers, as well as his witty commentary on nature and the way that systems control information -- and life itself. A far cry from minimalism, Greenaway's films are all works of excess. And this (very) British filmmaker knows how to use multimedia in his films -- which brings up the subject of pretentiousness.

Strangely, for a man who has made over 20 films, Greenaway seems to think that after a century, cinema is pretty much a dead medium. He feels that literature and especially painting are way ahead of film, that the one thing holding back cinema is the Hollywood narrative. The problem with cinema is that it relies on books or stories, when it should be more like a painting -- which, according to Greenaway, gives a more complete picture emotionally and intellectually than a standard narrative.

Peter Greenaway is a fascinating collection of interviews from various magazines and newspapers. In some of the interviews, Greenaway comes off as an English University professor; in others as an arrogant lecturer. Personally, I like this "arrogant" stance, because his anger and frustration is pretty much on the mark when it comes to what has become of commercial cinema: generic stories shown at the local mall. The only major problem with this volume is that it doesn't include a filmography or bibliography.

In addition to making movies, Greenaway is also a painter, novelist, and curator. His latest project is Tulse Luper's Suitcase, which is a combination of cinema, CD-ROM, and a website. One can view this project as it unfolds at www.tulseluper.net

surprisingly, even though this is a recitation of many facts, stories, and tales, it is engaging reading,
the canoe battle would do itself proud in any action picture.
Also Pickett shows himself to be a forward thinking individual.
Who else (in his time) would point out the hypocracy of christians for being outraged when one of their churches is burned by native americans, but thought nothing of destroying hundreds of their holy sites.

A true indulgence into the era of earliest expansion of this country's original "west", complete with the "flavor" of the times. The language and provincial thinking, complete with unexpurgated prejudicial ideas, make for an unequaled trip back in time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Haiti, U.S. foreign policy making, diplomacy and multinational negotiations.

The name Pezzullo, for those concerned with Haiti, is infinitely divisive. Ralph Pezzullo is the son of Lawrence Pezzullo, one of the State Department's special diplomats whom the Clinton Administration contracted to force both the Cedras regime and the exiled Aristide administration to settle their dispute and come to some compromise where Aristide would return to power after his ouster in the early 1990s. Lawrence Pezzullo was likened to a devil by advocates of Aristide and far-left-leaning protesters in the United States for forcing Aristide to compromise with the Haitian military which they accused of being mass-killers.

"Plunging into Haiti" is essentially about the operations of the Clinton Administration that eventually led to the 1994 US Intervation and restoration of Aristide. I thoroughly enjoyed Ralph Pezzullo's book because it tells the same old story from the fresh, different point of view of Lawrence Pezzullo. Before reading this book the maddening indecisiveness and awkward behavior of the Clinton Administration made little sense to me. I was surprised how frustrated Pezzullo was with his fellow State Department officials, and by the discord and chaos within the US Administration itself. Perhaps this book should have been named "Plunging into the US State Department."

Needless to say, this book is blatantly one-sided and biased in favor of Lawrence Pezzullo. So: this book is only valuable if you read it with others that tell the story from different points of view. I suggest reading Paul Farmer's "Uses of Haiti" together with this book for a mind-expanding debate. Farmer slams the Clinton Administration for forcing Aristide to compromise with Cedras; while, Pezzullo feels that Aristide as a president in exile had no right to complain about US tactics to restore him to power.

Also, I really disliked how each chapter is interrupted by condensed introductory summaries of the history of Haiti. Ralph Pezzullo intended this book to serve training diplomats--BAD IDEA; because this topic is too complex, too divisive--this book is only one side of the story. This book should NOT be your introduction to Haiti. But it should definately be on your list if you are familiar with Haiti's history and have already considered different points of view.