Mississippi Books

No other fair in the nation is really a family gathering like the Neshoba County Fair. This fair was founded in the late 19th century to show produce and good cows and horses. It slowly grew so that families built houses to eat, laugh, and forget the everyday life. As time passed, horse racing and special days were set aside, one of the most notable is when politicians speak. Ronald Reagen was so happy to come to the fair and anyone running for state office in Mississippi finds a way to the fair. For the geneologist, the book is filled with facts and pictures and for a son or grandson of Mississippi it is wonderful.

James W. Silver was a brave professor at the University of Mississippi in the days when bravery was not a desired commodity. He moved to Oxford, MS in the same year that Hodding Carter, Jr. moved across the river to Greenville; both men would take on the powers that be in the Magnolia state, fighting racism through the written word. Silver's book was one of the earliest to give a clear picture of the modern civil rights movement focusing on Mississippi. It is a real treasure and his theories appear to still hold today. This book is out of print but can still be found and is a must for any civil rights library.

This was the first book ever published on the Irish in Missouri (1984). It covers the entire state, but the main focus is on Kansas City, St. Louis, and the Irish Wilderness. This book is great for historians and for genealogists. There is a new edition in soft cover with added and updated pages (264 pages), The original title was "Irish Settlers on the American Frontier". The title of the new edition is Missouri Irish and is just now being released.

This is exactly what I was looking for...a detailed month by month explanation of what to plant and when to plant it in this area.

Eudora Welty is I believe the only author to be honored with a second volume in the "Conversations with" series published by Univerisity of Mississippi - but that has less to do with state pride on their queen of letters than the fact that Welty thoroughly deserves a second volume, not only because of her importance as a writer but because of her keen insights on writing, literature, and life. Ever gracious, she always went out of her way for an interviewer, never treating journalists as if they were pests that had to be dealt with on occasion like some writers. I confess I enjoy reading about Miss Welty almost as much as I do reading her own works, it's so rare to find a major author with such humanity, good humor, and grace. Aspiring authors would do well not just to study her work but to study the woman, Miss Welty was a role model on every level.

A sweet note to me from Mort Walker: "Dear Jason, I got the book today and it's beautiful! I read some of it this morning and had a great time remembering a lot of stuff I'd forgotten. Thanks for all your hard work and devotion. Sincerely, Mort."

Mort Walker has said that a successful comic strip character should be instantly recognizable. We should immediately understand who he is and what he's about. Walker calls this "see-ability" and "readability." Publishing professionally as a child prodigy at the age of eleven, and going on to hold numerous positions as an editor, designer, and creator of nine syndicated strips, it is ironic that Walker's most recognized character is known as the laziest fellow in the funny pages.

This volume begins with a syndicated article from 1938, which ran with the photograph of Walker at his drawing table, a sailor's cap perched back on his head. Walker's young face beams with joy and ambition. He seems to embody the Joseph Campbell catch phrase, "Find your bliss." In 1989, Bill Watterson addressed a festival at Ohio State University, expressing that the comic pages were full of doddering, dinosaur strips. A similar plea by Berkley Breathed came in 2003, asking the old guard to step aside in order to make room for younger creators. In both cases, Walker responded in Cartoonist Profiles (#89, #139), re-stating his devotion to his work. To Breathed he wrote, "I love what I'm doing. It would kill me to be told to quit." Walker's continued enthusiasm reveals that the boy with the sailor cap continues to beam from the drawing board, and that to "follow one's bliss" remains as valid and vital at age fourteen as it does at age eighty. Indeed, as this collection illustrates, that is Mort Walker's "see-ability" and "readability" as a character.


Mort Walker Conversations collects interviews and articles that span from 1938 to 2004. His engagement with the Museum of Cartoon Art- which he founded- is discussed in these pieces, along with the politics involved in working with cartoonists' unions, artistic communities, and syndicates. In these conversations Walker shows how he has managed to keep his art and stories fresh for over seventy years of production.

I had a blast reviewing interviews and articles from Mort's long career, and an even bigger blast spending time with Mort and his assistant, Bill Janocha, while I prepared this book. So many great comic strips have sprung from this self-proclaimed "human inventing machine." And for a year before launching Beetle, he was even the top-selling magazine cartoonist in the country. Mort's done it all, and it's really interesting to read through his colorful history of conversations about writing, drawing, and about working with many of the greats on strips and in the NCS, like Dik Browne, Rube Goldberg, Charles Schulz, Al Capp, Milt Caniff, and Walt Kelly.

Most of the pieces in this volume are quite rare, including a number of interviews Mort gave on television with Mike Peters and Bruce Blitz, and special interviews with me, Lee Nordling, and Bill Janocha. Mort Walker Conversations is an excellent resource for those interested in Walker's career and about the world of comic strips. Fans should also seek out these books by Walker: Backstage at the Strips and Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook.

"Mother wit" is a slang term in African-American folklore. It refers to the ability to use common sense in daily life. This book is an excellent collection of essays and articles that shows how folklore is related to the idea of mother wit. Dundes looks at stories, jokes, toasts, proverbs, song lyrics, riddles, and numerous folklore genres to analyze important issues in black history and culture. The "laughing barrel" refers to the ability to laugh surreptitiously at absurd, challenging situations. In this book's title and contents, Dundes' combines mother wit with the laughing barrel to provide insights into important themes in African-American folklore.

Ferguson does not come across as a seasoned writer, but word has it he was advised by a confidant to re-write it to a child's level. While children could get a kick out of the stories, I enjoyed this book as an adult and could see many others liking it, too. I did not grow up during that time, but the heart and thoughts he puts on paper make the reader feel as if he or she is right there with him and his family. They start off getting forced out of Alabama by moonshiners, because Ferguson's father was a state agent. They end up in a quite different world, where both heartbreak and humor abound. Read this book no matter how old or young you are. You will not be disappointed.

There is a saying that, "A Picture is worth a Thousand Words." In this case, that is more than true. Words alone could not describe the beauty and emotion that is alive in these pictures.

With this book, Jack Kotz takes the "reader" on a journey though his life, and the lives of people that have influenced him greatly. The title of the book concerns his grandmother, Myrtle Booth, and the garden is, to put it simply, her world. The photographs show a mixture of the desolation and the beauty that can be found in rural Mississippi and Tennessee. Words don't really describe the effect that the morning fog has as it slowly rolls across the gardens and the sunlight breaks through the clouds striking the differing textures of the vegetables in all their variety of colors so Jack has attempted this with his camera.

You are taken on a journey here with Ms. Booth as she visits the church where she performed her duties to the community and the Lord as organist for 70 plus years, You see the ladies and their quilts which vibrate with color. You meet what seems to be plain country folk who, as you get to know them through the pictures, come alive with a variety of experience that would astound the casual person.

You see the beauty that Jack has grown with as the sunlight reflects off the moss of the dark green pond and then note the lights of the few lamps as dusk slowly falls across the town or the storm approaches over the plains.

You are taken over a journey through a town kept alive by its grocery store and the church and then you find the strange beauty of a household freezer as you see the colors of all the vegetables spring into your eyes.

Finally you see the spirit of Ms. Booth as she is constantly on the move. Age seems to have slowed her but not stopped her. First she is with a cane, then a walker, then a wheelchair but always she is moving forward and facing life with a zest that seems to have strongly affected her oldest grandson.

I say that with knowledge and pride being Ms. Booth's youngest grandson. I received the book today and looked at it at my office. The pictures brought many memories and emotions rushing back to me. At times I just stopped and felt myself drawn into the picture. I felt the air as it closed around me, sometimes hot with humidity and sometimes cool. I heard the birds in the background and sometimes even the logging trucks as they roared down the highway. I smelled the air, sometimes redolent with auromas that can be found in the country and other times full with the smell of corn bread, fried chicken, and peach pies. I saw my grandmother as she would slowly march forward through life stopping to inspect and everything until she was satisfied and then moving on to her next stopping point. I also saw Jack. I saw him walking through the country and stopping as the mixture of light and shadows caught his eye. I saw him driving down the road and having to stop to take a picture as he saw the clouds slowly obscure the mountain that he was viewing. I saw Jack and Ms. Booth walking hand and hand through her garden...and it was breathtaking.

Ray Lum's tells a pretty good set of stories in this book. The books format was concise and easy to follow and Lum's stories relate well with the comings and goings of the horse and mule market of the 30's, 40's and 50's. This is a very entertaining read, especially for those Ben Green fans who need some more material. The only drawback comes when Lum starts skipping around in his stories and gets the reader a little lost. But, he is always able to bring the reader back and finish the original story.