Tennessee Books

Received my book "The French Broad", and I am really pleased with the book. If I find a book that has a hand written message to someone, I am delighted. Really pleased with the book, and the arrival was FAST. Be back to see you...

Wilma Dykeman spent six months in the early 1950's, driving with her husband through the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee to research this book. She spoke with local farmers and loggers, visited libraries and newspaper offices, and read numerous accounts of the history of the French Broad River bioregion. The result is a very solid history of the region, spiced with plenty of local color. Although her prose is at times dry, and although her attempts to include quotations and jokes from local people sometimes come off as awkward, her fidelity to the people who are the subjects of her book is unwavering, and she makes numerous insights about the region's history and future which remain true today. The chapter, "Who Killed the French Broad?" is particularly prophetic; no doubt Ms. Dykeman must be happy in her Newport, Tennessee, home to see that the river runs cleaner than it did back in 1955, when the book was first published. A classy book by a classy woman.

This is one of the two best books I've ever come across regarding the NFL and professional football (Michael Maccambridge's "America's Game" being the other). It's impeccably researched and documented throughout. Truly a masterful job by the author of digging-up the obscure history of our now biggest sporting league. Makes you wonder how the NFL ever got to where it currently is.

If you like pro football history, put this one on the top of your list!

~PRSRTR

The publisher's latest entry into its Sport and Popular Culture Series follows how professional football rose from its humble beginnings of sometimes practically unknown local teams to become the business powerhouse that it is today with super-rich businesspersons lining up to buy teams and corporate sponsors competing in putting their names on stadiums. Over the course of this rise to wealth and glamor, pro football pragmatists, owners, investors, and visionaries made optimum and sometimes imaginative use of every resource available to them--including playing on civic pride, locating in growing cities, partnering with politicians, developing a national reach, in 1967 initiating the annual Super Bowl, and in recent years engaging with the media and appealing to the allure of celebrity. One of the veins of this impressive growth was the changeover of the image of the football player from a roughneck or lower-class laborer to a multifaceted individual with outstanding athletic skills usually with a college background. In the mid 1900s, football and its players started in a hole with respect to image and business prospects compared with baseball and basketball. Coenen, a history teacher at a New Jersey community college, tells the full story of how professional football not only dug itself out of this hole, but went on to build a hill for itself which now rises over these other sports.

Anyone who has visited or will visit any of these five parks needs to read this book. The veterans as Tim Smith shows us wanted posterity to remember what they did. The memorials remind us of their sacrifice. This is easily readable, informative and has great notes and bibliography. In short- an excellant volume that deserves wide circulation and sales. Cant wait to see what his next book will be.

A couple of years ago, in talking with one of our authors, I observed we badly need a book on the establishment of the National Military Parks. He agreed but said that the book would not have a great market and he doubted we would ever see this book in print. Timothy B. Smith and the University Tennessee Press have decided the need overcomes the possibility of low sales. Smith has already written a well-received history of the Shiloh Park. Now he brings his very readable style to all the parks and the era of Reconciliation. The resulting book is great fun to read and very informative for park visitors and the causal student of American history.
The book is a comprehensive treatment of preservation efforts from 1861 to 1933. The chapter on efforts from 1861 to 1890 shows how important this was to the veterans. This is followed with a very solid section on Congress, the War Department and the parks from 1890 to 1933. This traces the ups & downs of the parks as preservation gave way to training facilities.
Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga are the original parks founded by the veterans. Each park has about 30 pages of information on development and the infighting that occurred. This is a story of high-minded people, sneaky deeds, fraud and outright battles. Even as Reconciliation was progressing, men were unwilling to accept less than they thought their due. The book ends with "The Golden Age Reassessed" and an Epilogue on the state of preservation.
This is an excellent book for the Civil War person who visits the parks or for those who wish they could.

This book is one of my favorite books about Elvis/Graceland, and I have several! The pictures are fabulous and the biography of Elvis in the beginning of the book is very tastefully and truthfully written. If you only have 1 book about Elvis, this would be THE book. I have been to Graceland 2 times and wish I had read this book before I visited....but now I look at the pictures and read the interesting narratives and I am taken back to Graceland over and over again. Thanks to the phtographer, writer, and Todd Morgan from Graceland for giving us a remarkable book!

Beautiful pictures, truly great text full of interesting citations and quotes that book his definitely the best about the house Elvis presley live in; Graceland. Sure, a beautiful mansion but with also an history "hors du commun"! If your wish is to visit Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee and you just can't that book is for you. You can trust me 'cause I've been there and it's simply amazing at how the images reflect all the appartments with the real dimensions, maybe it's more interesting then the tour himself because that show you from impossible angle how Elvis could see his home. It's a big book, very well illustrated, rich in words and descriptions, the one of a kind "Graceland Dictionnary". I'm sure that this book would still remain a treasure in his own subject! Look at Graceland by theses pages, you won't believe it!

Such a wonderful, thoughtful book to read. Harmony, A girl with a breliant way of life..an amazing presonality and a great view to life. i like Rita murphy and her type of writing her books, such a book. poeple with a goal in life and a very strong feeling with there spirte, are willing to read this book. the book amazed me and probubly Rita Murphy will be my Writter.

Is it real? Did Harmony really fall from the stars into the chicken coop? Does she really have ESP? Did she really save the "Old People" from the logging company? It's all magic, and beautifully written, including desire and wishes and the beauty of the stars and heaven and nature and love and caring and, well, you make your wishes and see what happens!
This book is a jewel.

The events surrounding Hawk's Nest is possibly one of the sadest events in American history. This book captures in detail those events in a profoundly moving and real fashion. Following the lives of the men, women, and children who lived to see a their lives turn into a nightmare, Skidmore paints a picture of hope, fear, and desperation. Skidmore's extensive understanding of the people and the events along with his magnificent story telling make this book a classic in every sense of the word. This is one of the few books I have ever recomended for family and friends and I cannot recomend it enough.

My mother was born and raised 15 miles "up the road" from the location of this event. She was in high school at the time the tunnel was being built. She did not know anything about this. The people in the story were invisible, even to most locals. How is it possible? It is one of the best books I have ever read. Anyone, anywhere, could read this book and never, ever forget it. I recommend it without hesitation to people who care about the human condition. You will not be able to put it down. It is unbelievable and sad.

Absolutely the best source of material on hiking Big South Fork. Couple this with the Trails Illustrated map and you have everything you need but the ambition, and you'll need plenty of that.

This is perhaps the sine qua non of trail guides. You will be able to explore the Big South Fork with comfort and ease using Deavers book. If you want day hikes or more challenging distance hikes, this book will help you make your plans. Trail sections are thouroughly explained. Interesting information about the geology and cultural history abound.

If you want to understand the making of great literature, I recommend reading this biography of Tennessee Williams. Written by the playwright's brother Dakin and best selling author Shepherd Mead, this book provides an unparalleled look at the details of Williams' personal and professional life -- and the broad context in which he lived it. It makes the case that the creation of literary art is immeasurably complex, incalculably random, and probably painful. A successful author must do infinitely more than "Pass Go and Collect $200".

In this biography we learn of Williams' unbelievable drive to express himself through the written word. With an inborn skill and restless energy, he strove to express his innermost feelings, and he did so with an honesty that stripped naked his tortured soul.

To Williams, life was a contest between the demons and angels that dwell within us all. It was a competition between the noblest human aspirations and the undisciplined indulgence of the basest human urges. But more than this, Williams drew his material from acute yet sympathetic observations of the entire human race, from the mighty to the dregs of society. To this, Williams added a creative use of symbols more powerful in eliciting emotions and comprehension than a mere reconstruction of graphic reality.

Lest one think all of this came easily for Williams, his daily routine usually began with writing at the crack of dawn, fueled by strong black coffee, and proceeded uninterrupted until lunch time. Ideas for plays often began as poems, evolved through one-act plays, and then grew into full fledged films and dramas -- a process that could span even decades and then conclude with new lines written during rehearsal.

One final note: Williams' success also depended on the fortunate and unfortunate happenings of life, happenings beyond a grand plan -- chance meetings with producers, directors, actors and actresses who were perfectly suited -- or incompetent -- for projecting the messages Williams committed to paper. All of us depend at some point on "the kindness of strangers."

If you want to know more about these things, you should read this truly "intimate biography" of Tennessee Williams, one of the world's greatest and most honored dramatists, from his birth in Mississippi as the son of a traveling salesman for a men's clothing company, to the unnatural end of his life in a New York City luxury apartment.

This book was written by Dakin Williams who was the brother of Tennesee Williams. Dakin describes his brother's early attempts at trying to achieve Literary Fame , his troubled relationship with his mother and his inner demons which made him succumb to the temption of alcohol and drugs. Dakin is of the belief that his brother was murdered. I gues this is to be expected when you have trouble opening up the plastic top of a bottle of Seconal which leads to a most unique departure from this "Mortal Coil" I give this book 5 stars because no doubt every Literary Critic who loves plays about hysterical, nuerotic, emotionally disturbed and needy characters will love this offfering.

"The best photographic book of the Grand Ole Opry. A must have for the country music lover."

This wonderful photojournal is for the reader who wishes to follow along in a photo album, having a good time remembering the days of the "true" country sound, belted out by some great country artists. No make-up artists for these pictures, shown just as it really happened, on and off the stage, with many of the people you grew to love on the radio and TV. Many scenes from the dressing rooms as they rehearsed, and you can even see the sweat on their brows in some photographs, for the Ryman did not have AC. This is a great collector's edition, and every fan of the true country sound will find it a delightful addition to their library.
I highly recommend this wonderful book. I worked there during these years, as an usherette, and it is just like it looked when it happened.
The longest aired radio program in the world spent many years in this wonderful old tabernacle. ENJOY!
Nancy Turner Brown

This book collects most of the written material available and includes actual person-to-person contact to document the Primitive Baptist Universalist church in Central Appalachia. Well-researched and well-written, this book describes a religious group that is remarkable for its openness and extreme forgiveness in a region traditionally viewed as fundamentalist, crude, and harsh. Readers must wade through excessive detail at times but if they persevere, the detail helps to color in the shades of this unique group.

In the Hands of a Happy God is a superb introduction to a kinder view of religion and especially of the doctrine of atonement. Dr. Dorgan, in an easy-to-read but quite scholarly way, shows how the notion of universal salvation enlivens a religious view that can be rather dreadful. He shows how it works in the very real lives of people who live in the Appalachian culture.

This is a must-read for anyone who has an interest in culture and religion.