Contemplation in an Evil Time
Written in the Year 2021 Hampton, our stalwart Wade, As wily as Odysseus in warAs full of rage for truth in time of fraud As any celebrated Greek,He saw his son fall at his feet, … »
For Dove and Flag: Grandpa Connelly’s Mules
I hope Grandfather fed them wellFrom out his meager store of cornOr fodder pulled by Mother‘Neath a blazing autumn sun–So hot sometimes she saidThat she and sister sickenedTo the vomit stage, and tender armsWere sliced… »
On Ballylee: The Enduring Legacy of Our Fathers’ Fields
A retrospective review of Our Fathers’ Fields: A Southern Story (University of South Carolina Press, 1998) by James Everett Kibler, Jr. On June 7, 1998, I opened a copy of The State newspaper from Columbia,… »
How Jakob Emig Fought the Yankees
From the front porch, Jakob Emig could look across fields where his winter wheat greened nicely. An old man now, with sons gone off to war, he lived mainly in a woman’s world of married… »
Taking Root
A review of Taking Root: The Nature Writing of William and Adam Summer of Pomaria by James Kibler (editor) and Wendell Berry (Foreword) (University of South Carolina Press, 2017). Perhaps land is more important to… »
Georgia Scenes
When Georgia Scenes came from an Augusta, Georgia press in 1835, the literary world realized (to varying degrees) that here was a new kind of book. It took a discerning critic like Edgar Allan Poe… »
Era of the Sow’s Ear
A Review of My Silk Purse and Yours: The Publishing Scene and American Literary Art by George Garrett, University of Missouri Press, 1992 My Silk Purse is a collection of 36 of George Garrett’s essays… »
