The Peril of Remembering Nice Things

Twenty-five years ago, at 5:00 am, Robert Gibbs left the old hotel in Starke, Florida, wandered down to the train tracks running through the middle of town, and sat on the west rail. He lit up a Winston, then turned a disdainful gaze into the light of the oncoming morning freight and braced for the killing blow. What drove the intelligent and handsome Southern charmer to suicide? In The Peril of Remembering Nice Things, his son, writer Jeffrey Wade Gibbs, explores the answer.

From his curre...