The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists

by William Ferris

Overview

The Storied South features the voices — by turn searching and honest, coy and scathing — of twenty-six of the most luminous artists and thinkers in the American cultural firmament, from Eudora Welty, Pete Seeger, and Alice Walker to William Eggleston, Bobby Rush, and C. Vann Woodward. Masterfully drawn from one-on-one interviews conducted by renowned folklorist William Ferris over the past forty years, the book reveals how storytelling is viscerally tied to southern identity and how the work of these southern or southern-inspired creators has shaped the way Americans think and talk about the South.
The Storied South offers a unique, intimate opportunity to sit at the table with these men and women and learn how they worked and how they perceived their art. The volume also features 45 of Ferris’s striking photographic portraits of the speakers and a CD and a DVD of original audio and films of the interviews.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469607542
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/05/2013
Edition description:	Includes a CD of original interviews and a DVD of original film
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

William Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris is author of Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues, among other books, and coeditor of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Writers 21

Eudora Welty 23

Ernest Gaines 43

Robert Penn Warren 53

Alice Walker 67

Alex Haley 79

Margaret Walker 92

Sterling Brown 104

Scholars 111

Cleanth Brooks 114

John Blassingame 127

Charles Seeger 135

John Dollard 144

C. Vann Woodward 152

Musicians 157

Bobby Rush 159

Pete Seeger 166

Photographers 175

Walker Evans 177

William Christenberry 185

William Eggleston 190

Painters 197

Sam Gilliam 200

Ed McGowin 206

Benny Andrews 212

Carroll Cloar 215

Rebecca Davenport 220

William Dunlap 225

Maud Gatewood 232

George Wardlaw 239

Julien Binford 244

Conclusion 249

Selected Bibliography, Discography, and Filmography 251

Index 259

Textual Credits 271

CD and DVD Notes 273

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

What a tremendous work! This wonderful book should grace every southerner's library, remembering that every southerner is not in the South.—Morgan Freeman

Deeply relevant. Bill Ferris captures revealing stories of some of the South's finest artists while raising bold questions about differences of place, time, class, race, and intention.—Tom Rankin, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University

William Ferris has long reigned as the unimpeachable source of the entire southern experience. His work on southern folklore and the composition of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture have made him both legendary and necessary. His book, The Storied South, is a love song to the South Bill helped illuminate. It's a crowning achievement of his own storied career.—Pat Conroy

Ferris presents us with artists' testimonies on their own histories, their work, and their theories about what it means to live in the South. These compelling stories help us to ask fresh and meaningful questions about the meaning of art, race, region, and history. They surprise us, make us laugh, and open their work to us anew.—Henry Louis Gates Jr.

In this volume William Ferris has gathered a richly varied selection of voices displaying the range of the many-storied South. Intimate, humorous, thoughtful, these writers, artists, and scholars show us the profound impact of place—a geography both literal and figurative—on the south land of the imagination. As a poet I know I will turn to these pages again and again to remind myself what it is we do, and how we come to do it.—Natasha Trethewey, United States Poet Laureate (2012-2013)

This sweeping record of distinct southern voices captures beautifully the mood, texture, history, and inspiration of our beloved part of the world.—John Grisham

Editorial Reviews

“An immensely important book that is passionate and keenly insightful and that is a crucial addition to the growing body of work on the South.” — Journal of Southern History

“[A] comprehensive collection of accounts by these foundational southern artists. . . . Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.” — CHOICE

“[A] rich collection developed over 40 years. . . . [A] moving and eloquent book.” — Publishers Weekly

“[A] wonderful work. Required for viewers and readers interested in Southern folkways and culture.” — Library Journal starred review

“With Ferris as a guide, readers will get a revealing look at [the south] before air-conditioning and chain businesses, smartphones and corporate monoliths changed it forever.” — Raleigh News & Observer

“Intimate and moving. . . . Undoubtedly a volume that should be included in the personal library of every Southerner or lover of the Southern storytelling tradition. When the final page of The Storied South is turned, readers will truly feel like they have been sitting on the front porch listening to the voices and stories of these legendary Southern icons.” — Click Magazine

“The book is a one-of-a-kind trove.” — Visual Communication Quarterly

“Ferris' idea of an essential South, layered by a narrative sensibility in music, literature and the visual arts, sings to the better angels of our nature. . . . Yet reading this remarkable book one realizes, too, that a brooding, unsettled nature about the South is still sadly with us.” — New Orleans Magazine

“The Storied South is a book you could read on and on and on.” — Flycatcher

“Ferris offers a collection of his interviews with writers and artists he has come to know personally during 40 years of tramping around his native land.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

From the Publisher