H.L. Mencken hated the South. My first meaningful encounters with Mencken’s work came while we were in Dayton. Mencken approached his coverage of the Scopes Trial — and Dayton and its people — with the same quick-witted ferocity he was famous for. In reading over his attacks of the South in Ralph C. Wood’s Flannery O’Connor and…
Ralph C. Wood is a guy I’ve heard a lot about. The Baylor professor has shown up multiple times in writings of others I follow and in some casual conversations with friends. The book I keep hearing about is his Flannery O’Connor And The Christ-Haunted South. This week, I began the book both because: • O’Connor…
I miss the South these days, which are odd days to miss it, since it’s being smothered by wet heat like a hot towel in a sauna. Nevertheless, the South is my home, and I miss her. I blame Warren Cole Smith for reminding me. To mark the forty-sixth anniversary of Flannery O’Connor’s death, in…
This is the longest I’ve been away from Tennessee in my entire life. Kind of weird. Julie, Jesse, and I have been out West for about a month. Already we’ve seen the morning sun glow on red rocks that jut from the ground. Two nights ago snow started falling, so walking to work since then…
As happens in the newspaper world, this weekend I wrote an editorial in The Herald-News that may have assumed too much. While I know the overwhelming majority of folks who read our newspaper don’t keep up on the blogosphere, I figured I’d take advantage of modern communication and clarify a few things. The editorial I…
The Smithsonian Institution Archives announced Thursday it will upload never-before published photos from the Scopes Evolution Trial held in Dayton, Tennessee, in July 1925. They’ll be available at the Smithsonian’s Flickr page on Friday, July 8. It’s a pretty cool find. Take the time to check it out. Look for more information on the release…
