edited by Jay Lamar and Jeanie Thompson contributions by Nanci Kincaid, Wayne Greenhaw, Andrew Hudgins, Rodney Jones, Phyllis Alesia Perry, William Cobb, Sena Jeter Naslund, Charles Gaines, Albert Murray, Fannie Flagg, Mary Ward Brown, Andrew Glaze, Helen Bell Norris, Patricia Foster, Frye Gaillard, Robert Inman, C. Eric Lincoln and James Haskins afterword by Mark Kennedy
University of Alabama Press, 2002 Paper: 978-0-8173-5054-3 | Cloth: 978-0-8173-1123-0 | eISBN: 978-0-8173-9129-4 Library of Congress Classification PS266.A5R46 2002 Dewey Decimal Classification 810.99761
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Showcases nineteen nationally known writers who have roots in Alabama
In The Remembered Gate, nationally prominent fiction writers, essayists, and poets recall how their formative years in Alabama shaped them as people and as writers. The essays range in tone from the pained and sorrowful to the wistful and playful, in class from the privileged to the poverty-stricken, in geography from the rural to the urban, and in time from the first years of the 20th century to the height of the Civil Rights era and beyond.
In all the essays we see how the individual artists came to understand something central about themselves and their art from a changing Alabama landscape. Whether from the perspective of C. Eric Lincoln, beaten for his presumption as a young black man asking for pay for his labors, or of Judith Hillman Paterson, floundering in her unresolved relationship with her troubled family, these personal renderings are intensely realized visions of a writer's sense of being a writer and a human being. Robert Inman tells of exploring his grandmother's attic, and how the artifacts he found there fired his literary imagination. William Cobb profiles the lasting influence of the town bully, the diabolical Cletus Hickey. And in “Growing up in Alabama: A Meal in Four Courses, Beginning with Dessert,” Charles Gaines chronicles his upbringing through the metaphor of southern cooking.
What emerges overall is a complex, richly textured portrait of men and women struggling with, and within, Alabama’s economic and cultural evolution to become major voices of our time.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Jay Lamar is Associate Director of the Center for the Arts and Humanities at Auburn University and coeditor of the anthology Reading Our Lives. Jeanie Thompson is Executive Director of the Alabama Writers' Forum, a partnership of the Alabama State Council on the Arts in Montgomery, and author of four collections of poetry, including White for Harvest: New and Selected Poems.
REVIEWS
“The Remembered Gate should be required reading for all Alabamians.”
—Library Journal
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“This book serves up so much more than the standard southern blue plate menu, the usual fare. What struck me about the collection was its truth and its abiding sense of home, with all the rough spots and cow piles and Bible-belt sternness.”
—Huntsville Times
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“An eclectic collection that . . . draws religion, race, family life, and geography into a rich composite.”
—Paul Ruffin, editor of the Texas Review and The Man Who Would Be God
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface
Lamar,
Jay
Thompson,
Jeanie
Coming through the Fire
Lincoln,
C. Eric
What do You do for the Place?
Foster,
Patricia
The Truth the Heart Knows
Flagg,
Fannie
Swing Low: A Memoir
Brown,
Mary Ward
The Humanistic Black Heritage of Alabama
Haskins,
James
Growing up a Poet in Alabama
Glaze,
Andrew
Stalking an Early Life
Norris,
Helen
Learning to Swim
Greenhaw,
Wayne
The Other Sun of God
Kincaid,
Nanci
The Ghosts in My Grandmother's Attic
Inman,
Robert
Alabama Breakdown
Hudgins,
Andrew
The First Place
Perry,
Phyllis Alesia
A Half Mile of Road in North Alabama
Jones,
Rodney
When the Opry Was in Ryman and We Still Believed in God
Cobb,
William
The Heart of Dixie
Gaillard,
Frye
Thunderhoof and the Mantel Clock
Naslund,
Sena Jeter
Growing up in Alabama: A Meal in Four Courses, Beginning with Dessert
Gaines,
Charles
Coming Home
Paterson,
Judith Hillman
Epilogue: Regional Particulars and Universal Implications