South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature

Nonfiction, Travel, United States, South, Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, American, Adventure & Literary Travel
Cover of the book South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature by Margaret Eby, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Margaret Eby ISBN: 9780393248265
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: September 8, 2015
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Margaret Eby
ISBN: 9780393248265
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: September 8, 2015
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

A literary travelogue into the heart of classic Southern literature.

What is it about the South that has inspired so much of America's greatest literature? And why, when we think of Flannery O'Connor or William Faulkner or Harper Lee, do we think of them not just as writers, but as Southern writers? In South Toward Home, Margaret Eby—herself a Southerner—travels through the South in search of answers to these questions, visiting the hometowns and stomping grounds of some of our most beloved authors. From Mississippi (William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright) to Alabama (Harper Lee, Truman Capote) to Georgia (Flannery O'Connor, Harry Crews) and beyond, Eby looks deeply at the places that these authors lived in and wrote about. South Toward Home reveals how these authors took the people and places they knew best and transmuted them into lasting literature.

Side by side with Eby, we meet the man who feeds the peacocks at Andalusia, the Georgia farm where Flannery O'Connor wrote her most powerful stories; we peek into William Faulkner's liquor cabinet to better understand the man who claimed civilization began with distillation and the "postage stamp of native soil" that inspired him; and we go in search of one of New Orleans's iconic hot dog vendors, a job held by Ignatius J. Reilly in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. From the library that showed Richard Wright that there was a way out to the courtroom at the heart of To Kill a Mockingbird, Eby grapples with a land fraught with history and mythology, for, as Eudora Welty wrote, "One place understood helps us understand all places better."

Combining biographical detail with expert criticism, Eby delivers a rich and evocative tribute to the literary South.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A literary travelogue into the heart of classic Southern literature.

What is it about the South that has inspired so much of America's greatest literature? And why, when we think of Flannery O'Connor or William Faulkner or Harper Lee, do we think of them not just as writers, but as Southern writers? In South Toward Home, Margaret Eby—herself a Southerner—travels through the South in search of answers to these questions, visiting the hometowns and stomping grounds of some of our most beloved authors. From Mississippi (William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright) to Alabama (Harper Lee, Truman Capote) to Georgia (Flannery O'Connor, Harry Crews) and beyond, Eby looks deeply at the places that these authors lived in and wrote about. South Toward Home reveals how these authors took the people and places they knew best and transmuted them into lasting literature.

Side by side with Eby, we meet the man who feeds the peacocks at Andalusia, the Georgia farm where Flannery O'Connor wrote her most powerful stories; we peek into William Faulkner's liquor cabinet to better understand the man who claimed civilization began with distillation and the "postage stamp of native soil" that inspired him; and we go in search of one of New Orleans's iconic hot dog vendors, a job held by Ignatius J. Reilly in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. From the library that showed Richard Wright that there was a way out to the courtroom at the heart of To Kill a Mockingbird, Eby grapples with a land fraught with history and mythology, for, as Eudora Welty wrote, "One place understood helps us understand all places better."

Combining biographical detail with expert criticism, Eby delivers a rich and evocative tribute to the literary South.

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book New York: A Bicentennial History (States and the Nation) by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Strangers on a Train by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Loud in the House of Myself: Memoir of a Strange Girl by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Commander Will Cushing: Daredevil Hero of the Civil War by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book The Illustrated Dictionary of Boating Terms: 2000 Essential Terms for Sailors and Powerboaters (Revised Edition) by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Yoga Therapy for Children with Autism and Special Needs by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Say Nice Things About Detroit: A Novel by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book The 10 Best-Ever Anxiety Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Anxious and What You Can Do to Change It by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Using Hypnosis with Children: Creating and Delivering Effective Interventions by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book The Convent: A Novel by Margaret Eby
Cover of the book The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA by Margaret Eby
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy