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Wright Thompson’s ‘The Barn’ chronicles the fight to preserve the memory of Emmett Till

Fourteen-year-old Till was murdered in a nondescript barn in the Mississippi Delta. But few know the barn still stands today, or fully understand its history. Thompson believes we should.
Fourteen-year-old Till was murdered in a nondescript barn in the Mississippi Delta. But few know the barn still stands today, or fully understand its history. Thompson believes we should.
NonfictionMemoir

Connie

With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.
With candor and humor, Connie Chung shares the highs and lows of her trailblazing career as a journalist in her invigorating memoir, Connie.
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Biography

Tributes to a country music legend

Review by bookpagedev

Johnny Cash was a man who seemed destined for immortality. A hard-living native of Arkansas whose career spanned five decades and spawned more than 1,000 songs, he was an omnipresent figure on the country music scene, a proudly defiant survivor who used the pressures of fame to fuel his work. Given the scope of his influence and his larger-than-life persona, Cash’s death on September 12, 2003, seemed an impossible thing. His songs were rooted in the South but written for the world. Timeless classics like Big River, I Walk the Line and Folsom Prison Blues achieved international recognition, becoming permanent components of the country music canon. This month, BookPage spotlights a special group of volumes that chronicle Cash’s remarkable career.

The Man in Black Cash: An American Man tells the story of the singer through photographs, letters, lyric sheets, album covers and other visual riches. Sanctioned by the Johnny Cash estate and assembled with the help of Cash’s close friend and longtime fan, Bill Miller, the collection of artifacts presented in this colorful volume reflects more than 50 years of country music culture. There are publicity shots of the singer taken for Sun Records in Memphis in the early 1950s; photos of Cash and his wife, singer June Carter; ticket stubs from the Grand Ole Opry; and one-of-a-kind Cash collectibles, including a Slurpee cup from the 1970s emblazoned with the singer’s face. (Our favorite photo: a black-and-white shot of Cash, circa 1953, his face innocent and unlined, his arm around a tuxedoed Elvis.) Edited by Mark Vancil and Jacob Hoye, Cash: An American Man is the first title from CMT Books, a new imprint created by CMT: Country Music Television and Simon ∧ Schuster’s Pocket Books. With lively text provided by Miller, whose friendship with Cash lasted more than 30 years, this must-have scrapbook also contains the singer’s final interview, granted to music journalist Kurt Loder shortly before Cash died, and the lyrics to the last song he composed. Produced by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine, Cash (Crown, $29.95, 224 pages, ISBN 140005480X) is the ultimate memorial to a man who lived what he wrote and sang what he believed. With tributes from Bob Dylan, Bono, Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris, the volume provides a complete historical overview of Cash’s music. Highlights include a comprehensive discography, an interview with Rick Rubin, who produced four of Cash’s albums, and pieces of classic Rolling Stone reportage, including Ralph J. Gleason’s account of the performer’s 1969 San Quentin concert. There are also excerpts from Cash’s two autobiographies, as well as chapters on his screen career and his marriage to June, who, as a member of the famous Carter Family, had a recording career of her own. Rare photographs offer a vivid, behind-the-scenes look at Cash’s extended family, including his 13 grandchildren. Singer Rosanne Cash, daughter of the Man in Black, captures the special essence of her father in her foreword to the volume: "He was a poet who worked in the dirt," she says. "He was the stuff of dreams, and the living cornerstone of our lives." Country music’s First Family Fans hankering for more details on the Cash-Carter dynasty should pick up Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? (Simon ∧ Schuster, $15, 432 pages, ISBN 074324382X) by journalist Charles Hirshberg and filmmaker Mark Zwonitzer. Recently released in paperback, the biography, which was a National Book Critics Circle Finalist in 2002, takes an in-depth look at the humble beginnings, heavenly harmonies and history-making careers of the Carter Family. A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter (June’s mother) entered the world of country music as a trio starting in the 1920s. This fluid account of their lives, both personal and musical, begins with patriarch A.P.’s birth in southern Virginia in 1891 and continues into the 1970s, creating a context for the folk tunes they made famous ("Wildwood Flower," "Wabash Cannonball"), examining seminal recording sessions and offering a wonderful overview of the cultural forces that influenced American roots music. With their dolorous ballads and gentle instrumentals, their hymns and laments, the Carters helped to shape the sounds of the 20th century. Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? explains how and why their delicate melodies endure. Julie Hale writes from Austin, Texas.

 

Johnny Cash was a man who seemed destined for immortality. A hard-living native of Arkansas whose career spanned five decades and spawned more than 1,000 songs, he was an omnipresent figure on the country music scene, a proudly defiant survivor who used the pressures of fame to fuel his work. Given the scope of his […]
Nonfiction

The many wrongs of Mr. Wright

Review by Martin Brady

Sometimes, with great artists, it might be better not to know about their personal lives, their idiosyncratic beliefs, about their sanctimonious self-perception. Though much is already known about Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright &andamp; the Taliesin Fellowship offers an insider's view of the architect's world that will probably surprise, if not shock, some readers. This massive, well-researched volume written in fully collaborative style by Roger Friedland, a cultural sociologist at UC-Santa Barbara, and architect Harold Zellman is not a biography, per se, but instead probes the philosophical underpinnings and cultism of the Taliesin Fellowship, Wright's communal enterprise based in his home state of Wisconsin (with a later satellite location in Arizona, where the master died).

Taliesin was ostensibly set up to promote Wright's so-called organic architectural design ethic, and was inspired in part by the Greek-Armenian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff, one of whose ardent disciples was Wright's third wife, Olgivanna. The mix of Wright's egomania and Olgivanna's controlling attitude toward members of the Taliesin community comprising by and large young male apprentices (many of them homosexual), along with sundry family members and motley hangers-on made for a decidedly strange social situation. (For all their artistic idealism, the Taliesins certainly indulged in incredibly messy, less than idealistic personal relationships, much of it outlined here in bizarre detail.) Meanwhile, Wright, believing that the world should bow at his feet despite the fact that he was in constant financial hot water and was bailed out time and again by committed and sometimes self-sacrificing supporters courted potential clients, most critically as regards his design of New York City's Guggenheim Museum (a project that spanned 13 years from initial conception to official approval of the building plans).

Wright also boldly promoted sociopolitical ideas encompassing pro-Germany sentiment and isolationism on the eve of World War II; childish skepticism about university training (he'd never obtained a degree himself); and his plans for perfect living (Broadacre City) and geopolitical restructuring of the U.S. (aka Usonia). Wright held sway over influential persons such as House Beautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon, who did all she could to publicize the Wright architectural agenda and his supposedly iconic image. He also freely nurtured relationships that were usually only self-serving, made some critical enemies (J. Edgar Hoover, among them), steadfastly maintained his self-importance as a world figure of the ultimate artistic magnitude, and, by and by, seemed content to watch others (including family members) twist slowly in the emotionally confused winds that constantly swirled around his circle.

It's a strange tale to be sure, and Friedland and Zellman tell it in utterly exhausting detail, the minutiae of daily events involving lesser personalities cataloged as readily as the bigger moments where Wright is in the forefront. For all his brilliance, Wright led a careless, narrow-minded and (as expressed here) often unkind life, and the long, latter Taliesin chapter finds him at his personal worst. And, while the Fellowship existed ostensibly to maintain his architectural spirit, Wright characteristically soiled those waters by deliberately impeding his students' ability to spread their own professional wings in order to do just that. Less about architecture, and more about genius run amok and the bodies left in its wake, The Fellowship fills an important historical gap in the discussion of American arts while reading like high-toned soap opera.

 

Sometimes, with great artists, it might be better not to know about their personal lives, their idiosyncratic beliefs, about their sanctimonious self-perception. Though much is already known about Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright &andamp; the Taliesin Fellowship offers an insider's view of the architect's world that will […]
Memoir

Puppy love

Review by bookpagedev

What does a hip, arty, self-interested and semi-committed couple in a closet-sized New York City apartment do when they tire of their jaded lives? They decide to rescue a dog with issues, of course. Canine turns into guru and delightful mayhem ensues in Rex and the City: A Woman, a Man and a Dysfunctional Dog. Author Lee Harrington writes the award-winning eponymous humor column for The Bark magazine, and in her book she relates the life-changing events stemming from the fateful summer day when she and her live-in boyfriend Ted stopped at a shelter ( where John F. Kennedy got his dog she notes) to just look. With memories of beloved childhood pets running through their heads, they bring home a growling, cowering spaniel-mix puppy named Rex who refuses to act like any dog they’ve ever known. Tension mounts in the cramped apartment as the restless couple (she is an aspiring novelist, Ted’s a documentary filmmaker) struggle to adjust and promptly begin to argue over everything from how to discipline the dog and where he should sleep to his hunting breed identity. When Rex develops separation anxiety right around puberty, all bets are off on who goes first the dog or their relationship. Harrington’s wry, self-depreciating intelligence is completely winning as she readily admits her insecurities and captures their struggles to form a family in a sophisticated, yet isolating city. While the story sometimes feels stretched to book length, with plenty of paragraphs on the emergence of the adorable Rex’s inner Lassie, not one dog lover on earth will turn down a metaphoric walk with this loveable pair and their kooky canine.

What does a hip, arty, self-interested and semi-committed couple in a closet-sized New York City apartment do when they tire of their jaded lives? They decide to rescue a dog with issues, of course. Canine turns into guru and delightful mayhem ensues in Rex and the City: A Woman, a Man and a Dysfunctional Dog. […]
LiteratureArts & Culture

A bloody chapter in Germany’s past

Review by bookpagedev

Aside from "holocaust," there is no uglier term to the Jewish people than "blood libel," the historical canard that Jews murdered Christian children in order to use their blood for ritualistic purposes. Throughout the ages, anti-Semites have leveled such accusations to justify their evil behavior.

Helmut Walser Smith examines one of the most contentious examples of this ugly phenomenon in <B>The Butcher’s Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town</B>.

The case in question involves the murder and mutilation of an 18-year-old boy in the town of Konitz, Germany, at the turn of the century. The boy’s body was found, in several pieces, by a nearby river. (A warning to readers: Smith is extremely graphic in his depictions of the crime.) Because the remains were devoid of blood (religious laws dictate that all blood must be drained in order for meat to be considered kosher), the townspeople resurrected "blood libel" as the explanation and looked for someone who had the knowledge to perpetrate such a heinous crime. Suspicion fell on Adolph Lewy, a Jewish butcher. As the investigation into the young man’s death progressed, more and more people came forth to offer "testimony," or more accurately, their own hare-brained notions of what happened and how. Anti-Semitic journalists arrived to cover the various hearings and trials, fanning the flames of unrest.

The author, an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University, offers a brief explanation of the "blood libel" concept and the tragic consequences it often held for the Jews of Europe. He portrays the townspeople of Konitz who offered statements against Lewy as being of such low quality (drunkards or "mental defectives") that it’s amazing anyone in a position of authority could take their testimony seriously. Smith does a fascinating job of trying to prove Levy’s innocence and identify a likely culprit. His book may make readers uncomfortable. If so, it has served a valuable purpose.

<I>Ron Kaplan writes from Montclair, New Jersey</I>.

Aside from "holocaust," there is no uglier term to the Jewish people than "blood libel," the historical canard that Jews murdered Christian children in order to use their blood for ritualistic purposes. Throughout the ages, anti-Semites have leveled such accusations to justify their evil behavior. Helmut Walser Smith examines one of the most contentious examples […]
Religion & Spirituality

Tracing the origins of faiths

Review by bookpagedev

Neither Tolkien nor C.S. Lewis could have devised a panorama of personages and events more fantastic than the one which befell the human race at the dawn of its recorded history. Starting around 900 B.C.

E., four separate civilizations experienced a spiritual transformation spanning some seven centuries. The peoples in the regions now called Greece, India, China and Israel developed ethical ideas so consistent with each other that their independent evolution is a matter of pure astonishment.

This cross-cultural axis of religious awakening was first discerned and described 60 years ago by the German philosopher Karl Jaspers, who believed that history possessed both a clear origin and an achievable goal. Our generation’s premiere historian of religious thought, Karen Armstrong, is naturally less optimistic about humanity’s course, but she feels all the more impelled to provide a direction through her own writings. At the very outset of her monumental new book, The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, Armstrong articulates the dire necessity to recognize and recreate the Axial Age of the first millennium B.C.

E. Her enterprise is so urgent the global stakes could not be higher that it demands a structure both simple and tremendous: she composes a historical symphony in four movements, one Greek, one Indian, one Chinese and one Hebrew. But just as, from our perspective, the different trees of thought in these four civilizations intertwine their branches, so too do the distinct movements of Armstrong’s prose symphony insinuate themselves into each other, chapter by chapter, under the headings of certain spiritual principles.

What are these radical principles of the Axial Age? First, the ability to recognize the divine in both the other and oneself, along with a likening of the other to oneself an empathy later to be called The Golden Rule. Second, the rise of introspection and self-discovery over external ritual and magic. Third, the recognition of the inevitability of suffering and the development of spiritual technologies for transcending it. Fourth, the capacity to see things as they really are a realism terribly undervalued in our own time. Fifth, the spread of knowledge, beyond the confines of an elite, to ordinary folk. Sixth, an awareness of the limitations of human knowledge. In all four geographical regions of the Axial Age, these gospels were long in coming and short in staying. What’s far worse, they are so familiar to us these days particularly through the sayings of that latter-day child of the Axial Age, Jesus of Nazareth that we can recognize neither the awesome strangeness of their universality nor their potential to change the world. The Buddha and Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah were foremost among the many sages of those centuries. Could Armstrong be the first sage of a second Axial Age? It is literally up to the reader to decide. Michael Alec Rose is a music professor at Vanderbilt University.

Neither Tolkien nor C.S. Lewis could have devised a panorama of personages and events more fantastic than the one which befell the human race at the dawn of its recorded history. Starting around 900 B.C. E., four separate civilizations experienced a spiritual transformation spanning some seven centuries. The peoples in the regions now called Greece, […]
History

The people who paved the way for a momentous invasion

Review by bookpagedev

In the days before D-Day, everyone knew that a seaborne invasion of Europe by the Allies was coming. The big questions were when and where. We now know that the landings on the beaches of Normandy were crucial to eventual victory in World War II. But what was life like in the days just before D-Day? Drawing on a wide range of sources, including letters, diaries, contemporary documents and interviews, historian and former diplomat David Stafford takes us into the lives of ordinary people and military personnel in his Ten Days to D-Day: Citizens and Soldiers on the Eve of the Invasion. The result is a narrative that flows easily, much like an engrossing documentary film, from one person and country to another.

The many profiles include men like Andre Heintz, a French schoolteacher in Caen, who was part of the Resistance. He forged identity cards for those in trouble, but also had the potentially more dangerous role of collecting intelligence about changes in the city’s German military installations. In an Oslo prison, there is Peter Moen, who had been one of the main editors of the most important of the clandestine newspapers in Norway before becoming a prisoner of the Gestapo. Women contributed as well. In the days before D-Day, there were more than 70,000 women working as spies, codebreakers, radio mechanics and in other nontraditional roles. Twenty-year-old Sonia d’Artois, from England and an expert on explosives, parachuted into France before D-Day. The remarkable Vera Atkins was in charge of the French intelligence section; female agents had been sent to France as early as 1942. Along with the personal stories of everyday citizens like those mentioned above, Stafford explores the concerns and frustrations of the leaders, in particular General Eisenhower, Prime Minister Churchill and General de Gaulle. The author also illuminates the central role of the Spaniard Juan Pujol, the double agent who supplied false information to the Germans under the alias of “Arabel,” while secretly submitting reports to the Allies. Pujol’s misinformation was necessary to keep the actual date and time of the invasion secret from the Germans.

Written with admirable clarity, Ten Days to D-Day helps us to appreciate the difficulties, ingenuity, personal courage and sacrifice of the many individual citizens in addition to the Allied leaders in the period just before the D-Day landing. Roger Bishop is a bookseller in Nashville and a frequent contributor to BookPage.

In the days before D-Day, everyone knew that a seaborne invasion of Europe by the Allies was coming. The big questions were when and where. We now know that the landings on the beaches of Normandy were crucial to eventual victory in World War II. But what was life like in the days just before […]

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