RSS 2.0 NEWS FEEDSArea Writers Books Available
Posted 09.13.06 at 10:46 AMSome of you may have read in one of my recent comments that new books have been published by local area writers. Don Coker and David Clarkson have published respectively Where the Serpent Hides and Vanishing Starlight. These titles are now available in the Paris Junior College Bookstore. If you are interested go by the PJC Bookstore and have a look at these new works of fiction.
Additionally, we hope to have these authors available in the near future, and if you have a copy of their book I am sure they would be willing autograph it for you. Keep reading these comments, and we will let you know the schedule dates for any such personalities availability.
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Coker and Clarkson: Contemporary Paris Writers
Posted 08.24.06 at 11:05 AMTwo relatively new fictional writers and offerings have come to my attention involving their personal association with the Paris, Texas, area. It is always intriguing to take note of those who have ventured into the literary realm.
Donald Coker presents us with an interesting portrayal in the guise of Dr. Jeffery Diamond, a recently widowed physician, who practices medicine in a small east Texas town. Due for a long vacation, Diamond plans a two-week trip to Mexico. But as he flies his private aircraft to several destinations in Mexico, he inadvertently becomes involved with a major drug cartel that has targeted his aircraft as a potential vehicle for transporting cocaine into the U.S.
David Clarkson contributes a somewhat melodramatic fictional family saga. After three members of his family are tragically drowned, protagonist Roscoe moves to Paris, Texas. The novel is packed with nostalgia, including automobiles, bygone products, movies, and songs with emphasis on those recorded by African-American artists. There is much lore on vanishing aspects of the American scene: boot-making, cotton picking, syrup making, and sawmilling to name a few. Fauna and flora are interwoven profusely into the narrative. An appearance by Elvis Presley with the Louisiana Hayride in 1955, a flashback to the nation’s third most devastating municipal fire in 1916, and a description of a horrific lynching in 1893 give the novel a historical slant.
Regional Writers - Humphrey and Clarksville
Posted 06.20.06 at 12:33 PMWilliam Humphrey’s often described idyllic Texas childhood came to an abrupt end with his father’s automobile accident on 5 July 1937. The accident in which Clarence Humphrey was fatally injured is the central event in Farther Off from Heaven. This retrospective tells of a turning point in Humphrey’s life which shaped his identify as a writer. “I lost not only my father,” he said in a 1988 interview, “I lost my life, my whole ‘way’ of life.”
Upon the publication of Father Off from Heaven, William Humphrey came back to Texas in May of 1977, to speak on the release of his memoir. He returned to Clarksville, the town of his birth, not having visited there in thirty-two years. Humphrey acknowledged at the time some significant changes:
“Red River County has ceased to be the Old South and became Far West. I who for years had had to set my Northern friends straight by pointing out that I was a Southerner not a Westerner, and that I had never seen a cowboy or for that matter a beefcow any more than they had, found myself in the Texas of legend and the popular image which when I was a child had seemed more romantic to me than to boy of New England precisely because it was closer to me than to him and yet still worlds away. Gone from the square were the bib overalls of my childhood when the farmers came to town on Saturday. Ranchers now, they came in high-heeled boots and rolled-brim hats, a costume that would have provoked surprise, and even more derision, there, in my time, as it would on Manhattan’s Madison Avenue.”
With such glaring contrasts in perspective, I am surprised there has been little interest in the regional writer William Humphrey. Probably one of the more popular writers from our area, especially for his novel, Home from the Hill, which was made into a feature motion picture. Some of the filming took place in the Clarksville area, and there are a number of stories about the cast and crew who came to the area for the filming event.
Anyone out there who would like to tell about such filming activities/escapades?
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Regional Writers Continued - William Humphrey
Posted 06.09.06 at 6:42 AMI don’t recall exactly when I realized that William Humphrey and I had the same birth date. In my mind there was something fascinating about this association. Initially, though my awareness of William Humphrey and his work was limited, it caused me to wish to become acquainted with this personality who hailed from my part of Texas and had gained a fairly substantial reputation as a writer.
William Humphrey, native of Clarksville, Red River County, Texas, noted author of Home from the Hill, along with other works, was born on June 18, 1924. Time and circumstance allowed me the opportunity to have some familiarity with the life and works of William Humphrey. And, even if there was not something compelling about our having the same birth date, just being acquainted with someone that I admired had telling impact.
William T. Pilkington in his “Imagining Texas: The Literature of the Lone Star State” refers to William Humphrey in a section dedicated to ‘The Texas Writer as Expatriate.’ Humphrey saw early on that to be successful as a writer he would have to leave Texas and take up residence at the capital of American publishing, which was considered to be New York City. Almost from the outset his work was stereotyped as Southern or Texan, supposedly following in the footsteps of the likes of Katherine Ann Porter, if not William Faulkner himself. This turned out to be a stereotyping which Humphrey did not appreciate and to which he often reacted.
Those of you who have read some of Humphrey’s works, what do you think of the regional stereotyping? Or, are we dealing with universal themes which Humphrey contended he strove to incorporate in his writings?
Comments: 0 | Read & Comment »Follow-Up on Regional Writers
Posted 05.03.06 at 6:40 AMEven though there have not been very many responses to our intitial comments regarding “Regional Writers” let me say that those who have been willing to contribute have made some very interesting comments and insights about this topic. Some names have been brought up which might not be familiar to all of us, and that is a good thing--to broaden our horizons.
What about the name “Ruth Cross?” Any comments, or info, about this particular individual? Many may not realize her connection with the Paris area, Blossom in particular, and the writing career which put her in a very special category when you think about accomplishments female regional writers.
At our recent William A. Owens Centennial I asked Sylvia Grider, Texas A&M University, College Station, about this particular individual and was very pleased to be given a resource where there is a chapter detailing much of the career of Ruth Cross. I am still looking amongst my collection of books to be able to give the specific title, but cannot lay my hands on it at the moment. The title was something like “Texas Women Writers,” and Sylvia Grider was one of the editors.
Anyway, any comments about Ruth Cross would be appreciated, or any other writers such as the mention of George Lester Vaughan and his book “The Cotton Renter’s Son”? Ruth Cross also used the “cotton” connection in many of her depictions of this area. It is no wonder that so many readers assoicate our region with the South culturally rather than the Southwest which so many assume to be the more appropriate alignment.
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