PREFACE

THE PRESENT VOLUME, which was made possible by a grant from the Research Tools Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities and by matching funds from the University of Mississippi and from private individuals, contains short biographical sketches and some longer critical studies of Mississippi authors who published books between 1817, the year Mississippi achieved statehood, and 1967, one hundred and fifty years from that date, together with complete bibliographies for all authors through the inclusive dates.

Intended as a basic reference guide to the literate production of the area for scholars of all levels and disciplines as well as for those whose interest is less academic, it is based on the files on Mississippi authors, artists, and musicians at the John Davis Williams Library of the University of Mississippi. These were begun in the 1930s by a number of interested librarians, notably Alice James Gatchell, who came to the University in 1930 as Loan Librarian and who edited Mississippi Verse in 1934, and Mahala Saville, who came to the University in 1934 as a library assistant and who worked on the project until her retirement in 1962. As Reference Librarian from 1962 until 1977 Obion Feagin continued building the files with the help of John Sykes Hartin, who became director of the library in 1946 and who was primarily responsible for the efforts to codify the information being gathered by numerous librarians across the state. These efforts resulted in the distribution of a “Preliminary Identification List of Mississippi Authors” in 1969 and laid the groundwork for the publication in 1971 of Mississippiana: Union Catalog by the Mississippi Library Commission, which expanded the list by adding authors and titles submitted by fifty-four other libraries in Mississippi. Later, two supplements to the original list were distributed by the library, a substantial one in 1974 compiled largely by reference librarian Nan Kip, and a slight one in 1975.

Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817-1967 integrates and builds on these earlier lists by establishing consistent criteria for inclusion and supplying hitherto unpublished biographical and bibliographical information from the project’s files and from the present staff’s research. This staff—including Calvin Boyer, project director; James B. Lloyd, editor; Suzanne McDaniel, editorial assistant; and Robert Linder and Joseph Rosenblum, research staff—established the following criteria for inclusion:

[End page vii]

[Page viii]

We realize that other, perhaps as logical and certainly no less arbitrary, criteria could have been established and can only argue that we have endeavored to apply ours reasonably in an effort to include all authors and works which we supposed most readers would expect to find included.

These criteria were applied to the existing files and all individuals who did not fit were eliminated. The files on the remaining authors—some fifteen hundred entries—were then updated, as the biographical forms, which had been prepared for some ninety percent of them, were in widely varying stages of completion. It was decided that though the bibliographical cutoff date was 1967, the biographical information should be as current as possible, and that at the very least an attempt should be made to provide inclusive dates for all authors, the names of their parents, the specifics of their education, and a brief outline of their careers. In many cases this information was taken in part from the existing biographical forms which had been compiled over the years from published sources, from the authors themselves, or from their friends or relatives. The use of this information, which has often been updated by the present staff but because of limitations of time and money not rechecked, has been designated by an F at the end of the biographical sketch. Other abbreviations, a list of which may be found in the prefatory material, and sometimes complete citations refer to works consulted by the present staff.

In updating the files it became apparent that a number of the authors to be included seemed to deserve more comprehensive and analytical treatment than the projected short biographical sketches would afford. Since these individuals made their careers in a number of different fields—literature, politics, education,

[End page viii]

[Page ix]

religion, business, and the professions—specialists in each field were enlisted to write longer critical essays which would not only provide biographical information but which would place each author within his cultural milieu. Joseph Beckham Cobb, for instance, is discussed within the tradition of southwest humor, and Theodore Bilbo against the background of the Populist movement. A list of these contributors is included in the prefatory material, and it is hoped that their efforts will make the present volume useful for the study of the evolution of Southern culture in general and Mississippi’s in particular.

A number of miscellaneous technical points remain to be made. The entries are arranged alphabetically as in the Library of Congress’s national union catalog. Thus names beginning with Mc and Mac are alphabetized together, and the sketches on pseudonymous authors and authors who because of marriage wrote under more than one name appear under the name most commonly used, with see references accompanying the other names. Complete bibliographies for all authors are supplied through 1967,[1] but only the first separate issue of a work is noted unless the reissue contains major revisions. The form of the citations follows that of the fourth edition of A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by Kate L. Turabian, though authors of introductions and illustrators have largely been omitted.

It is clearly impossible to acknowledge by name all the individuals who have rendered invaluable assistance to this project. To all who provided us with information and who often spent fruitless hours in searching, we can only extend our deepest appreciation; without their help the present work would not have been possible. Acknowledgments are also due to the numerous reference librarians and students in the reference department of the John Davis Williams Library who worked on the project over the years and to Edward M. Walters who was the original project director and coauthor of the grant proposal, as well as to the other members of the present staff and to the present student workers—Danny DeBord, Jane Arnold, Ruth Eakin, Hal Harris, Sarah Webb, Robert McKnight, Audra Stevens, Beth Duke, Susan Davis, Sandi Messer and Elise Winter—all of whom have given freely and gladly to this project more than anyone could reasonably have expected. All inaccuracies and omissions remain, of course, the ultimate responsibility of the editor.

James B. Lloyd
University, Mississippi
February, 1980

1. In the case of Joseph Holt and Prentiss Ingraham we have included newspaper fiction in the interest of comprehensiveness. [Back to text]

From Lives of Mississippi Writers, ed. James B. Lloyd (Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1980): pp. vii-ix. Copyright © 1980. Reprinted by permission.