“Later they took him to Jackson and that explained it; he was crazy.” – Shelby Foote, Follow Me Down: A Novel
“Justin, why in the world would you ever want to live in Jackson? You must be crazy.” There is no telling how many times I’ve been asked that question, and every time someone asks me, “Why Jackson?” I simply say, “For some reason, Jackson has always had her grip on me.”
Growing up in a small rural community outside of Pelahatchie, Jackson was the city where we would go eat and go shop once a month. I also remember as a child, my Godmother’s uncle was the day manager at the Sun-n-Sand Motel. Many of my childhood summer days were spent by the pool at the Sun-n-Sand, and our nights would end at The Iron Horse Grill. Even though I grew up in Rankin County, I had a very interesting and unique perspective of Jackson. It is one of the reasons I love Jackson.
As a high school student, I remember spending every Monday and Thursday on Seneca Street in Fondren. It was a beautiful ranch style house and my piano teacher lived and taught from her home studio. It was at her house that I learned how to play Debussy, Gershwin, Beethoven, and even Carole King. I can remember those afternoons and evenings of playing scales, trying to make my clumsy hands go up and down the keys of her Steinway grand Piano. As a reward for my practicing and playing, we would always go to Cups to treat ourselves to coffee. My piano teacher’s house was recently sold and she no longer lives there, but I often find myself driving down Seneca, remembering those piano lessons that seemed to have lasted hours upon hours.
Jackson: She has her grip on me. Jackson grabbed me as a child, held me as a teenager, and now she holds my hand as an adult. I stay here, and I live here because I love Jackson. I’ve found a place of belonging and a community that not only accepts me, but a community that makes me a better person. Will I always live in Jackson? Probably not; However, I get the feeling that no matter where the road of life takes me, Jackson will forever have my heart.
Written by Justin
Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.
The following article was written by Jerry Mitchell and published on August 2, 2014 in the Clarion-Ledger.
Photography by Ken Murphy
In a day where many prognosticators regard bookstores as forgettable relics and e-books as the unstoppable future, one bookstore is defying the odds and publishing its own $75 book.
That bookstore is Lemuria, which is releasing a 183-page photo book about Mississippi’s capital city this week.
If there is another bookstore in the U.S. going into the high end of publishing like this, Richard Howorth, past president of the American Booksellers Association, doesn’t know about it.
Decades ago, some bookstores did dabble in publishing, he said. City Lights bookstore in San Francisco became a publisher. So did the Beehive in Savannah, Ga.
But that was before department stores gave way to mall stores and then to megastores and ultimately to online bookstores, such as Amazon.
John Evans was born in 1950 — 14 years before Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
In his early 20s, he spent much of his time buying records and books in his native Jackson. “I didn’t have much direction,” he said.
After Be-Bop Records opened in 1974, he decided to take his own shot at a business, he said. “I thought I might as well open a bookstore.”
He began writing book publishers and asking his friends to suggest books to order. Soon, sales representatives filled his small apartment.
Lemuria (named after the mythic civilization) was born, he said. “I formed the company two weeks after I was 25.”
By 2002, it had become such a beloved independent bookstore that when author Elmore Leonard decided to hold seven book signings in North America, Lemuria was one of them.
The fall of the economy and the rise of e-books began to devastate bookstores. In 2011, Borders closed its remaining 400 stores.
To survive, many bookstores moved beyond books to sell all sorts of other merchandise, and some even embraced e-books. Evans loved physical books, and that’s what he stuck with, he said. “I saw all that as opportunity to say, ‘We are a real bookstore, and we will live or die by that.’ “
Looking for ideas to rebrand Lemuria, Evans read “The New Rules of Retail” by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart.
In that book, authors suggested retail in 2020 might look most like Apple, with a product created, produced and marketed by the same company.
Would there be a way, Evans wondered, of producing a product that neither Barnes & Noble nor Amazon could sell? If so, that could become a way to redefine Lemuria, he thought.
Not long after, photographer Ken Murphy contacted Evans to get his opinion on whether he should do a sequel to his successful book that featured photos on Mississippi.
In studying that book, Evans noticed only a few photographs from the capital city and suggested to Murphy there was more of a need for a photo book about Jackson than a second statewide book.
They eventually decided to do just that, he said. “I didn’t want it to just be a book of photographs. I felt like there needed to be a photographic plot, a stream of consciousness.”
For the next year, Evans juggled his two jobs of running Lemuria and editing the photo book. “From a cash flow perspective, it was difficult — cash flow and having the energy,” he said.
The printing, including a planned second printing, cost six figures.
While Evans remained busy, something happened in the book industry.
Over the past year, the sales of hardcover books rose 9.5 percent, and the sales of e-books fell 0.5 percent, said Howorth, who once taught Bezos at a class for prospective bookstore owners. “That helps to explain why Amazon’s stock is down 10 percent. We’re reaching a plateau.”
Jamie Kornegay, owner of Turnrow Books in Greenwood, praised what Lemuria has done and said he hopes it becomes a model for what others can do.
He sees his job as the battle to preserve the physical book, he said. “If we cede e-books to this generation, that’s it.”
Evans doesn’t believe he retains as well when he sits and reads at a computer. “I think the jury is still out on how memory works,” he said.
He sees many in this new generation favoring the tactile over the virtual. “My best young bookseller is choosing to read physical books,” he said. “They’re real.”
By the time Evans arrived in May at the Book Expo in New York, word of what his little bookstore in Mississippi had done had spread.
Some booksellers told him it was a great idea.
He shot back, “It’s a lot of work.”
Evans believes the physical book will not only survive but endure.
“Yes, a physical book takes a little more effort, but the opportunity you have to read a physical book is about as pleasurable as any experience you can have,” he said. “It’s irreplaceable.”
Contact Jerry Mitchell at (601) 961-7064 or jmitchell@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @jmitchellnews on Twitter.
Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.
At 7:00 am on the opening morning of this year’s New Orleans Jazz Fest, I was awakened by phone calls from Jeff Good of Broad Street, and Austen of Lemuria informing me that the Lemuria Book Hand had crashed down and was destroyed. They sent pictures as proof, and I worked my mind clear, defrosting my late night take of beverage and great music from Bombino at the House of Blues. My musical high crashed down to earth with this news.
I called Bob Reed, our sign guru, and he told me not to worry, he would take care of it and deal with our insurance company. Replacement was immediately underway, and now Bob has reinstated our sculpture and Lemuria’s brand symbol is back.
In 1980, to celebrate 5 years in business, Lemuria engaged local artist Keith Parker to do a wood engraving. The edition would be 100 copies, signed and numbered. Our Art Deco inspired image was of a Lemuria mermaid rising out of Lemuria’s ruins holding a book high.
In 1981, Lemuria finally got out of debt and made a little money. To celebrate, we issued graphic tshirts, also designed by Keith, of a hand holding a book exploding out of the water to surface. We had gotten our bookstore above water! All of this was visioned within the eyeball of the Wisdom Eye. This image was influenced by the tail of a whale on the surface as it is diving, and we considered the image as a homage to the great 1930 edition of Moby Dick, illustrated by Rockwell Kent.
In 1998 when Lemuria designed our present storefront, we created our entrance with the Book Hand. Banner Hall was near financial ruin when new ownership took over. Once again, our book hand signaled a re-birthing of Lemuria’s stability.
In the last few years, real books have been challenged by alternative reading devices. Lemuria thus launched a “Read Real Books” campaign, grounded by our Book Hand logo. Coupled with the recession and severe competition, the real book was challenged. Now, real book reading has stabilized in a posture of strength and rebirth once again. Justin Schultz of Flying Chair, also designed a more contemporary book hand with a modern Wisdom Eye to celebrate real book stabilization.
Our Book Hand sculpture has now been replaced and situated. Stability once again for Lemuria, has been symbolized.
Lemuria has endured the recession’s hard times. We have published our book proudly about our local community, and good ole Bob has brought our Book Hand back to us, and he has promised our new sculpture will last the lifetime of Lemuria.
By the way, our previous Book Hand collapsed because of inferior glue which eroded over the years causing our beloved sculpture to weaken. Fortunately, at 5:00 am this past April when it fell, no one was in Banner Hall or was hurt.
Today we are celebrating the release of Matthew Guinn’s novel The Resurrectionist in paperback! When I started working at Lemuria it was the very first book I read with the intention of selling it- so it had to ask myself not only how I felt about it but how I thought others would react to the story. It is a book of secrets. There are two kinds of secret: those that grow over time and those that diminish. The secrets that grow over time are not the big ones, not the powerful or horrible ones- they are the ones that people share in whispers at night until they grow into the daylight like weeds. Just ask the people working at UMMC, they’ll tell you it’s not so easy to erase a secret that hundreds of people know about.
The Resurrectionist does what we all wish would happen more often, it tells us the real back-story of a painful and embarrassing secret. Jumping between present day and the 19th century, Matt Guinn tells an amazing story on both sides of a dark history of a hospital that has to bend their morality to try to save lives. It begs the question: have we really changed as much as we pretend in the public eye; or is it the things we do behind closed doors that measure our progress? I’m certain I don’t know the answer- all I know is secrets and coincidences go hand in hand, so I leave you with a quote I read last night: “That is how heavy a secret can become. It can make blood flow easier than ink.” -Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear
The keg is on ice and the man of the hour will start signing at 5PM. Free Dead Guy Ale. Come share a secret with us.
The following article was written by Jana Hoops and was published on August 2, 2014 in the Clarion-Ledger.
With a desire to support and promote “what is good about Jackson,” photographer Ken Murphy and Lemuria Books owner John Evans have teamed up to create Jackson: Photographs by Ken Murphy, the first published pictorial account of Mississippi’s capital in more than 15 years.
Nearly two years in the making, the book includes close to 200 photos that capture the culture and vibrancy of the city, as it documents many of Jackson’s most familiar places and scenes.
Murphy, who lives and works as a commercial/art photographer in his hometown of Bay St. Louis, holds a BFA in documentary, editorial and narrative photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He has authored and published two other award-winning coffee table books: My South Coast Home and Mississippi. His third book, Mississippi: State of Blues, was a collaborative effort with Scott Barretta.
Also contributing to the book was Lisa Newman, who wrote the plate details for all 186 photographs. Newman grew up in Jackson, Tennessee, then lived overseas and in various places around the South before she made a “very conscious decision” to move to Jackson seven years ago. With a background in teaching, she joined the staff at Lemuria as a bookseller and has written for the store’s blog for several years.
The oversized volume is being offered with a choice of four different covers: Lamar Life (standard), the Welty House, Fondren Corner; and Lemuria Bookstore.
Ken Murphy
Please tell me about your association with John Evans and Lemuria Books. How and why did the two of you decide to do this book?
Ken: I met John while selling my first book, “My South Coast Home,” back in 2001. I found him to be very knowledgeable and very willing to share that knowledge. From then on, I referred to him as my “book guru.” I would run all of my ideas by John to see what he thought. That is how Jackson came about. I was bouncing around the idea of a “Mississippi Volume II” book when John thought of the Jackson book. His belief in the project made me believe in it as well, even though I was a little dubious at first. Being from the Coast, I did not know Jackson, so I wasn’t sure that I could make enough photographs for a 180-page coffee table book.
Can you give an overview of the types of subjects in this book?
Ken: We tried to include everything that makes Jackson what it is, and that is its people, restaurants, historic buildings, museums, clubs, parks, and events. What you will see in this book are only positive aspects about Jackson. We will leave the negative stuff to the media.
How many images are in the book? How long did it take to complete the photography?
Ken: There are 186 photographs in the book. We started talking about Jackson in August of 2012. We pulled a deal together and got started shooting on St. Paddy’s Day 2013. I spent right at 12 months making photographs, so I would say it has taken two years from conception to having the books in the store, which is a record for me. I’m not sure how many shots I really took but we had a good list to work with, from the beginning. As we went down the list, it would change, depending on the location and my ability to get a photograph to represent it.
How did you choose which subjects made the cut?
Ken: The places and/or people in the book were selected by John and his team at the bookstore based on its, or their, importance to the Jackson culture. But this doesn’t mean that the photographs in this book are the only defining features about Jackson. That would not be true. As for making eliminations, it was simple. Either the place was no longer there, the person was unavailable, or it was just too hard to make what I thought would be a satisfactory photograph.
What is your hope for this book?
Ken: I hope it energizes the Jackson culture in a way that will be positive and beneficial to the citizens of Jackson as well as the rest of Mississippi. I hope this book will educate people about the true Jackson, while enlightening lifelong residents and visitors alike with an entertaining armchair tour. One of the reasons I wanted to publish a photographic coffee table book was to help dispel negative stereotypes about Mississippi.
I only hope that the world sees Mississippi in a positive light, literally. If my books can help do that and folks are inspired to get out and experience the real place, Mississippi, then I feel I’ve been successful.
Lisa Newman
Why did Lemuria Books decide to publish this photographic account of 21st century Jackson?
Lisa: We were continually getting requests for a photographic book on Jackson. The last one was published in 1998 by Walt Grayson and Gil Ford Photography and is now out of print.
A book celebrating the beauty of modern Jackson was long overdue, and Lemuria knew the work of Ken Murphy would result in one of the classiest books on Jackson — ever.
As the writer for the plate details of nearly 200 photos, your work covers eight full pages. How long did it take you to fact-check and write?
Lisa: It took me several months, but keep in mind that I was writing them at Lemuria while continuing many of my usual bookseller responsibilities.
How did you conduct the research?
Lisa: Ken requested input from every place he visited, and we received some response. I also immersed myself in every Jackson history book I could get my hands on.
The online catalog for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, along with other historical preservation sites, were great sources, as were current websites of many of the businesses.
Were there details that surprised you?
Lisa: The main courtroom in the Old Federal Building had one of the most surprising stories. It features a mural commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in 1938. Ukrainian painter Simka Simkovitch was asked to paint a typical representation of life in Mississippi. For many years, the mural was kept behind a curtain because of the reminder of the cruel injustice which was the backbone of the Old South economy. Today, the building is being repurposed as a multi-use facility and has taken on the name of Capitol & West. I think this photo of the courtroom is a great example of how Jackson is moving forward to create a new identity. We will have to see what happens to the painting.
We also included exterior and interior shots of Tougaloo’s Woodworth Chapel. The breathtaking chapel was a hub for civil rights workers.
Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com.
