Living in Mississippi for the last 7 years, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what makes Southern literature so great. Is it the culture of story-telling? The unique lives of families that have lived in the same place for generations? The dialect? The struggle of being a place so long ignored by the beast to the North?

Eudora Welty said this:

It is nothing new or startling that Southerners do write–probably they must write. It is the way they are:born readers and reciters, great document holders, diary keeps, letter exchangers and savers, history tracers–and, outstaying the rest, great talkers. -from Place and Time: The Southern Writer’s Inheritance

Let me be completely honest, here–that makes me jealous. The South will always only be a place I almost understand.

I just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s Cities on the Plain, the third book in his Border Trilogy. And it is set 20 miles from my hometown–Las Cruces, New Mexico. McCarthy made the landscape come alive with his descriptions–the creosote smell in the rain, the sun rising and setting, the Franklin and Sacramento mountains at dusk. For a little while, I got to go home again. Pure nostalgia. When John Grady asks, “Who do you think killed Colonel Fountain?” I not only know who Colonel Fountain was, but I know his great-niece, and she is still a little mad that her Great-Uncle was murdered. (If you want to know more about Albert Fountain, check this out) But it’s not familiarity that makes Southern books great, because details aren’t enough; the place has to come alive on the pages.

In Mississippi, we read a lot of books. And many of those books are set in hometowns, amongst the people we know. In the South, the writer has to capture everything just how it is, because everyone is going to read your book, and if you didn’t get the details correct, you will hear about it.

I went out to Livingston Farmer’s Market last night. I happily live in Jackson but was ready for a change of scenery. This is the third year for the farmer’s market and every time I go there is something different. I met old and new friends, but my favorite new friends were the chickens on the new little farm. So far there is a large vegetable garden, some little piggies destined to be someone’s dinner (though I’m not sure if they’ll make it to the dinner table–everyone is getting attached), and these chickens. The eggs are for sale and I was lucky to take some home with me and I had a delicious scrambled egg sandwich for dinner.  (Thank you Stephanie and Cameron!)

Have you ever thought about having chickens? Many living places allow it and it seems to be the new thing to do as people tire of big box store consuming and look to find new ways to acquire the staples in life, from farms to markets to local businesses to your own back yard. As Martha would say, It’s a Good Thing.

You can see more photos of Livingston Farmer’s Market on their Facebook Page and see what’s coming up for the rest of the summer.

If you’ve been wondering if you could have chickens in your own back yard, there are many books on the subject. Lemuria usually has several on hand.

There is nothing like hearing Eudora Welty’s stories in her own voice. We will listen to “Petrified Man” and if we have time for another one, “Keela, the Outcast Indian Maid”.

This Welty listening session is part of our Cereus Readers Book Club. Below you will see what we have been reading since January and what we’ll be reading over the next few months with an introduction to the book club by Carolyn Brown.

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We call ourselves the Cereus Readers in honor of Jackson writer Eudora Welty and her friends who gathered for the annual blooming of the night-blooming cereus flower and called themselves “The Night-Blooming Cereus Club.” In this same spirit of friendship and fellowship, this new book club is launched.

The goal of the Cereus Readers is to introduce readers to the writing of Eudora Welty–her short stories, essays, and novels–and then to read books and authors she enjoyed herself or were influenced by her.

As an introduction to the writer we will start with my biography of Eudora Welty, A Daring Life, and pair it with Eudora’s essay “A Sweet Devouring,” found in her collection of essays The Eye of the Story. We will then read her Pulitzer prize-winning novella The Optimist’s Daughter followed by her collection of short stories The Golden Apples.

After reading these works by Welty, we will read authors and works she herself enjoyed: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Chekhov, and mysteries. Finally, we thought we would read authors who have acknowledged Welty as an influence and inspiration such as Ann Patchett, Anne Tyler, and Clyde Edgerton. It’s a bold undertaking, but we plan to be meeting for a while!

Here is the schedule for Cereus Readers:

Thursday, January 24: A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty & “A Sweet Devouring” from The Eye of the Story (led by Carolyn Brown)

Thursday, February 28: The Optimist’s Daughter (led by Jan Taylor)

Thursday, March 28: The Golden Apples, Part 1 (led by Lee Anne Bryan)

Thursday, April 25: The Golden Apples, Part 2 (led by Lee Anne Bryan)

Thursday, May 23:

Two short stories: “Where Is the Voice Coming from?” & “The Demonstrators”

An essay: “Must the Novelist Crusade?”

Thursday, June 27:

We will listen to Miss Welty read “Keela, the Outcast Indian Maid” and if we have time for another one, “Petrified Man”.

Thursday, July 25: The Ponder Heart

Thursday, August 22: The Robber Bridegroom

Thursday, September 26: Short Stories, “Asphodel” & “A Still Moment”

We meet at noon in the dot.com building adjacent to Banner Hall. Feel free to bring your lunch. All books are available at Lemuria, and be sure to ask for the “Cereus Reader” 10% discount when making your purchase for the book club. Please e-mail lisa if you plan on attending or if you have any questions: lisa at lemuriabooks dot com.

This is a reading group open to all level of readers–anyone interested in learning about Jackson’s most important writer. Eudora Welty considered Lemuria her bookstore, and we want to honor her by discussing her books and authors she loved–meeting in the store where she shopped and signed her books.

Carolyn

I could get lost in this ten volume set of civil war photography and commentary for days. The Photographic History of the Civil War was published in 1911 by The Review of Reviews Company. If you’re anything like a civil war buff, you know about this set. It’s amazing. I did get lost in Volume 2 when I found the section on The Battle of Champion Hill and The Siege of Vicksburg. It’s part of our civil war display in light of this 150th anniversary and the event we had last week with Jeff Shaara for his second novel in a trilogy, A Chain of Thunder: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg. For those of you who need to brush up a little bit on what was happening around here 150 years ago, here are few photos and drawings plus some basic history notes. If you want more, we have a great civil war section!

Raising the Stars and Stripes Over the Capitol the State of Mississippi engraving from Harper’s Weekly, 20 June 1863 after the capture of Jackson by Union forces during the American Civil War

The Battle of Jackson, fought on May 14, 1863, in Jackson, Mississippi, was part of the Vicksburg Campaign in the American Civil War. Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee defeated Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, seizing the city, cutting supply lines, and opening the path to the west and the Siege of Vicksburg. (from Wiki)

Battle of Jackson, Mississippi–Gallant charge of the 17th Iowa, 80th Ohio and 10th Missouri, supported by the first and third brigades of the seventh division / sketched by A.E. Mathews, 31st Reg., O.V.I.

Shirley White’s House at Vicksburg 1863

The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

When two major assaults (May 19 and May 22, 1863) against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4. This action (combined with the capitulation of Port Hudson on July 9) yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, who would hold it for the rest of the conflict.

The Confederate surrender following the siege at Vicksburg is sometimes considered, when combined with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, the turning point of the war. It also cut off communication with Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department for the remainder of the war. (from Wiki)

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his study in October 1879.

There are books which take rank in our life with parents and lovers and passionate experiences, so medicinal, so stringent, so revolutionary, so authoritative. -Ralph Waldo Emerson