The Past Is Not Dead

The very best essays from fifty years of scholarship and thoughtEssays by Margaret Walker Alexander Alfred Bendixen David C. Berry Augustus M. Burns James Taylor Carson Thadious M. Davis Susan V. Donaldson Don H. Doyle Barbara C. Ewell Robert L. Hall William H. Hatcher Arthell Kelley Manning Marable Joseph Millichap Willie Morris John Solomon Otto Harriet Pollack Kathryn L. Seidel John Ray Skates Randy J. Sparks Martha Swain and Anne Bradford WarnerThe Past Is Not Dead is a collection of twenty literary and historical essays that will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Southern Quarterly one of the oldest scholarly journals (founded in 1962) dedicated to southern studies. Like its companion volume Personal Souths this essay collection features the best work published in the journal. Essays represent every decade of the journal's history from the 1960s to the 2000s. Topics range from historical essays on the Mississippi frontier southern religion African culinary influences and New Deal politics to literary essays on George W. Cable James Dickey William Faulkner Eudora Welty and Richard Wright. Important regional subjects like the Yazoo Basin and Mississippi blues are given special attention. Contributors range from such noted literary figures as Margaret Walker Alexander and Willie Morris to literary critics Thadious M. Davis Susan V. Donaldson Kathryn L. Seidel and Joseph Millichap to scholars of African American studies such as Robert L. Hall and Manning Marable and historians including Don H. Doyle Randy J. Sparks and Martha Swain.Collectively the essays in The Past Is Not Dead enrich and illuminate our understanding of southern history literature and culture and celebrate the work of a distinctive distinguished journal.