A Southern Missive

Fall is officially here, and with it the promise of winter. I can feel the cold creeping into my house a little more each day. Today, is university day, from 1:00 until nearly 9:00 pm. I’m going to spend a couple of hours writing on my play this morning, and then prepare a lesson on the Harlem Renaissance for my English 206 class at ULM.

Thanks to Bonnie Barnes, my Texas friend and technical media specialist, my personal Web page has a new look! Please let me know what you think about it.

http://rickeypittman.com/

While in Mobile, I came across the grave in Magnolia Cemetery of the South’s most famous woman novelist, and certainly Mobile’s most famou, during the Civil War. I took a photo of that sacred spot. It is posted below. There’s a well-written article written by Mobile’s John Sledge you should go to for more information on his author: http://www.americanartists.org/art/article_augusta_jane_evans.htm I have a copy of her biography and a copy of Macaria, or Altars of Sacrifice, written in 1863. According to Sledge, the novel was published “in true Confederate fashion in Richmond, the novel was printed on wrapping paper with wallpaper covers. Macaria was popular among both rebels and Yankees. Union officers banned the book and burned confiscated copies.” Though admittedly the novel was a propaganda piece, I admire her spunk. The novel was a wartime best seller, and was dedicated to the Army of the Southern Confederacy. After the war, she was active in the movement to erect Confederate monuments. Drew Faust, in his introduction to Macaria, says that she continued to publish “almost until her death in 1909.” I think more should be written about her.

I had a wonderful, though very tiring, trip this weekend. I spent a long day at the Books-A-Million in Texarcana, but it was a sell-out and that’s what matters most. I’ve already been invited back with my next books. I spent the night there in the Holiday Inn on State Line. A state convention of the teachers for the magnet schools of Texas were also at the hotel and they were having meetings today. Ironically, the hotel for the Texas teachers was in the Arkansas portion of Texarkana. It must be awkward at times to live in a city that is in two states. I drove back to Monroe this morning, wrote a TGIF article on the Civil War in Indian Territory and tended to some emails. Of course, I came back to the UNFINISHED work and chores I meant to get done before my trip. Below is a photo taken at my Texarcana signing. On easels I have the framed poster that Pelican Publishing made me and a copy of the only actual photo in existence of Jim Limber.