Our final conversation of 2022 (!) is with W. Ralph Eubanks - acclaimed author, professor at the University of Mississippi, former director of publishing at the Library of Congress, and fellow University of Michigan graduate.
"The bookmobile opened up the world to me". When those wheels hit the gravel on the road to his childhood home, Ralph found refuge in the cool air and stories contained inside. It was in the bookmobile he learned, dreamed, and imagined the world outside of Mississippi - where he escaped the summer heat and warzone of the Civil Rights era. It was also where he first read William Faulkner and thought someday he, too, could become a great Mississippi writer. And he did. Though he left Mississippi, he found his way home again (as Mississippians are wont to do). Like many writers, Ralph takes on the responsibility to tell real stories about his "old home place", to give something back to the people and place that made him.
There's lots of good stuff in this episode. The impact of a bookmobile. Ralph's unique family history. Civil Rights movement & war strategy. The "burning house" of school integration. Myth, memory, and history. Parchman & finding the denominators. And more than a few books for you to read.
Checkout Ralph's work and buy his books!
Mentioned in this episode:
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Calmly We Walk through This April's Day by Delmore Schwartz
Escaping the Summer Heat in A Bookmobile
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
Lad: A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune
Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement by Thomas E. Ricks
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Toughest Job: William Winter's Mississippi
A Place Like Mississippi by Ralph Eubanks
