Mercer University Press Search Results

In his ninth book, THE PINKEST PARTY ON EARTH, Macon newspaper columnist Ed Grisamore tells the story of how a city wraps itself in pink each spring and has become the cherry blossom capital of the world, with more than 300,000 flowering cherry trees.

Drawing from a wealth of information, particularly from primary sources such as diaries, letters, plantation records, etc., the author has recreated the story of James Hamilton Couper and his times into an exciting, interesting, and readable account.

When it opened in October 1864, Camp Lawton was called “the world’s largest prison.” Operational only six weeks, this stockade near Millen, Georgia, was evacuated in the face of advancing Federal troops under General Sherman. In that brief span of time, the prison served as headquarters for the Confederate military prison system, witnessed hundreds of deaths, held a mock election for president, was involved in a sick exchange, hosted attempts to recruit Union POWs for Confederate service, and experienced escape attempts. Burned by Sherman’s troops following its evacuation in late November 1864, the prison was never reoccupied. Over the next 150 years, the memory of Camp Lawton almost disappeared. In 2010, the Confederate military prison was resurrected—a result of the media event publically showcasing the findings of recent archeological investigations. This book not only summarizes these initial archeological findings, but is also the first full-length, documented history of Camp Lawton.

The Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication was founded in 1915 by Steadman Vincent Sanford who as president (1932–35) and chancellor of the University System of Georgia (1935–45), was architect of the modern University of Georgia. Its second graduate John Eldridge Drewry (1922), the school’s longest serving director and dean (1932–69), established the Peabody Awards in 1940, which remains the oldest and most prestigious award in all electronic media. This account details the evolution of a college that is among the nation’s elite, with a selective undergraduate program (juniors and seniors only) and an impressive 99.1 percent graduation rate; a national leader in its graduate research program, with study abroad programs and internships; and leadership in international research and outreach. Housed within the college are a number of centers, institutes, and certificate programs that distinguish its disciplines.

This second collection of stories and adventures by local television personality Suzanne Lawler has been gathered from glimpses of billboards, travels on many roads, conversations with friends, and encounters with some of the most interesting individuals and places in Central Georgia.

When Georgia’s US Senator Richard B. Russell died January 21, 1971, the scramble began immediately to find a worthy successor. A number of political luminaries thought themselves imminently qualified, among them three former governors, a former congressman, and the state’s current treasurer. All would be competing against the appointed senator, David Gambrell in the Democratic primary. The winner would face US Representative Fletcher Thompson in the general election. Thompson promised to tie any Democrat to one of the most unpopular political figures in America, George McGovern. The 1972 race definitely was not for the timid or faint hearted. Outside of Houston County, few people knew Sam Nunn’s name. This book chronicles the journey McElroy took with Sam Nunn as he presented a message of common sense conservatism to the voters of Georgia in 1972. Nunn’s principled approach to making government work through cooperation and compromise, and his demonstrated mastery of complex issues, placed him among a rare few considered every four years for the highest office in the land.

The story of the first airplane flight in Georgia has not been told correctly in more than one hundred years. The year given for this flight, 1907, is not correct, the plane identified as the first to fly never got off the ground, and Ben T. Epps, Sr. is incorrectly credited, solely, with achieving this feat. TO LASSO THE CLOUDS sets the historical record straight and brings to light the complete, incredible story of the two young men from Athens, Georgia who achieved their dream of flight. Epps and Zumpt A. Huff were described by one newspaper after that first flight as a “second pair of Wright brothers.” Most surprising of all, this book reveals their flight was the first flight of a monoplane in the United States—a record of which even they were not aware.

Part memoir, part essay collection, part spiritual journal, THIS GLADDENING LIGHT offers a unique perspective on the interconnectedness of universal themes--doubt and devotion, childhood and parenthood, disconnection and ecological mindfulness, anguish and empathy--all told at the level of the ground. This much-anticipated nonfiction debut from Christopher Martin is, ultimately, a work of belonging. Through narrative prose that moves between a rain-soaked Appalachian cove, Thoreau’s hut site at Walden Pond, hospital rooms in Atlanta and Cherokee County, Civil War battlefields crossed by highways, and the suburbanized, ore-red hills of Northwest Georgia, Martin paints a spirituality of the ordinary, of the creaturely world.

UNDERSTANDING THE SHORT FICTION OF CARSON MCCULLERS uses diverse critical techniques to identify how McCullers's short fiction engages with the modern world and contemporary audiences. While McCullers's longer work has received significant critical attention, her short fiction has not received the same treatment. This collection adds to analyses of McCullers's better-known stories as well as considers those that have received little or no critical attention. McCullers's writing maintains lasting appeal because it captures both the joy and sadness of humanity, especially the meaning we draw from connections with others and the pain of isolation when we find it difficult to cultivate these relationships in modern culture.

Good ole boy Dickie Frye vanishes from the Georgia hills and the urbane Fletcher Carlyle bursts onto the New York publishing scene, winning the Nobel Prize for literature. But when a psychotic rampage lands Carlyle in Weatherhaven, eminent psychologist Anton Kohl finds himself talking to Dickie Frye. Kohl’s instincts tell him Frye is not lying—but what he says can’t possibly be true. A fallen priest comes out of Sumerian mythology, the love of Kohl’s life comes out of his past, and a chicken comes out of a posh apartment on Central Park West to meet his fate. Anton Kohl’s carefully constructed world is about to be deconstructed.One part fable and one part Southern yarn, Kiss of the Jewel Bird soars from ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day Manhattan, rewriting history and opening a window onto a wider, more magical world, where the path to destiny is anything but straight.

Follow the transformation of Robert Augustus Alston from a nineteenth-century slave owner and white supremacist to crusader for reform in the treatment of mostly black convicts in post-war Georgia. In his own words, Alston went to war to defend his ownership of slaves. During the Civil War, Alston served under General John Hunt Morgan initially as his adjutant and later in command of a brigade. In 1864, his strong sense of honor caused him to become disillusioned by the robberies and depredations of Morgan’s troops and he reported Morgan to authorities for not investigating them.

The product of more than a decade’s toil, Going Back the Way They Came is a thoroughly researched, comprehensive book that details the organization of the Philips Georgia Legion Cavalry Battalion unit and its combat odyssey. Using letters, diaries, period images, newspaper articles, archives, and other forgotten sites throughout north Georgia, the author tells the story of this battalion. The result is a highly readable book that takes the reader on horseback through several of the major battles in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War.