South: A Treasury of Art and Literature

In her introduction to this attractive album, Howorth, who teaches Southern culture at the University of Mississippi, observes that there are many Souths: gracious living and literary sophistication have coexisted with violence, prejudice and illiteracy. Juxtaposing letters, memoirs, essays, stories, eyewitness accounts, song lyrics and poems with paintings, sculpture, etchings and folk art, this volume provides a revealing window on Southern life and art in all its diversity. ``Outsiders'' such as Alexis de Toqueville and Bostonian Henry Adams take a wickedly incisive look at the Old South while the convulsions of the modern South and the 20th-century efflorescence of Southern writing are reflected in selections by Richard Wright, Wendell Berry, Alice Walker, Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and others. Also featured in this panorama are Romare Bearden's paintings, Harriet Powers's narrative quilts, Walker Evans's photographs and writings by Rosa Parks, Truman Capote, W. C. Handy and Jean Toomer. (Nov.)