Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest

Reading a 2016 New York Times article about Nearest Green, an enslaved Black man who taught Jack Daniel how to distill whiskey in the 1850s, set bestseller Weaver (Happy Wives Club) on a path that changed the course of her career, as she recollects in this striking account. Venturing to Lynchburg, Tenn., home of the Jack Daniel’s distillery, she was surprised to find that Nearest’s “contributions... were no secret [there]. His family had passed down the story... for generations.” However, the Jack Daniel’s museum ignored Nearest, even as his descendants continued to be employed by the whiskey empire. Weaver delved into the story through interviews with Nearest’s family and archival research, and eventually purchased the site of Nearest’s original still, where she worked with his descendants to produce Uncle Nearest label whiskey. Weaver’s heartfelt memoir of bonding with Lynchburgers frames her poignant discoveries about the close friendship between Nearest and his young mentee Jack, who in his lifetime strove to preserve Nearest’s legacy. She uncovers that Jack went on to employ Black workers and treat them fairly, and that the town’s relative racial harmony in the late 19th century led to violent targeting by white supremacists, including the 1894 lynching of an ailing Jack’s Black caretaker. It’s a powerful portrayal of a largely hidden American history. (June)