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Life After Mississippi
The distinctive Southern voice of James A. Autry continued in his second book of verse, Life After Mississippi. As the title indicates, Autry takes us on a personal voyage beyond his Mississippi roots to the corporate world where he was for many years president of magazine publishing at The Meredith Corporation. Autry faithfully records the voices he hears, both past and present, amid the joy and pain of living. He is, as Willie Morris writes in his Introduction, "an observer whose task is to remind us of those small but important details that add up to a significant understanding. Throughout Autry's work there is a simple faith in mankind, in the best that people can be. Life After Mississippi makes us stop and listen to a country preacher saving souls, an Air Force ground control operator trying to save a pilot's life, a father trying to understand his son, a young man grappling with the social prejudices of his native land. Yet Autry also knows the deep silences of the wind in the pines, of hot quiet days in the Mississippi hill country, the sound of one's own breathing. Autry's verse ultimately is about sharing. As Willie Morris writes: "He shares with us the power of his faith in mankind, his sense of community in the face of adversity. He takes us back and forth between the past and present, between the youth that we remember and the future we face together." |
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