Southern Bookman

Memories of Thanksgivings past

Thanksgiving brings memories of years past.

I think of friends and loved ones no longer here, their faces and voices, smiles and laughter.

Thanksgivings in Baton Rouge, Manhattan and Brooklyn, Charlotte, Nashville and Columbus, Ohio. And gatherings at home in Atlanta.

An impromptu family banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

Walking through snowflakes in the cold past Radio City Music Hall to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Discovering a collection of Chesterton essays on the bookshelf of an Air Bnb in Nashville’s 12 South.

Playing golf with my father at Sherwood Forest, parring six straight holes.

Watching the Detroit Lions of George Plimpton and Alex Karras beat Vince Lombardi’s previously undefeated Green Bay Packers.

My grandmother’s cornbread dressing,

A night at Immaculate Conception, serving a meal to the homeless and hearing their stories, especially those of an elegantly dressed Vietnam veteran.

With the men sleeping in their cots laid out across the floor, lying down in early morning besides the tomb of the priest who persuaded Sherman to spare the church from burning.

That historical echo: the U.S. Army in Atlanta and Vietnam.

Special thanks to my Southern Bookman readers, especially Joan.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

George Will marks 50 years as columnist

George Will, celebrating his 50th anniversary as a newspaper columnist, saluted readers of “op-ed” opinion pieces.

Will, a lauded columnist for The Washington Post, has gained national recognition through his syndicated pieces running in local newspapers and as a TV commentator.

Honoring his achievement, the Post is publishing tributes to Will.

A 1970s innovation of The New York Times’ Harrison Salisbury, the page opposite the traditional editorial page gave space to in-house writers like Will as well as opinion writers from academia and elsewhere.

The 83-year-old Will, a noted baseball scholar who wears bowties and elegant suits and seeks to write classic 19th century English, pointed out in his anniversary reflections Tuesday that an op-ed columnist should engage readers with interesting facts.

A conservative in the tradition of William F. Buckley, Will cited the illustrious New York columnist Murray Kempton, a Will hero although he was a liberal.

Will drolly observed that fewer people read newspapers and even fewer op-ed columns.

No longer prevalent on Sunday TV political shows, Will soldiers on, a remnant of traditional conservatism almost obliterated by Trumpism.

He’s a lonely but essential voice of civility, culture and baseball.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address lives on after 161 years

President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address on a bright November day 161 years ago.

On Nov. 19, a crowd gathered at the Gettysburg National Cemetery to mark the anniversary of Lincoln’s brief speech, in which he honored those killed in the Civil War battle a few months before.

Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer at the end of the reenactment read Lincoln’s remarks that rededicated the union to freedom and equality for all citizens.

Before speaking the Civil War president’s words, Holzer expressed dismay that an authoritarian, disruptive president-elect now leads the party Lincoln guided to victory, ending slavery. 

In a stirring article that brought back the glories of classic newspaper writing, The New York Times’ Dan Barry captured the solemn majesty of the 161st anniversary reenactment.

Asserting their faith in the promise of America, a group of immigrants from different backgrounds joined a ceremony to become American citizens, Barry reported.

A month before Lincoln’s immortal address at the battlefield, the careworn president issued his first proclamation declaring a national holiday of Thanksgiving.

Once again, we gather together this week to express thanks for our blessings and rededicate ourselves to Lincoln’s more perfect union.

 

 

 

Remembering John F. Kennedy on anniversary of his assassination

The world changed on this day in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas.

Kennedy’s death began a turbulent decade of civil rights progress, assassinations, generational conflict over America’s deepening involvement in the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution and exhilarating creative freedom in movies, books and art,

In the 61 years since the dynamic young president’s shattering murder, the country has swerved from right to left many times.

Now a destructive and cynical administration lurches forward, the antithesis of the progressive values that Kennedy exemplified.

His legacy lives on. The torch will be passed to new generations.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution returns to city

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has again tied its fortunes to the city of Atlanta.

After the AJC’s 14-year wanderings in the suburbs, the newspaper’s masthead proudly adorns its new headquarters in Atlanta’s vibrant Midtown neighborhood.

The move to the soaring Promenade Central office building across Peachtree Street from Colony Square and near the Woodruff Arts Center crowns a recent resurgence for the newspaper, which has hired energetic young reporters, retained a core of knowledgeable veterans and boosted state news coverage.

An ambitious rollout of new ventures includes special coverage of black culture, podcasts and video productions and the Politically Georgia public radio program.

While Publisher Andrew Morse charts an ambitious digital future, the AJC still publishes a comprehensive and entertaining print newspaper for a dwindling number of aging subscribers.

Before fleeing to the suburbs, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution established headquarters in downtown Atlanta for more than a century.

The AJC’s resurgence has matched that of the city, which has gained population, boosted its economy and landed major sports events.

Since Atlanta’s beginning as a rough railroad town, the newspapers have supported the city’s wildest ambitions.

Now they are together again, heading into the future.

 

 

 

 

Joan Didion, Eve Babitz were friends and rivals

The fascination with Joan Didion stays strong, nearly three years after her death.

Critical studies and memoirs about the iconic writer keep arriving.

The latest, “Didion and Babitz” by Lili Anolik, examines Didion’s fraught friendship with Eve Babitz, the exhilarating chronicler of Los Angeles’ drug, sex and music escapades in the 1960s.

Receiving a burst of media acclaim, Anolik sees the writers as compatriots exploring the same literary territory. Didion first gained fame with her novels and essays about Los Angeles and California’s counterculture.

In contrast to Babitz, Didion wrote about a wide range of subjects and achieved enduring fame.

Anolik spurred a revival of interest in the late Babitz’s work with an article in Vanity Fair and the biography “Eve’s Hollywood.”

In her dual examination of the “frenemies,” she seeks to boost Babitz while diminishing Didion, according to reviews.

Didion met Babitz when the young writer, album cover artist and rock star lover attended one of Didion’s famous parties at her house at 7406 Franklin Road in a rough part of Los Angeles.

Didion supported Babitz’s career, aiding her first significant publication, in Rolling Stone. 

The two later had a falling out after Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, moved to an oceanfront palace in Malibu, a town the LA-loving Babitz abhorred.

Anolik’s book sounds captivating, but she’s off-base in equating Babitz and Didion. While Babitz’s work captures an era, she’s a minor writer compared with Didion.

Nora Ephron, who died in 2012, possessed a stature comparable to Didion’s. Interest in Ephron’s work as a writer and filmmaker also remains high, as shown by Ilana Kaplan’s recent book “Ephron at the Movies.”

Didion and Ephron, close friends for years, built similar major careers with touch points in New York and Hollywood.

A dual study of Didion and Ephron would be a truly valid examination, potentially a significant literary work.

Ann Patchett’s “Tom Lake” displays narrative power of guiding spirit “Our Town”

Ann Patchett’s “Tom Lake” is a traditional novel, a feast of classic storytelling.

The book celebrates Thornton Wilder’s famed play “Our Town,” the guiding spirit of narrator Lara Nelson, a former actress who recalls her life-defining performances as Wilder’s tragic heroine Emily Webb.

Lara and her husband, Joe, own a struggling cherry farm in rural Michigan.

During the Covid shutdown, their three young adult daughters have returned to the farm, helping to harvest the crop because regular work crews are absent because of the epidemic.

As they work, Lara tells her daughters about her passionate relationship during her youth with an actor who later gained global fame. She met the actor when she was performing with him in a summer stock production of “Our Town” at a resort in rural Michigan called Tom Lake.

Patchett’s finely developed plot weaves an engrossing story of how Lara gave up her promising acting career for a happy life on the cherry farm as a wife and mother.

Paul Duke, the famous actor, stands out among a cast of vividly portrayed characters.

Along with “Our Town,” Patchett also evokes Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard.”

The narrative structure echoes “The Decameron” and other classics, and Patchett like Shakespeare understands the literary value of three daughters.

In an afterword, Patchett says that renewing attention to “Our Town” was one of her purposes in writing “Tom Lake.”

Her love for “Our Town” is fulfilled by the current Broadway revival of the play, starring Jim Parsons as the stage manager, Richard Thomas as Mr. Webb and Zooey Deutch in an endearing performance as Emily.

In “Tom Lake,” Lara strongly identifies with Emily, achieving the fulfilling life that Emily’s death cut short.

Living according to Emily’s revelation in “Our Town,” Lara blesses each precious moment.

Patchett’s novel displays the life-affirming narrative power of Wilder’s beloved classic.

 

 

 

 

Long abandoned Atlanta Constitution building to receive new lifr

The long abandoned building at 143 Alabama St. in downtown Atlanta will live again.

Home of The Atlanta Constitution from 1947 until its merger with The Atlanta Journal in 1953, the Art Moderne landmark will be redeveloped into affordable apartments and stores.

The development agency Invest Atlanta selected Wisconsin-based Gorman and Co. for the project, according to the AJC. The company will also build a residential building next door.

After stabilizing the building, Gorman will convert the former office space into attractive apartments, many with rents that lower income people can afford.

A new exterior will preserve the building’s striking brick facade, with a proud greeting for Workf Cup fans.

Vacant since the 1970s, the old building has been a ghostly presence, its glassless windows dark squares. Trees grow from the roof. Homeless people seeking shelter there have set fires through the years. 

Honoring its past, the building was decorated with frescoes showing scenes of newspaper production. I’m not sure they remain.

When I worked at The AJC at 72 Marietta St. in downtown Atlanta, I passed the building every evening on my way to the Five Points MARTA station, imagining reporters, editors and printers still working there in a beehive of activity.

One of Atlanta’s saddest urban orphans will present a proud new face to international soccer fans.

 

Battle begins to restore promise of America

As Donald Trump launches his monstrous regime, I’m trying to uphold my faith that American democracy will survive and find renewal.

I know I’ll keep reading books and magazines. Theater and art will keep flourishing no matter how powerful the attacks against them. Battles for environmental protection and constitutional rights will grow stronger.

Editors of mainstream publications vow to keep freely publishing the truth against the onslaught of misinformation. 

Still, the world has entered a new era in which the United States is no longer the beacon of justice and freedom. 

Diligence and courage will be tested. Many dark days will come. Yet the promise of America will remain bright.