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Shantyboats and Roustabouts Wins James V. Swift Medal
Perhaps no one contributed more to preserving the history of life on the rivers than James V. Swift, a longtime columnist of the Waterways Journal who wrote the “Old Boat Column” for many years. As the Journal’s Vice-President and business and advertising manager, he supported a number of river organizations, and he indexed the Waterways…
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“Heaven on Earth”: Shantyboats Go to Hollywood Again
Film director Russell Mack’s Heaven on Earth (Universal Studios, December 1, 1931), based on Ben Lucien Burman’s 1929 novel, Mississippi, reintroduced American moviegoers to the world of the Mississippi River poor. The movie was released eleven years after King Vidor’s silent shantyboat film, The Jack-Knife Man. When Mack scouted filming locations, Harry Pollard, director of…
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The Music Story Behind “Jones County Jubilee” and the “Free State of Jones”
I recall vividly how chills ran up and down my spine when I read the tombstone inscription, “They were summarily executed by the Confederate Cavalry During the War Between the States for their honest convictions, April 14, 1864.” Looking back, I think it was the starting point for my song, “Jones County Jubilee,” even though…
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LSU Press Facebook Live Author Event
Please join us tomorrow (Jan. 25) afternoon at 2pm when LSU Press hosts an online Facebook presentation and Q & A session on my new book. LSU Press Facebook Live Author Series on “Shantyboats and Roustabouts” | Facebook
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Shantyboats and Roustabouts Author Interviewed on Bookmarked, Jan. 3, 2023
On January 3, 2023, I appeared on Priscilla Vance Leder’s Bookmarked program on KZSM Radio in San Marcos, Texas. We covered a wide range of engaging issues raised by my new book, Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875-1930. Click on the start button if you’d like to listen to the conversation.
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Doctor Espanto
One of the slickest hucksters and patent medicine peddlers on the Mississippi River. You’ll meet him in Shantyboats and Roustabouts.
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My New Book Is Out
It’s now official. In a nice surprise at the mailbox today, I received an advance copy of my new book from LSU Press. Thanks for your support and interest in those who lived and labored on the Mississippi River and its tributaries in the era of Mark Twain and beyond. I believe their voices and…
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The River Gives Up Its Dead Slowly
My mother was deathly afraid of the Mississippi River, but it was my playground as a child in the river village of Ilasco, Missouri. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop me from swimming in the river or fishing from its banks while she was trimming soles at a shoe factory in Hannibal. After all,…
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Evil in the Delta
“Elaine, Elaine, that river’s deep and wide; the devil’s loose in the Delta tonight here on the Arkansas side.”
Lost River Stories
Invisibles of the Mississippi Valley.
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Lost River Stories 