Gone with the Wind is a novel by American writer Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty following Sherman's destructive "March to the Sea". This historical novel features a coming-of-age story, with the title taken from the poem "Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae", written by Ernest Dowson.
Walker Percy, OblSB was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction.
John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, whose posthumously published novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981; he also wrote The Neon Bible. Although several people in the literary world felt his writing skills were praiseworthy, Toole's novels were rejected during his lifetime. Due in part to these failures, he suffered from paranoia and depression, dying by suicide at the age of 31.
Katie Scarlett O'Hara Hamilton Kennedy Butler is a fictional character and the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the 1939 film of the same name, where she is portrayed by Vivien Leigh. She also is the main character in the 1970 musical Scarlett and the 1991 book Scarlett, a sequel to Gone with the Wind that was written by Alexandra Ripley and adapted for a television mini-series in 1994. During early drafts of the original novel, Mitchell referred to her heroine as "Pansy", and did not decide on the name "Scarlett" until just before the novel went to print. PBS has called O'Hara "quite possibly the most famous female character in American history..."
Rubyfruit Jungle is the first novel by Rita Mae Brown. Published in 1973, it was remarkable in its day for its explicit portrayal of lesbianism. The novel is a coming-of-age autobiographical account of Brown's youth and emergence as a lesbian author. The term "rubyfruit jungle" is a term used in the novel for the female genitals.
A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel by American writer John Kennedy Toole that was published in 1980, 11 years after Toole's death. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy and Toole's mother, Thelma, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981 and is now a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States.
Essie Mae Williams was an American teacher and author. She is best known as the eldest child of Strom Thurmond, Governor of South Carolina (1947–1951) and longtime United States senator, known for his pro-segregation politics. Of mixed race, she was born to Carrie Butler, a 16-year-old African-American girl who worked as a domestic servant for Thurmond's parents, and Thurmond, then 22 and unmarried. Williams grew up in the family of one of her mother's sisters, not learning of her biological parents until 1938 when her mother came for a visit and informed Essie Mae she was her mother. She graduated from college, earned a master's degree, married, raised a family, and had a 30-year professional career in education.
Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist, the wife of Zechariah, and maternal aunt of Mary, mother of Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke and in Islamic tradition. She was past normal child-bearing age when she conceived and gave birth to John.
Go Tell It on the Mountain is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by James Baldwin. It tells the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship with his family and his church. The novel also reveals the back stories of John's mother, his biological father, and his violent, fanatically religious stepfather, Gabriel Grimes. The novel focuses on the role of the Pentecostal Church in the lives of African Americans, both as a negative source of repression and moral hypocrisy and a positive source of inspiration and community. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Go Tell It on the Mountain 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.
Boonville is a novel by Robert Mailer Anderson. It was published by Creative Arts Book Company in 2001, then reprinted by HarperCollins in 2003. It is a San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller and was called one of the "Top 10 Literary Events of 2001."
Cassian, or Saint Cassian of Imola, or Cassius was a Christian saint of the 4th century. His feast day is August 13.
Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting (1706) is the title of a satirical essay by Jonathan Swift (1667–1745). It also has appeared under the title Thoughts on Various Subjects. It consists of a series of short epigrams or apothegms with no particular connections between them.
Deenie is a 1973 young adult novel written by Judy Blume.
Andalusia is a historic home once owned by Southern American author Flannery O'Connor. The estate is located in rural Georgia in Baldwin County, Georgia, approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of Milledgeville. It comprises 544 acres (2.20 km2), including the plantation house where O'Connor wrote some of her last and best-known fiction.
Jubilee (1966) is a historical novel written by Margaret Walker, which focuses on the story of a biracial slave during the American Civil War. It is set in Georgia and later in various parts of Alabama in the mid-19th century before, during, and after the Civil War.
The Neon Bible is a 1995 drama film written and directed by Terence Davies, based on the novel of the same name by John Kennedy Toole. The film is about a boy named David coming of age in Georgia in the 1940s. His abusive father enlists in the army during World War II and disappears, leaving David to take care of his mother with his Aunt Mae, who is a singer. It was filmed in Atlanta, Crawfordville and Madison, Georgia.
Came Back to Show You I Could Fly is a novel by Robin Klein. It tells the story of a friendship between a lonely 11-year-old boy and a drug-addicted, pregnant 20-year-old woman. It was given the designation of White Raven book at the 1990 Bologna Children's Book Fair. Due to rights issues with the eponymous song, From the Inside, the 1993 film adaptation directed by Richard Lowenstein was named Say a Little Prayer.
D. H. Holmes was a New Orleans department store and later a New Orleans-based chain of department stores. The company was founded in 1842 by Daniel Henry Holmes, after whom it is named. In 1849 he moved his headquarters to Canal Street, where he developed his first department store. He followed the model of pioneering department stores in Paris and New York City to offer his customers the best products and services.
Billy Frankenstein is a 1998 horror-comedy movie directed by Fred Olen Ray and written by his wife Kim Ray.
William Kenneth Holditch was a Professor Emeritus of English at the University of New Orleans. He was one of the pre-eminent scholars of the American playwright Tennessee Williams. Notably, he co-founded the Tennessee Williams Literary Festivals in New Orleans; Columbus, Mississippi; and Clarksdale, Mississippi, and he served on the advisory board of the festival in Provincetown, Rhode Island. His published works include Tennessee Williams and the South and The World of Tennessee Williams with Richard Freeman Leavitt as well as co-editor with Mel Gussow for the Library of America's Tennessee Williams Plays 1937-1955.
