Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Michael Ray Taylor

Remembering Robert Johnson

Brother Robert provides a human perspective on the man who changed American music

Assisted by journalist and historian Preston Lauterbach, 94-year-old Annye C. Anderson describes growing up in Memphis with her stepbrother, Robert Johnson. This detail-rich oral history recounts the famous bluesman from his earliest childhood to his death at 27, along with the long legal battle for his music that followed.

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“The Bridge”

Book Excerpt: Hidden Nature: Wild Southern Caves

Michael Ray Taylor’s Hidden Nature: Wild Southern Caves, a mixture of memoir and subterranean natural history, will be published in August 2020. He chairs the communication and theatre arts department at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

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Hidden Tennessee

Cave expert Larry E. Matthews takes readers on a remarkable tour of the Middle Tennessee underground

For over 40 years, Nashville resident Larry E. Matthews has produced a slew of specialized books chronicling some of Tennessee’s 10,000 known caves. His latest, the lavishly illustrated Caves of the Highland Rim, may be the most accessible to general readers, revealing hidden worlds through Matthews’ clear prose and detailed photographs by Bob Biddix.

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Shooting for Freedom

Sidney Thompson’s historical novel delivers an unforgettable character based on a true American hero

The true story of Bass Reeves, an enslaved Arkansan who became a frontier lawman, is the inspiration for Sidney Thompson’s historical novel Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves. The first volume in a planned trilogy, the book relates Reeves’ early years, before his legendary career as a U.S. marshal. Sidney Thompson will discuss Follow the Angels, Follow the Doves at Novel in Memphis on March 6.

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Ah, California

Spenser heads to Los Angeles in Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes, Ace Atkins’ eighth novel in the iconic series

When Spenser goes west in search of a missing young actress in Ace Atkins’ Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes, the Boston PI roams the dark streets of Raymond Chandler and noir gumshoes, finding clues amid echoes of his own past.

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Hiking Through History

Paul Fink describes early forays into the Smoky Mountains in Mountain Days, a lost classic of wilderness travel

Paul Fink was an early champion of the Appalachian Trail and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mountain Days collects his colorful journals and historic photographs of 20 mountain backpacking excursions between 1914 and 1938.

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