Willie Morris (1934–1999)
Autore di My Dog Skip
Sull'Autore
Willie Morris is the author of "North Toward Home", "New York Days", "My Dog Skip", "My Cat Spit McGee", and numerous other works of fiction & nonfiction. As the imaginative and creative editor of "Harper's Magazine" in the 1960s, he published such writers as William Styron, Gay Talese, David mostra altro Halberstam, and Norman Mailer. He was a major influence in changing our postwar literary & journalistic history. He died in August 1999 at the age of sixty-four. (Bowker Author Biography) Willie Morris, 1934 - 1999 William Weaks Morris was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1934 to a family of storytellers. He graduated valedictorian of his high school class in 1952 and went on to attend the University of Texas in Austin. He was the editor of their newspaper the Daily Texan. He continued his education as a Rhodes Scholar studying history at Oxford University. Morris was the editor of the liberal weekly newspaper, Texas Observer, from 1960-62. He was associate editor of Harper's magazine in 1963 and then became their youngest editor-in-chief, in1967. Morris turned Harper's into one of the most influential magazines in the country, attracting contributions from well-known writers, but because of editorial disputes, he quit in 1971. His leaving caused mass resignations of most of Harper's contributing editors. In 1980, Morris returned to Mississippi as writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Morris' publications included nonfiction, fiction, children's books and essay collections. "North Toward Home" (1967) was a bestseller and received the prestigious Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award for nonfiction and was a selection of the Literary Guild. "Yazoo: Integration in a Deep-Southern Town" (1971) was published not long after a difficult divorce. The book tells how a Deep-Southern town is affected by forced integration of the public schools. "Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood" (1971) and "Good Old Boy and the Witch of Yazoo" (1989) are two of the children's classics by Morris. His fiction novel "The Last of the Southern Girls" (1973) tells of a Southern debutante who goes to Washington D.C. In 1996, Morris received the third annual Richard Wright Medal for Literary Excellence. On August 2, 1999, Willie Morris died of a heart attack in Jackson, Mississippi. He was almost finished with a project he was working on with his son about Mississippi's history and future. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno
Fonte dell'immagine: www.nndb.com
Opere di Willie Morris
Conversation Starter 1 copia
Opere correlate
For Us, the Living: The Widow of Civil Rights Leader Medger Evers Tells the Story of Their Life Together in Mississippi… (1900) — Introduzione, alcune edizioni — 89 copie
Here Lies My Heart: Essays on Why We Marry, Why We Don't, and What We Find There (A Beacon Anthology) (1999) — Collaboratore — 62 copie
American Heritage Magazine Vol 47 No 6 1996 October (1996) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni — 1 copia
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Data di nascita
- 1934-11-29
- Data di morte
- 1999-08-02
- Luogo di sepoltura
- Glenwood Cemetery, Yazoo City, Mississippi, USA
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- Jackson, Mississippi, USA
- Luogo di morte
- Jackson, Mississippi, USA
- Premi e riconoscimenti
- Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award (nonfiction)
- Breve biografia
- Born: 29-Nov-1934
Birthplace: Jackson, MS
Died: 2-Aug-1999
Location of death: Jackson, MS
Cause of death: Heart Failure
Remains: Buried, Glenwood Cemetery, Yazoo City, MS
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: North Toward Home
Father: Henry Rae Morris
Mother: Marian Weaks Morris
Wife: Celia Ann Buchan (m. 30-Aug-1958, one son)
Son: David Rae Morris (b. 1-Nov-1959)
Wife: JoAnne Prichard (m. 1990)
High School: Yazoo City High School, Yazoo, MS
University: University of Texas at Austin (1956)
University: New College, Oxford University (on a Rhodes Scholarship)
Scholar: Writer-in-Residence, University of Mississippi
Harper's Associate Editor (1963-67), Editor-in-Chief (1967-71)
Rhodes Scholarship
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR:
Baseball (18-Sep-1994) · Himself
Utenti
Recensioni
NEW YORK DAYS (1993) was a sequel to Willie Morris's memoir, NORTH TOWARD HOME, published nearly 25 years earlier. It recounts the years he served as the editor-in-chief of Harper's magazine, documenting its rise and fall, as well as his own personal successes and failures as a transplanted Southerner in the Big Apple in the tumultuous 1960s. It seems he met or knew just about everyone who mattered in the writing and publishing world of that decade, and has scores of stories and anecdotes to prove it. But after more than a hundred pages of shameless name-dropping and tale-telling of the rich and famous, it became tedious, partly because I'd heard many of the stories before, and partly because I'd lived those years too, and remembered the scandals, the books and the politics of the era. So I skimmed the last 250 pages, learning his youthful marriage fell victim to those ambitious and eventful years (but he did remarry, years later, after returning to his home ground in Mississippi). Morris is a good enough writer (I enjoyed his memoir, MY DOG SKIP), but I'm afraid I found this book nearly thirty years too late to find it interesting. Fortunately, it was only a buck at a library sale, so I got more than my money's worth. Meh.
-Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (altro)
-Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (altro)
Willie Morris writes from his heart and experience of going from an ailurophile (cat hater) to a cat lover, all because of a kitten he named Spit McGee (the name of a character in one of his children's' books) and finding himself married to a Cat Woman.
Growing up and always having dogs and coming from a family who had dogs, cats were never part of his life. Skip, his boyhood dog, was a big part of his life growing up. Later, Pete was his canine companion. Both were loyal, undemanding, accepting, consistent and willing to do what ever he wanted. A cat is none of these things.
Through this book you find how the relationship developed between Morris and Spit. Starting when the cat is first born and not doing good. Morris does what it takes to keep the kitten alive to the point of yelling, "Live, kid! Live!" From then on the cat and Morris had a bond...a thin one to start, but it grows over the years.
Morris finds that not all cats are horrible and to be avoided, like to ones he grew up with and had nightmares about. They each have their own characteristics and quirks and favourite people. Spit is all white, with one blue eye and one yellow eye, and Morris is his human of choice.
The book is written with a humourous and humane slant about a human and feline connection. A memoir and homage to a creature who became an important Fur Person in a human's life. I took my time reading it, rather than read it all in one sitting. It isn't a big book page-wise, but I think it is story-wise.… (altro)
Growing up and always having dogs and coming from a family who had dogs, cats were never part of his life. Skip, his boyhood dog, was a big part of his life growing up. Later, Pete was his canine companion. Both were loyal, undemanding, accepting, consistent and willing to do what ever he wanted. A cat is none of these things.
Through this book you find how the relationship developed between Morris and Spit. Starting when the cat is first born and not doing good. Morris does what it takes to keep the kitten alive to the point of yelling, "Live, kid! Live!" From then on the cat and Morris had a bond...a thin one to start, but it grows over the years.
Morris finds that not all cats are horrible and to be avoided, like to ones he grew up with and had nightmares about. They each have their own characteristics and quirks and favourite people. Spit is all white, with one blue eye and one yellow eye, and Morris is his human of choice.
The book is written with a humourous and humane slant about a human and feline connection. A memoir and homage to a creature who became an important Fur Person in a human's life. I took my time reading it, rather than read it all in one sitting. It isn't a big book page-wise, but I think it is story-wise.… (altro)
This is a sweet, gentle memoir of a boy and his dog, growing up in 1940s rural Mississippi. Willie's parents get a fox terrier puppy when Willie is nine, and Willie and Skip quickly become best friends. In an earlier time and in a small town where everyone knows everyone, they're free to roam all day during the summer months, with friends and on their own, having adventures and playing pranks that sixty years later, would not be tolerated.
There is no plot here. There isn't supposed to be a plot. Morris simply reminisces about his dog and his friends, in no particular chronological order. They play football (Skip too!), have chinaberry wars, and make silly bets, such as Willie and Skip spending a night in the cemetery. Kids started driving the family car early, and Willie teaches Skip to sit with his paws on the wheel, so that at opportune moments Willie can duck out of sight and make it look like Skip is driving.
They (Willie and Skip) travel on the bus to see Willie's grandparents, attend Boy Scout camp, and do any number of other things you'd be hard pressed to get permission to include your dog in today. It's not really true that the 1940s were a simpler time; there was a world war, and a host of social issues, almost entirely un-noted in this book, that were about to boil to the surface. It was a different time, though, and childhood was in some respects freer and less complicated. Morris does a wonderful job of capturing that feeling of innocence and freedom, and childhood adventures and pranks that were still possible in my own childhood in the fifties and sixties, but are largely gone from childhood now.
The language is rich and beautiful, too, though perhaps a bit challenging for the children likely to be pointed at this book because it's about a child and a dog. This is more intended for those of us who remember our own childhoods, than for those still experiencing theirs.
Recommended.
I borrowed this book from the library.… (altro)
There is no plot here. There isn't supposed to be a plot. Morris simply reminisces about his dog and his friends, in no particular chronological order. They play football (Skip too!), have chinaberry wars, and make silly bets, such as Willie and Skip spending a night in the cemetery. Kids started driving the family car early, and Willie teaches Skip to sit with his paws on the wheel, so that at opportune moments Willie can duck out of sight and make it look like Skip is driving.
They (Willie and Skip) travel on the bus to see Willie's grandparents, attend Boy Scout camp, and do any number of other things you'd be hard pressed to get permission to include your dog in today. It's not really true that the 1940s were a simpler time; there was a world war, and a host of social issues, almost entirely un-noted in this book, that were about to boil to the surface. It was a different time, though, and childhood was in some respects freer and less complicated. Morris does a wonderful job of capturing that feeling of innocence and freedom, and childhood adventures and pranks that were still possible in my own childhood in the fifties and sixties, but are largely gone from childhood now.
The language is rich and beautiful, too, though perhaps a bit challenging for the children likely to be pointed at this book because it's about a child and a dog. This is more intended for those of us who remember our own childhoods, than for those still experiencing theirs.
Recommended.
I borrowed this book from the library.… (altro)
Liste
Best Dog Stories (1)
Premi e riconoscimenti
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Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 26
- Opere correlate
- 12
- Utenti
- 1,852
- Popolarità
- #13,892
- Voto
- 3.9
- Recensioni
- 34
- ISBN
- 86
- Lingue
- 2
- Preferito da
- 6
I wanted to love this book. I contains all the elements that usually make up great reading for me: coming of age, strong character development, important topics to ponder; the shadow of war, with the return of the bodies of men lost in the Korean War being a paramount plot line. There was, however, something that interfered with my connection and kept these characters at arm’s length, so that I never felt I was experiencing the time with them but simply spying at them over someone’s shoulder.
I had not ever read Willie Morris before, and this last book of his was finished by his wife, so I am unsure how much of it reflects his style and contribution and how much is her voice slipping in. The writing is sometimes remarkable and superbly descriptive. The mood changed so often, though, that I felt like I was on a roller-coaster. Some of the episodes seemed misplaced, or even totally unnecessary, and some just plain interrupted the flow of the story for me. I wondered if it was a novel trying too hard to be all things to all people. Parts of it rang true and others seemed oddly incongruent, as if Morris could not decide if he were playing the main trumpet or the echo.
The decision to read this novel at this time was precipitated by its being chosen for a group read at the Southern Literary Trail. There are some extremely astute readers there, and I am looking forward to seeing what they will have to say about this one. After the discussion, I might have a different view or understanding than this first impression is leaving me. It is, indeed, a novel that should spark some discussion.… (altro)