http://blogs.ajc.com/peachbuzz/2009/07/13/services-set-for-atlanta-writer-paul-hemphill/ Which big names are toasting another year on the planet? Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:26:56 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://blogs.ajc.com/peachbuzz/2009/07/13/services-set-for-atlanta-writer-paul-hemphill/comment-page-1/#comment-2059 Ron Wright Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:58:37 +0000 http://blogs.ajc.com/peachbuzz/?p=1783#comment-2059 Your obituary of Paul Hemphill on July 12th was well written and covered most of the highlights of this great journalist and writer, but it was negligent in displaying the talent and the complexity of this American writer. It’s almost like saying that William Faulkner was a good Mississippi writer. You limit his talent when you say he chronicled the blue collar South. Yes, he told the stories of many ordinary people of the South when he wrote of country and western music, Hank Williams, stock car racing and his father driving big rigs across the nation. But in “Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son”, “Mayor: Notes on the Sixties”, and many of his daily newspaper columns he told the truth about the segregated South, the brutality of the Birmingham police, the burning of black churches in rural Alabama and the evil nature of one man against another. Part of the reason his books did not sell as well as some other Southern writers did was due to his liberal view of Southern politics and economics and the fact that most of his books were non-fiction. He was recognized for his writing ability with a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard in 1968-1969. He was given a more balanced obituary in the New York Times than he received from his old newspaper, The Atlanta Journal. His fans will miss him. Your obituary of Paul Hemphill on July 12th was well written and covered most of the highlights of this great journalist and writer, but it was negligent in displaying the talent and the complexity of this American writer. It’s almost like saying that William Faulkner was a good Mississippi writer. You limit his talent when you say he chronicled the blue collar South. Yes, he told the stories of many ordinary people of the South when he wrote of country and western music, Hank Williams, stock car racing and his father driving big rigs across the nation. But in “Leaving Birmingham: Notes of a Native Son”, “Mayor: Notes on the Sixties”, and many of his daily newspaper columns he told the truth about the segregated South, the brutality of the Birmingham police, the burning of black churches in rural Alabama and the evil nature of one man against another. Part of the reason his books did not sell as well as some other Southern writers did was due to his liberal view of Southern politics and economics and the fact that most of his books were non-fiction. He was recognized for his writing ability with a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard in 1968-1969. He was given a more balanced obituary in the New York Times than he received from his old newspaper, The Atlanta Journal. His fans will miss him.

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