Books published by Yoknapatawpha Press

In this collection of essays Willie Morris explores the subject of “home” and what it means to Americans. Morris takes the reader on a chronological journey of places he lived and worked: as a student at the University of Texas in Austin, as Rhodes scholar in Oxford, England, as Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s magazine in New York City, in Bridgehampton on Long Island, in Washington, DC, where he wrote guest columns for The Washington Star in 1976, and, finally, returning to his native Mississippi in 1980. “Willie Morris in this book that is reminiscent of the rhythms of Thomas Wolfe reveals his love of a place where individuals, relationships, the link with generations gone not only matter but buttress the everyday life. Like all the fine artists who live linked to a place from which they draw nourishment and strength, Morris makes us understand his people and his land.” (Chicago Tribune Book World)

On September 30, 196f2 James Meredith sought to become the first African-American to enroll in the University of Mississippi. Over 300 reporters descended on Oxford. Kathleen Wickham details the challenges faced by reporters and the reports they filed. She offers fresh theories and information on the unsolved murder of French reporter Paul Guihard.

GOOD OLD BOY: A DELTA BOYHOOD is a novel for young readers about a boy's adventures growing up in post-WWII Mississippi. Author Willie Morris, then editor of Harper's Magazine in New York, wrote GOOD OLD BOY when his son David, age ten, asked, "What was it like to grow up in Mississippi?" Morris's response turned into a timeless story of growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi, in the early 1950s, roaming the town with his friends and playing practical jokes and having adventures. GOOD OLD BOY is recommended for sixth through ninth grade.

The novella, "The Fumble," a sports classic about high school football in the Deep South in 1951 describes an epic game between a small town football team and the omnipotent Central High Tigers. Six autobiographical essays form chapters of a Great American boyhood. Illustrated with 28 photos from h.s. yearbook.

In "the finest evocation of an American boyhood since Mark Twain" (Sunday Times, London), Morris goes beyond "a simple retelling of what has happened to him . . . to explain in large part what was happening in the forties, fifites, and sixties" (New Republic).