21 hours Ago
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Sign up for our daily newsletter here I want to thank those of you who have taken the time to write and comment about my recent columns. I’m pleased to “connect” with so many of you and, as Jim Rossow has said, “let folks know who’s running this place.” You have been kind and considerate, and in some cases curious.
The most asked question of me is “What are you reading?” or “What kind of books do you read?” Paul Barrett Both great questions considering I am an avid reader, having collected nearly 200 books since I moved here five years ago. I generally read three to four books a month. For 50 years, I’ve gone on “quests” .
.. being interested in a specific topic and reading as many books on it as possible.
I generally take notes when I read nonfiction, so I’ve accumulated a few dozen notebooks as well. My interests vary. In the past two weeks, I’ve finished “When Evil Lived in Laurel” by Curtis Wilkie and “We Pointed Them North” by “Teddy Blue” Abbott.
The first book was about the Ku Klux Klan and its grand wizard, Sam Bowers, who lived in Laurel, Miss., committed numerous crimes and served prison time for at least two of them. I lived in Laurel about 20 years after those times and knew some of the people involved in the investigations and even some men who had at one time been a part of that lawless time.
As an outsider — I had moved from Dallas to audit and later run the paper — I knew very little about the Klan and its operation. One day, sitting in my office, I looked up to see a scruffy man in jeans and a T-shirt come in unannounced and have a seat in front of my desk. I had no idea who he was.
He was there to complain that his mother’s paper was being thrown in the ditch in front of her house. As soon as he started talking, I could feel the hair on the back of my neck start to rise. It was the strangest feeling.
I told him that of course I’d speak with the carrier about his mother’s issue. He said, “You take care of it.” And walked out.
As soon as he left, half my staff rushed into my office to tell me the ominous stranger was Sam Bowers. He was out of prison and back living in Laurel at his mother’s house. I made sure his mother’s paper never hit the ditch again.
The other book I just finished is one of my favorites of the past year. It’s about a man, Teddy Abbott, who spent a lifetime driving cattle from Texas to railheads in Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota and eventually Montana. A publisher in New York wanted a true story of the Western cattle drives before that chapter in history was closed.
She searched out West for months and found Abbott. He had written about his life in a journal as he was living it, never thinking that someday it might be published. With the publisher’s help, he created a no-nonsense accounting of what that life was really like from about 1862 to 1886.
It’s a fascinating look at the hardships those guys endured getting those longhorns to market. It also debunks most of the stories of shootouts, flamboyant cowboys and dealings with Native Americans. I’m now reading a biography of one of my favorite writers and editors — a Southern legend, Willie Morris.
Stay tuned..
