W.J. CASH: SOUTHERN PROPHET

by Joseph Morrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 20, 1967

W.J. Cash, the brilliant Southern journalist, labored over his famous Mind of the South for almost ten years. Often depressed about his work and assailed by difficulties in writing, forever procrastinating and feigning illness, he was driven to suicide by the delusion that Nazi agents were trying to murder him for his attacks on Hitler. That was only a short time after his book began to win acclaim. The author of this biography/anthology fails to reach below the surface of the complicated tragedies in Cash's life. When he finally looks into the suicide, its causes and the myths which surround it, there is little to commend except his clinical eye. The second part of the volume contains some two dozen of Cash's essays, newspaper stories, magazine articles and editorials. While one is immediately struck by the clarity of both their prose and analysis, most are insuperably dated, offering the mere afterglow of an iridescent but less than prophetic mind.

Pub Date: Nov. 20, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION