As My final word regarding the University of Alabama Press’ showcase of experimental writing from the American South–which, on closer inspection appears not quite as ground-breaking as we’d like–I offer this foot-note:

From the Story of Decatur [Georgia] by Caroline Mckinney Clarke (Higgins-McArthur/Lingo & Porter, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, 1973) page 43:

“Some years later when part of the Chivers property was sold, the purchaser requested that his grave be moved to the Decatur Cemetery, where it now rests under a bow tomb [?] over which is a great urn (in the southwest corner of the old Decatur Cemetery). The inscription reads:

HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF THOMAS H. CHIVERS, M.D.
OF HIS EXCELLENCE AS A LYRIC POET
HIS WORKS WILL REMAIN A MONUMENT FOR AGES
AFTER THIS TEMPORARY TRIBUTE OF LOVE
IS IN DUST FORGOTTEN.
THIS SOUL WINGED ITS FLIGHT HEAVENWARD
DECEMBER 19TH, 1858
AGED 52 YEARS.”

Thomas Holley Chivers, in terms of imagination, range of poetic techniques, and use of language is at least the equal of every one of the writers in Another South. They should all leave flowers–or at least a bottle of patent medicine–at his tomb.

My thanks to Susan Ralph, librarian of Decatur Public Library for this information, and to Skip Fox for sending a copy of Another South.