A Word on Words

Only Seigenthaler could get these esteemed writers to open up and loosen up to discuss writing, art, and their life experiences."Beverly Keel, Dean of the College of Media and Entertainment, Middle Tennessee State University This book captures my fathers passion for literature and highlights his interviews with some of the most famous authors of our time. He used A Word on Words to encourage his viewers to keep reading, a message that is as important today as it was when he started the program more than four decades ago."John M. Seigenthaler

Frye Gaillard, writer-in-residence at the University of South Alabama, is the author of seventeen other works of non-fiction, including Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy; The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina; Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America; and Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music. Andrew Maraniss is the New York Timesbestselling author of Strong Inside, the only sports-related book ever to win two prestigious civil rights awardsthe Lillian Smith Book Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Awards Special Recognition Prize. Andrew is a contributor to ESPN's sports and race website, TheUndefeated.com, and helps run Vanderbilt University's Sports & Society Initiative. He also writes nonfiction for young readers. Marshall Chapman moved to Nashville in 1967 to attend Vanderbilt University, and wrote her first song in 1973. Her songs have been recorded by Conway Twitty, Jimmy Buffett, and many others. She is a contributing editor for Garden & Gun magazine and the author of Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, which was a finalist for the 2004 SEBA Book Award and Book Critics Circle Award.

Introduction to the Collection Frye Gaillard Civil Rights Introduction 1. Arna Bontemps: Frederick Douglas. Great Slave Narratives. 2. John Egerton: Speak Now Against the Day. 3. John Lewis: Walking Against the Wind. 4. David Halberstam: The Children. 5. Frye Gaillard: Cradle of Freedom. Literature Introduction 1. Jesse Hill Ford: The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones. 2. Pat Conroy: The Death of Santini. 3. Ann Patchett: The Patron Saint of Liars. 4. Dori Sanders: Clover. 5. Alice Randall: Wind Done Gone. 6. Nikki Giovanni: Chasing Utopia. Music Introduction 1. Marshall Chapman: Goodbye, Little Rock n Roller. 2. Marty Stuart: Country Music: The Masters. 3. Rodney Crowell: Chinaberry Sidewalks. 4. Waylon Jennings: Waylon: An Autobiography. 5. Kinky Friedman: Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover. Sports Introduction 1. Charles Fountain: The Life and Times of Grantland Rice. 2. William Marshall: Baseballs Pivotal Era, 1945-1951. 3. William Price Fox: Satchel Paiges America. 4. Pat Toomay: On Any Given Sunday. The Presidency Introduction 1. Jon Meacham. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. 2. Doris Kearns Goodwin: Team of Rivals and The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys. 3. David Maraniss: Barack Obama: The Story. 4. John Seigenthaler Sr. interviewed by son John Michael Seigenthaler: James K. Polk. Closing/Epilogue Andrew Maraniss, son of David: Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South. Singled Out: The Story of Glenn Burke