Tennessee literature comes from some of the greatest early southern literary figures and is home to Vanderbilt University–perhaps the most influential university for southern literature’s development.
Home also to Pulitzer Prize winning author, Peter Taylor, who won the Pulitzer for Summons to Memphis. Professor John Crowe Ransom who taught young writes like Robert Penn Warren and Peter Taylor was born and raised in the great state of Tennessee, and Shelby Foote has called Memphis home for many years.
| Born, Thomas Lanier Williams, in Columbus, Mississippi, in 1911, Tennessee Williams was the first of two children born into a prestigious Tennessee family. … |
| … Peter Hillsman Taylor was born on January 8, 1917, in the small west Tennessee town of Trenton. … As a dramatist, he authored Tennessee Day in St. … |
| … Forced to forego his aspirations for the Naval Academy, Warren enrolled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee to study engineering. … |
Flannery O’Connor’s
A Good Man is Hard to Find
| … unlikable. The story begins when a family packs up their car and heads south from Tennessee to Florida for a family vacation. … |
| … served as a lecturer at the University of Virginia and Memphis State. Shelby Foote lives with his third wife in Memphis, Tennessee. |
| … John Crowe Ransom, born in Pulaski, Tennessee the son of a Methodist minister, was raised in a strongly religious though also very open-minded household. … |
| … In 1967 Tate became the father of twin sons, one of whom died in an accident in 1968 after the family’s move to Sewanee, Tennessee. … |
…born in Hohenwald, Tennessee in 1943. He has spent most of his life working as a carpenter and living in the Hohenwald, …
…lives in a renovated funeral home outside Nashville, Tennessee.
Did you know?
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Tennessee has produced three U.S. presidents: Andrew Jackson, 1829-37; James K. Polk, 1845-49; and
Andrew Johnson, 1865-69. -
The worst earthquake in American history occurred in the winter of 1811-12 in northwestern Tennessee.
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The Alex Haley boyhood home in Henning is the first state-owned historic site devoted to African Americans in Tennessee.
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Tennessee’s “Lost Sea” in Sweetwater is the largest underground lake in the U.S.
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In 1933, the mockingbird was selected as the state bird because it is
Hi,
Do you have information on large or small bookfairs or fest in Tennessee. I have compiled two cookbooks, which I use as a fundraiser for non-profit organizations. I have been invited to the Nashville Book Fest to do a presentation, while students from the Fanklin Culinary School prepare one of my recipes. The Tennessee Cookbook “Country Goodness Recipes of Tennessee Celebrities” was released 4 months ago and is being used as a fundraiser for over 40 organizations in Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Kentucky cookbook “Favorite Recipes of Kentucky Celebrities” was published 2 years ago and is serving as a fundraiser for over 140 organizations.It was part of the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives State Book Fair and was 8th in overall sales from a selection of 523 books.
I did the cookbooks for fun, but they have cultural and historical interest, because of the unique recipes and people who sent them, along with notes on contributors. I was invited by the Kentucky Arts Council’s Folklorist to do a presentation at The Kentucky Crafted Market. I am adding sample recipes to give you a feel for the cookbook.
My goal is to get as much information out to as many people as possible about the Tennessee cookbooks and their use as a fundraiser. I do the cookbooks for fun, NOT for profit.(50% goes to the non-profit organization and 50% goes to cover my cost/expenses) It is my hobby. Some people play golf, fish, or quilt. I chose to do this. I feel God has blessed me and this is away I can give back to the community.
I am adding my website info, which has a photo of the cover, list of contributors, organizations selling the cookbooks, and letters of reference. Be sure to look at the recipes and NOTES on the contributors listed below.
Thank you for your help and God’s blessings,
Pamela Whinnery
whinneryw@bellsouth.net
http://sites.google.com/site/celebritycookbooks/home
http://celebritycookbooks.blogspot.com/
Sgt. Alvin C. York
Christmas Fruitcake
2 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. margarine
2 1/2 c. sweetened dried apples
1 c. crushed pineapple, drained
1 c. raisins
1 c. pecans
1 t. vanilla
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. cloves
3 c. self-rising flour
Mix by hand. Pour into greased bundt pan. Bake 300 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.
Gracie Williams York, the beloved wife of America’s greatest World War I hero, Alvin C. York, made this cake every Christmas for her family. The tradition is carried on by her daughter-in-law, Margaret York, who is a docent at the York home, now part of Alvin C. York State Historic Park in Pall Mall, Tenn. Submitted by Sgt. York Patriotic Foundation, http://www.sgtyork.org.
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George S. Clinton
Mom Ann’s Southern Style Potato Salad
8-10 Idaho potatoes – peeled & cut into rather large pieces
6 hard boiled eggs – chopped
4 stalks celery – chopped
¼ cup Dill pickle relish (optional)
3 – 6 TB mayo
1 TB mustard
1 TB ranch dressing (already prepared, not from the packet)
Sea Salt & fresh ground Black Pepper
Boil potatoes until just tender. Careful not to overcook or they will
be “mushy.” Drain cooked potatoes & let cool just about 10 minutes.
Keep drained potatoes in pan where they have boiled and add remaining
ingredients. Mix (tenderly) with large wooden spoon & add a couple
of TBs milk or sour cream if too thick. Transfer into a big serving bowl &
top with paprika & sliced green olives.
Emmy & Grammy nominated composer George S. Clinton has written the musical scores for over 80 feature films, television movies, and mini-series including Mortal Kombat, Austin Powers, Cheech & Chong, Big Momma’s House, & Santa Claus 2 & 3. Clinton, who is from Chattanooga said, “This is a family recipe made by his grandmother, aunt, & sister.”
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Sam Pickering
Dandelion Coffee
This is the best I can do. I am an eater, not a cooker. Generations of generous women have shaped my table habits and fed my appetites, and I am too old and comfortable to want to change.
“In my books, Horace Hunnewell’s traveling show wanders Middle and East Tennessean. One of Horace’s tents is stocked with patent medicines: The Mormon Elders Carbolic Soap, Gomersall’s Blood Purifier and System Renovator, and Tolo’s Triple Extract of Pepsin. For sale amid the medicines are always a shelf full of the home-brewed and home-cooked. This year the most popular item for sale was Dandelion Coffee, particularly good, Horace said, “awakening torpid bowels and cooling scrofulous eruptions to sleep.” Horace’s recipes are always a little vague. But his instructions for making Dandelion Coffee are: Gather and wash the roots, but do not scrape them. Cut them into small pieces then roast them like regular coffee. To brew a cup of dandelion coffee, pour boiling water over a portion of roots and let the blend sit for a few minutes.” Horace said that the best time to gather roots was in the fall. Once dried the roots kept for years. The amount of roots used to make a cup depended upon taste and experience.”
Writer/professor Sam Pickering’s unorthodox teaching style was immortalized by inspiring the Robin Williams role as flamboyant private school teacher John Keating, in the Academy Award-winning film “Dead Poets Society,” Born in Nashville he is a professor of English at the U.of Conn. He has written over 200 essays & 12 books.