O. N. Pruitt's Possum Town

Berkley Hudson is emeritus associate professor of media history at the Missouri School of Journalism of the University of Missouri.

O.N. Pruitt's Possum Town captures the soul--and soullessness--of a Mississippi town in the first half of the 20th century. . . . With ethnographic rigor and the intimacy of a local, Pruitt's eye roves matter-of-factly between scenes of gilded refinement--the crafted splendor of privilege--and the gruesome violence that makes that privilege possible."--New York Times Book Review "The images and texts cast a spell so potent that readers might be forgiven for feeling as if they had experienced 20th century Columbus, Mississippi for themselves."--photo-eye A tribute to the importance of photographic archives and the visual storytellers who create the images within them."--Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly Although it could be referred to as a proverbial photo book, one thing should be definitively acknowledged: This is not a folksy coffee-table decoration with some cool snaps in it. Instead, it is a meticulously researched undertaking revealing answers, and even more questions, about the first half of 20th-century Americana in the second state to secede from the Union."--Visual Communication Quarterly Offers a stunning and sometimes heart-wrenching photographic perspective."--North Carolina Historical Review On their own, Pruitt's evocative and deeply disturbing photographs make this a remarkable book, but it's Hudson's poignant writing and his personal connections to Pruitt, Columbus, and its people that make the book especially valuable."--Southern Spaces Three decades in the making . . . with nearly two hundred images that comprise the everyday, the frivolous, and the horrific . . . [O.N. Pruitt's Possum Town] includes Hudson's extensive research and interviews with Pruitt's subjects."--Garden & Gun While this particular 'photographic enterprise' shows but a small piece of the world, it is an important piece for US citizens, letting them know that, even at a difficult and dangerous time for many of their fellow citizens, grace and happiness was also within their reach."--Literary Journalism Studies Will appeal to historians of both the American South and of photography itself, to students of race relations, and to libraries and educational establishments interested in Southern studies."--Analog Forever