Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers

Hal Crowther is an award-winning critic and essayist, a journalist whose work has appeared in Time, Newsweek, Granta, and Narrative magazines, among many others, and in the Oxford American, where his column “Dealer’s Choice” was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. His columns and reviews have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Spectator, and many independent weeklies and journals. A recipient of the Baltimore Sun’s Mencken Award for Writing, he is the author of four essay collections and An Infuriating American: The Incendiary Arts of H.L. Mencken. For his third collection of essays, Gather at the River, he was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle prize for criticism. He lives in Hillsborough, NC, with his wife, novelist Lee Smith.

"Crowther's astute and affecting portraits make me think there might be something in The South worth preserving, after all. What he's so very, very masterful at―and no easy trick―is describing goodness itself, and making it plausible." ―Richard Ford“Hal Crowther hunts with live ammunition.” ―Bill Moyers"Crowther’s inimitable voice either soothes like bourbon or burns like whisky throughout this clear-eyed collection."—Publishers Weekly “It is a rare man who possesses both a passionate conscience and a brilliant wit. Crowther’s conscience compels him to distinguish right from wrong, to honor the right, and to decry the wrong.” ―Annie Dillard, forward to Unarmed but Dangerous"Freedom Fighters and Hell Raisers is aptly named, as it is a kaleidoscope of Southern trailblazers, ranging from poets and musicians to politicians and nuns. Hal Crowther creates his subjects with honesty and love, which is the only way to honor those who have had the courage to cut the path we now walk along." ―Michael Farris Smith, author of The Fighter and Desperation Road

• FREEDOM FIGHTERS AND HELL RAISERSby Hal CrowtherTable of ContentsForeword by Silas HouseIntroductionMolly Ivins, The Red Rose of TexasJohn Hope Franklin, A Long View, UnsweetenedFather Thomas Berry, Deep Greens and BluesLance Corporal Brian Anderson, A Farewell to ArmsJames Dickey, The Last WolverineSister Evelyn Mattern, Confession, Dedicated to a Fighting NunJames Still, A Man of the WorldMarshall Frady, Son of a Preacher ManKirk Varnedoe, A Prophet from SavannahJesse Winchester, The Tennessee KidAnne Braden, An Embarrassing WomanTommy Thompson,The Last Song of Father Banjo Eubie Blake, A Century of RagtimeJudy Bonds, This Land is Your LandFrank M. Johnson, The Last Southern HeroJesse Helms, The Last of His Kind?Will Campbell, God’s WillGeorge Wallace, Requiem for a BantamweightDoc Watson, But Now I See