Items related to Ninety Degrees In The Shade (Library of Alabama Classics)
Clarence Cason belonged to that restless generation of southern intellectuals who, between the world wars, questioned the South's stubborn traditionalism, even as they tried to explain and defend its distinctiveness. From his professorial perch at The University of Alabama, Cason wrote polished essays for leading national publications while contributing weekly editorials for newspaper readers. As a journalist in academia, he cultivated a broad audience for his eloquent though tentative observations about the "character" of a region that seemed to be a separate province of the nation.
In 1935, Cason collected his thoughts in a small book of essays titled 90° in the Shade. In it, he declared that climate and the relaxation afforded by field and stream had given southerners excellent reasons for their notoriously slow pace of life. Still, he wrote, "there is much work that ought to be done below the Potomac." Cason captured the pathos of race relations and other persistent problems and declared that the abominable practice of lynching would end when the best people of the South risked their personal and commercial standing to denounce it. Just days before the book's publication, however, Cason shot himself in his campus office. He left no explanation, but apparently he feared angry reaction from fellow citizens to his mild criticisms and gentle suggestions for change.
The University of Alabama Press brought the book back into print in 1983. This new edition of Cason's classic features an introduction by journalist and UA professor H. Bailey Thomson, allowing yet another generation the enjoyment of Cason's perceptive writing, not so much for any remedy he proposed but rather for the open-minded and loving way in which he addressed the region's tragic experience.
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About the Author:
Review:
H. Bailey Thomson (1949-2003) was a journalism professor at The University of Alabama and known throughout the field as a gifted and award-winning editorial writer.
"A biting 'psychograph' of the South....With roundabout irony that sometimes straightens into indignation, author Cason casts his dissatisfied eye over the Southern scene and finds it, on the whole, down-at-heel, lazy, complacent, resigned, ignorant, cynical, and exasperating"—Time Review of 1935 edition
"Cason drew upon the objectivity of social science, but he wrote with teh grace of an impressionist. The result is jounalism that his intellectual heirs may emulate for the beauty of its language and the depth of its questions." —From the introduction by H. Bailey Thomson, co-author ofNormal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4For the Love of Alabama: Journalism by Ron Casey and Bailey Thomson
"Cason drew upon the objectivity of social science, but he wrote with teh grace of an impressionist. The result is jounalism that his intellectual heirs may emulate for the beauty of its language and the depth of its questions." —From the introduction by H. Bailey Thomson, co-author ofNormal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4For the Love of Alabama: Journalism by Ron Casey and Bailey Thomson
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- PublisherUniversity Alabama Press
- Publication date1983
- ISBN 10 0817301704
- ISBN 13 9780817301705
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages220
- Rating
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