Through Old Ground

Through Old Ground is a collection of stories from the life of Dr. Randy Cross, a small-town Southerner turned English professor and author, most notable for his work with T. S. Stribling’s autobiography, The Laughing Stock. Dr. Cross grew up in St. Joseph, Tennessee, where he gained the strong foundation upon which he relied throughout his adventures as a two-time Fulbright Scholar and beyond.

With his down-to-earth narrative style, Dr. Cross describes various memories and events in his life, infusing each chapter with his incredible wit and humor. Beginning in his childhood, the book progresses through Dr. Cross’s adulthood, reflecting on lessons he has learned and significant people who have been a part of his life.

Through Old Ground transports readers into a world full of nostalgia and heart, reminding us that no matter how far away from our roots we may find ourselves, they will always remain with us and call us back home.

Originally from St. Joseph, Tennessee, Dr. Randy Cross lives in Decatur, Alabama, and is a Professor Emeritus of English at Calhoun Community College. Dr. Cross is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, having taught in Portugal and Brazil, and he is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Tennessee Army National Guard. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for finishing T.S. Stribling's last work, Laughing Stock, and has written numerous scholarly articles and reviews in addition to his post-publication introductions to three of Stribling's works. Dr. Cross is also an experienced speaker and appeared on the 2011 History Channel special "You Don't Know Dixie."

Frye Gaillard is a writer who has written more than thirty books, ranging across the genres of history, memoir and journalism.Frye Gaillard was born in Mobile, Alabama on December 23, 1946. His parents were lawyer and later judge Walter Frye Gaillard, Sr., and Helen Amante Gaillard. Gaillard attended Vanderbilt University, graduating in 1968. During the 1960s Gaillard came into proximity with many of the most prominent political personalities of the decade. As a high school student in 1963, Gaillard witnessed the arrest of Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham, Alabama, during King's Birmingham campaign against racial segregation. While at Vanderbilt he came into contact with Stokley Carmichael and Eldridge Cleaver, when the two Black Panthers were engaged to speak. Shortly after, in 1968, he invited Robert F. Kennedy to speak at Vanderbilt, 11 weeks prior to Kennedy's assassination.[1][2]CareerGaillard started his career at the Race Relations Reporter in Nashville as managing editor from 1970 to 1972, then moved to the Charlotte Observer as a writer, editor and columnist, while teaching nonfiction writing at Queens College, both until 1990. While with the Observer he won awards from the North Carolina Press Association for spot news, features and investigative reporting. In 2004 he moved back to Mobile. As an author he won the 1989 Gustavus Myers Award for The Dream Long Deferred, and in 2007 the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year for Cradle of Freedom.Gaillard's 2018 book A Hard Rain was inspired by David Halberstam's The Fifties, and documents the 1960s in part through Gaillard's experiences of the time. Gailllard has been author-in-residence at the University of South Alabama since 2007. He has written more than 25 books.