Waters of Life from Conecuh Ridge: The Clyde May Story

Clyde May was the patriarch of a family from rural Bullock County, Alabama. He was a devoted father, a war veteran, and a church-goer. He was also a moonshiner. This colorful memoir, based on oral history interviews with May's son, Kenny, explores May's life and his passion for making good whiskey despite the risk of going to jail. Now the family tradition is taking a new twist, as Kenny and his siblings have established Alabama's first legal distillery to bottle and sell a distinctive whiskey based on the late Clyde May's recipe.

Wade Hall, a retired professor of English, has taught at colleges and universities in Florida and Kentucky and is the author of many books, monographs, poems, and plays about the South and its people. A native of Union Springs, Alabama, he holds degrees from Troy State University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Illinois. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.