About this item
Expertly combining prior scholarship with primary sources, in Mississippi and the Great Depression historian Richelle Putnam details how this crisis impacted the lives of Mississippians during some of our state's most harrowing years. Bringing national events into local settings, and traveling city by city, almost farm by farm from the Delta to the Coast, Putnam illuminates the experiences of locals from all races,classes, faiths, and vocations. Putnam's account is not just the story of resilience under Jim Crow, the invention of Masonite, or the origin of slugburgers--rather, it is the story of the search for dignity amid adversity and hope within despair. Rarely have the lives of our ancestors been held in such warm and knowing hands. ~ Benjamin Morris, author of Hattiesburg, Mississippi: A History of the Hub City (Arcadia/The History Press, 2014).
About the Author
Richelle Putnam is a Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) Teaching Artist/Roster Artist (Literary) , a Mississippi Humanities Speaker, and a 2014 MAC Literary Arts Fellowship recipient. Her book, Mississippi and The Great Depression (November 13, 2017 - The History Press) received the 2017 Foreword INDIES Book Awards Bronze Medal for regional non-fiction. The Her YA biography, The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty (The History Press, April 2014) , received the 2014 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Silver Medal. She is also the author of Lauderdale County, Mississippi; a Brief History (The History Press, 2011) and co-author of Legendary Locals of Meridian, Mississippi (Arcadia Publishing 2013) . She was commissioned by the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office to write the history on the nine counties (Clarke, Kemper, Lauderdale, Newton, Neshoba, Leake, Smith, Scott, Jasper) in East Central, Mississippi for the 2017 Mississippi Bicentennial book to be released in 2017. She co-wrote Was It Worth It, which won first place in the Tallahatchie Riverfest'sWilliam Faulkner Playwriting Competition, and Women of Potta Chitto, which has been performed several times on stage. The soundtrack to Women of Potta Chitto has been performed around the state. She is the managing editor for The Bluegrass Standard Magazine and her work been published in Pif Magazine, The Copperfield Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, and several bestselling anthologies. She is the managing editor of The Bluegrass Standard and has been a contributor to Parents & Kids Magazine, eat. Drink. Mississippi, and Mississippi Magazine. As a singer-songwriter, she has been featured on many radio and Internet stations, as well as American Songwriter Magazine. Her mission as a writer and teaching artist is to help children see the beauty of words and to realize their power.
