Margaret Littman - Moon Tennessee

Even in the face of approaching deadlines, stacks of photo-filled jump drives on the desk, and marked-up maps littering the floor, Im convinced I have the worlds best job. I have a legitimate, work-related excuse to throw my tent in the station wagon, strap the paddleboard to the top, and head to Land Between the Lakes for a weekend. Or to call a few friends and ask them to help me check out Nashvilles honky-tonks. Or taste-test the newest variety of Moon Pie.

Im grateful to many people who helped me synthesize what Ive heard, seen, and experienced into something coherent that others could share. First and foremost, thanks go to DG Strong, who encouraged me to move back to Tennessee after many years away and who indulges (if not enables) my whims to drive for miles to see a new boat launch or try a new hot chicken place. Joy Lusk showed me much to love in her hometown of Chattanooga, as did friends in Memphis, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and other spots across the state.

Perhaps no one loves Music City more than I do except for Jenny Steuber of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau. Shes always available for brainstorming and, of course, providing photos. Convention and Visitor Bureau staffs across the state, including Wendy Bishop, Candace Davis, Kim Davis, Jim Davis, Bob Hazlitt, Katherine Roberts, Cindy Dupree, and Melanie Beauchamp, were instrumental in helping me get up-to-date information and photographs that best illustrated the gems I experienced.

Other invaluable photographers were Sarah Blackburn, Hannah L. Coffey, DG Strong, and Liz Littman.

Emily Moe jumped in as an excellent editorial assistant when I needed one most, verifying the alphabet soup of phone numbers and URLs and tracking down better photos than the ones I took.

I first worked with the crackerjack staff of Avalon Travel on The Dog Lovers Companion to Chicago and while other authors complain about their publishers, Ive never felt like mine were anything less than essential partners in this process. Particular thanks this time around to Grace Fujimoto, Leah Gordon, Domini Dragoone, and Albert Angulo. Many thanks to those who worked on previous editions of Moon Tennessee , including Susanna Henighan Potter and Jeff Bradley.

As always, I am grateful for the help and support of my family and friends, who tolerate my working long hours on vacation and dragging them to sightsee wherever we are, not to mention my soundtrack of bluegrass and country music and the wardrobe of cowboy hats.

Escott, Colin. The Grand Ole Opry: The Making of an American Icon. Nashville: Center Street, 2006. An authorized (and somewhat sanitized) look at the Grand Ole Opry. Lots of pictures, reminiscences, and short sidebars make it an attractive coffee-table book.

McGuire, Jim. Nashville Portraits: Legends of Country Music. Guilford CT: The Lyons Press, 2007. Sixty stunning photographs of country music legends including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Doc Watson, and Dolly Parton. The companion book to an eponymous traveling exhibit that debuted in 2007.

Sherraden, Jim, Paul Kingsbury, and Elek Horvath. Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001. A fully illustrated, beautiful book about Hatch Show Print, the Nashville advertising and letterpress founded in 1897.

Wood, Nicki Pendleton. Nashville Yesterday and Today. Lincolnwood, IL: West Side Publishing, 2010. This is an illustrated guide of what makes Music City tick, written by a local former newspaper writer, restaurant critic, and cookbook author.

Brandt, Robert. Touring the Middle Tennessee Backroads. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Publisher, 1995. Robert Brandt is a Nashville judge and self-professed zealot for Middle Tennessee. His guidebook details 15 driving tours through back roads in the heartland of Tennessee. Brandts knowledge of local history and architecture cannot be surpassed, and his enthusiasm for his subject shines through the prose. While some of the entries are now dated, the guide remains an invaluable source of information about small towns in the region.

Hiking Trails of the Smokies. Gatlinburg TN: Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, 2001. The most comprehensive guide to hiking trails of the Smokies is small enough to fit in the glove compartment of your car. Descriptions give details of elevation, distance, and difficulty. They also describe the natural and historical features along the trail. The same publishers produce related guides of day hikes and history hikes.

Van West, Carroll. Tennessees Historical Landscapes: A Travelers Guide. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995. The editor of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly and a professor of history at Middle Tennessee State University, Carroll Van West guides readers along highways and byways, pointing out historical structures and other signs of history along the way. A good traveling companion, especially for students of architecture and landscape.

The WPA Guide to Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986. The Works Progress Administration guide to Tennessee, written in 1939 and originally published by Viking Press, is a fascinating portrait of Depression-era Tennessee. Published as part of a New Deal project to employ writers and document the culture and character of the nation, the guide contains visitor information, historical sketches, and profiles of the states literature, culture, agriculture, industry, and more. The guide, republished as part of Tennessees Homecoming 86, is a delightful traveling companion.

Bergeron, Paul H. Paths of the Past: Tennessee, 17701970. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1979. This is a concise, straight-up history of Tennessee with a few illustrations and maps.

Corlew, Robert E. Tennessee: A Short History. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990. The definitive survey of Tennessee history, this text was first written in 1969 and has been updated several times by writers including Stanley J. Folmsbee and Enoch Mitchell. This is a useful reference guide for a serious reader.

Dykeman, Wilma. Tennessee. New York: W. W. Norton & Company and the American Association for State and Local History, 1984. Novelist and essayist Wilma Dykeman says more about the people of Tennessee and the events that shaped the modern state in this slim and highly readable volume than you would find in the most detailed and plodding historical account. It becomes a companion and a means through which to understand the Tennessee spirit and character.

Beifuss, Joan Turner. At the River I Stand. Brooklyn NY: Carlson Pub., 1985. This account of the Memphis garbage mens strike of 1968 is told from the ground up. It places the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in its immediate, if not historical, context.

Bond, Beverley G., and Janann Sherman. Memphis: In Black and White. Mount Pleasant SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2003. This lively history of Memphis pays special attention to the dynamics of race and class. The slim and easy-to-read volume contains interesting anecdotes and lots of illustrations. It is an excellent introduction to the city.

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 195463. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. The most authoritative account of the civil rights movement, told through the life of Dr. Martin Luther King. The first in a three-volume account of the movement, Parting the Waters includes descriptions of the Nashville sit-ins of 1960. The final volume, At Canaans Edge, includes Kings assassination in Memphis.

Egerton, John. Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995. Nashville native John Egerton tells the relatively unacknowledged story of Southerners, white and black, who stood up against segregation and racial hatred during the years before the civil rights movement.