ABOUT THIS BOOK

For years the legendary John Seigenthaler hosted A Word on Words on Nashville's public television station, WNPT. During the show’s four-decade run (1972 to 2013), he interviewed some of the most interesting and most important writers of our time. These in-depth exchanges revealed much about the writers who appeared on his show and gave a glimpse into their creative processes. Seigenthaler was a deeply engaged reader and a generous interviewer, a true craftsman. Frye Gaillard and Pat Toomay have collected and transcribed some of the iconic interactions from the show.

Featuring interviews with:
Arna Bontemps • Marshall Chapman • Pat Conroy • Rodney Crowell • John Egerton • Jesse Hill Ford • Charles Fountain • William Price Fox • Kinky Friedman • Frye Gaillard • Nikki Giovanni • Doris Kearns Goodwin • David Halberstam • Waylon Jennings • John Lewis • David Maraniss • William Marshall • Jon Meacham • Ann Patchett • Alice Randall • Dori Sanders • John Seigenthaler Sr. • Marty Stuart • Pat Toomay

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

John Seigenthaler (1927–2014) was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He attended Peabody College and worked as a reporter for the Tennessean. In 1960, he went to work for Attorney General Robert Kennedy and, in that capacity, was attacked by an angry mob in Montgomery, Alabama. He returned to the Tennessean, where he spent the rest of his career. He hosted the television program A Word on Words for four decades.

Pat Toomay attended Vanderbilt University and played in the NFL for ten years. He has written a number of books, including On Any Given Sunday.

Frye Gaillard is the author-in-residence at the University of South Alabama. He has written more than twenty books, including With Music and Justice for All: Some Southerners and Their Passions (Vanderbilt, 2008). He is an alumnus of Vanderbilt University.

REVIEWS

“Only Seigenthaler could get these esteemed writers to open up and loosen up to discuss writing, art, and their life experiences.”
—Beverly Keel, Dean of the College of Media and Entertainment, Middle Tennessee State University

“This book captures my father’s passion for literature and highlights his interviews with some of the most famous authors of our time. He used A Word on Words to encourage his viewers to ‘keep reading,’ a message that is as important today as it was when he started the program more than four decades ago.”
—John M. Seigenthaler

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: The Breadth, Depth, and Passion of John Seigenthaler, by Frye Gaillard

Part I: Civil Rights
Arna Bontemps, Free at Last: The Life of Frederick Douglass and Great Slave Narratives
John Egerton, Speak Now against The Day
John Lewis, Walking with The Wind
David Halberstam, The Children
Frye Gaillard, Cradle of Freedom

Part II: Literature
Jesse Hill Ford, The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones
Pat Conroy, The Death of Santini
Ann Patchett, The Patron Saint of Liars
Dori Sanders, Clover
Alice Randall, The Wind Done Gone
Nikki Giovanni, Chasing Utopia

Part III: Music
Marshall Chapman, Goodbye Little Rock and Roller
Marty Stuart, Country Music: The Masters
Rodney Crowell, Chinaberry Sidewalks
Waylon Jennings, Waylon: An Autobiography
Kinky Friedman, The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover

Part IV: Sports
Charles Fountain, Sportswriter: The Life and Times of Grantland Rice
William Marshall, Baseball’s Pivotal Era, 1945–1951
William Price Fox, Satchel Paige’s America
Pat Toomay, On Any Given Sunday

Part V: The Presidency
Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals
David Maraniss, Barack Obama: The Story
John Seigenthaler Sr., James K. Polk

Epilogue, by Andrew Maraniss
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