I am writing this Storied Charlotte blog post on December 21, 2024, which is the official release date for The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter: Essays on the President’s Books. I have been working on editing this book for the past two years, so it is gratifying to see this work come to fruition.
When I began editing this book, I invited writers with Charlotte connections to join the other contributors to the collection. These Charlotte writers not only wrote essays for the book, but they also became part of a broader community of scholars who share an interest in President Carter’s career as an author. In many ways, this book is associated with this community, a community that has strong ties to Charlotte.
Now that the book is officially launched, I think that it is a fitting time to acknowledge the roles that Charlotte writers played in making this book a reality. Frye Gaillard, a former reporter for The Charlotte Observer, went from being a contributor to joining me as the co-editor of this collection. Frye wrote or co-wrote several of the essays in the collection, and he threw himself into the editing process. Other Charlotte writers who contributed to the collection include Paula Connolly, Boyd Davis, Paula Eckard, Jeffrey Leak, Richard Leeman, Ronald Lunsford, Emily Seelbinder, Daniel Shealy, and Meredith Troutman-Jordan.
For readers who want more information about the book, please click of the following link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538188330/The-Literary-Legacy-of-Jimmy-Carter-Essays-on-the-Presidents-Books
President Carter will always be associated with his hometown of Plains, Georgia, and with Atlanta, which is home to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. However, with the publication of The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter, Storied Charlotte has emerged as something of a hotbed of scholarship on President Carter’s books.