Authors produce best seller, histories, poetry

Authors in the Cape Girardeau area produced a variety of books in 2003 and early 2004, from New York Times best sellers to regional history to personal memoirs.

David Limbaugh, a Cape Girardeau lawyer and syndicated columnist, published "Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity" in September. The book covers incidents in schools to nationally known stories such as the appeals court ruling that "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional.

What constitutes a best seller might surprise some people.

"You don't have to sell a million books to get on the best-seller list," Limbaugh said.

"Persecution" so far has sold about 80,000 copies, he said, comparable to his previous best seller, "Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department," which sold about 85,000.

"Absolute Power" was on the New York Times Best Seller List for 10 weeks, "Persecution" for five.

Though no longer on the list, "Persecution" continues to sell steadily, Limbaugh said, and a paperback edition is due out in the fall.

Limbaugh said he has toyed with ideas for a third book but hasn't decided on anything yet.

Reflections on a long life

Limbaugh's grandfather was himself the subject of a book published by the Southeast Missouri State University Press in November.

"Rush Hudson Limbaugh and His Times: Reflections on a Life Well Lived," by retired history professor George Suggs Jr., consists of the transcriptions of four taped interviews that Suggs conducted from August 1987 to February 1988 and a biographical sketch.

The elder Limbaugh, a longtime Cape Girardeau lawyer, died in 1996 at age 104.

Each interview focuses on one aspect of Limbaugh's life: his involvement in Centenary United Methodist Church; memories of his early life and education; reflections on his legal career and legal ethics -- "I have always questioned the credibility of a lawyer who claimed that he won all his cases," he told Suggs; and reflections on his years of public service.

The interviews were originally intended for university and church archives; the idea for a book was suggested to Suggs only a few years ago.

Suggs said he's received many positive comments and phone calls about the book.

"All of them have been amazed at the intellect and memory of this man," who was "one of the most distinguished Missourians of the last 100 years," Suggs said.

Limbaugh also was a self-effacing man who near the end of the fourth interview told Suggs, "I want to apologize again for being the central character with you. I wish that I might have turned the tables on you and had you tell of your experiences in various things."

Bootheel cotton farmer

Dr. Bonnie Stepenoff, a professor in the Historic Preservation Program at Southeast Missouri State University, wrote a biography of Mississippi County farmer Thad Snow.

In January 1939, some 1,200 sharecroppers staged a sit-down strike along U.S. 61, enduring the winter cold in tents made of blankets. Snow supplied the sharecroppers with gasoline, firewood and blankets from his farm. He also pleaded their case to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Among cotton farmers, Snow stood almost alone in support of the strikers, and he was vilified by many other planters and in editorials in the Sikeston Standard.

"Thad Snow: A Life of Social Reform in the Missouri Bootheel" was published late last year by the University of Missouri Press.

Poems, essays, memories

Southeast Missouri State University Press also published "Mind the Gap: Poems by an American in London" by Robert Hamblin in January. Hamblin, professor of English and director of the Center for Faulkner Studies at the university, wrote the poems after spending a semester teaching in London through an exchange program at Southeast.

Ron Farrow of Cape Girardeau has self-published "Written from the Heart," a collection of essays, letters to the editor of the Southeast Missourian and columns for TBY, a monthly publication of the Southeast Missourian.

Dolly Dambach of Jackson, who also has written for TBY, has self-published "And That's the Way It Was." The book, full of humorous stories and family history, is about her childhood in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

scramer@semissourian.com

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