`BOOTHEEL VS. THE BIG APPLE'; AUTHOR'S `MEMORIES' LEAD TO BOOK FAME

NEW YORK -- New York author Terry Teachout isn't particularly surprised that northeastern critics relate favorably to his new book an autobiographical account of growing up in the Missouri Bootheel.

Teachout, who was born in Cape Girardeau in 1956 and reared in Sikeston, is the author of "City Limits: Memories of a Small-Town Boy." He will return to the area this weekend to promote the book and visit his family.

The visit includes a reading at Kent Library Little Theatre on the Southeast Missouri State University campus Tuesday at 7 p.m. The public is invited.

"The book goes from growing up in the Bootheel to the day I went to work in New York when I was 29," Teachout said. "Obviously, life today is different than it was as a boy in Sikeston."

But Teachout said that despite the differences between life in amenable, rural Missouri and impersonal, congested New York, childhood experiences and the nostalgic emotions they elicit in later life are universal.

"When I finished the book, the publishers most of them are from New York read it and they told me that the feelings of our childhood were still the same regardless of the differences," he said.

"It's a long way from Sikeston to Manhattan, but it's also a long way from Brooklyn to Manhattan."

Teachout is quick, though, to point out the differences between the locales.

"There's a line in the book that says, `My home town is a place where people still salute the flag and don't ask for receipts.'" he said. "The biggest difference between Sikeston and New York is that everyone knows everyone else.

"New York is such an anonymous place, and you have to work harder to build and maintain friendships. It's so big and indifferent."

Teachout said the differences aren't only apparent to him. He said his publicist at Simon and Schuster, publisher of "City Limits," recently remarked on the friendliness of Missourians she's dealt with while setting up his promotional tour.

"The other day she said to me, `You know Terry, whenever I talk to the eastern media people and try to get my authors on their shows, it's like pulling teeth, but the people in Missouri are falling all over themselves to help me out. I guess your book is true, after all,'" Teachout said.

His visit to the Bootheel includes a full agenda that will begin Sunday at the Sikeston Public Library, where from 2 to 5 p.m. he'll sign copies of his book.

On Monday Teachout will be in Cape Girardeau for an interview at 9 a.m. on KZIM radio's "The Talk of Cape" program. Later he'll be featured on Paducah television station WPSD's Accent program.

Teachout also will meet students at Sikeston Public Schools Monday, before coming to Cape Girardeau Tuesday for the Kent Library reading.

"Somewhere in there I want to visit and have dinner with my mom and dad and kiss my niece," he quipped.

Teachout said he's pleased with the critical response his just-released book already has received.

National Review and Washington Post Book World both printed favorable reviews of the book. The New York Times also plans to review the book, he said.

Teachout also writes about literature, music and dance for The American Scholar, National Review, Commentary, Musical America, The New Criterion, The New Digest, Stagebill, Washington Post Book World, and other magazines.

From 1975 to 1983, he lived in Kansas City, where he worked as a jazz bassist and as a music critic for the Kansas City Star. He was a senior editor for Harper's Magazine from 1985 to 1987 and an editorial writer for the New York Daily News from 1987 to 1991.

As a writer and critic, Teachout said he feels fortunate that the reviewers so far have been kind. "I've been a book reviewer too long not to expect to get sliced and diced, but I've been delighted at the response so far," he said.

Despite his success in the New York and Washington, D.C. area, Teachout says there still are times when fond musings draw him back to the Missouri Bootheel.

"Sometimes what I think I miss most is just the look of the place," he said. "In New York, you look up and see the 12th floor of some building. In the Bootheel, you look up and see the sky or a tree.

"But what I miss the most is the sweetness and decency of all the people, and the fact that they're never in a hurry. Here, everyone's always in a hurry."

"City Limits" isn't Teachout's first published work. He also was editor of two books, including "Beyond the Boom: New Voices on American Life, Culture and Politics," a collection of essays from conservative writers.

But Teachout, who's politically conservative, said there's much more to life than politics.

"The book has no politics in it at all," he said. "That was not deliberate, but it also wasn't an accident. I just don't think politics is the most important part of life.

"I'm a conservative, but there's something wrong with life if you can't spent most of your time not worrying about politics.

"That's another thing about the Bootheel people don't stay up late worrying about politics. They know just about everyone running for office is a rascal."

Teachout now lives in New York and Baltimore with his wife, Elizabeth, an opera coach and accompanist. His parents, H.H. and Evelyn Teachout, still live in Sikeston.

The writer now is at work on a biography of journalist H.L. Mencken, which will be published by Poseidon Press in 1994.

"After that I don't know what I'm going to do, and I'm not too worried about it," Teachout said. "Most of the good things in my life I've had, have just come to me. I'm leaving that to destiny."