Books by James L. Dickerson
The Fabulous Vaughan Brothers: Jimmie and Stevie Ray
Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan-two sons of Texas whose pyrotechnic guitar work introduced an entire generation to the blues-are given full biographical treatment by a writer who tracked their careers for five years, until Stevie Ray's sudden death in 1990, and afterward as Jimmie pursued a solo career that continues to flourish.
Based on scores of interviews with such well-known contemporary musicians as B.B. King, Robert Cray, Ron Wood, the late Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and others, The Fabulous Vaughan Brothers follows the two brothers from their modest Dallas roots to their emergence onto the Austin music scene. The brothers' subsequent recording experiences in Memphis-which the author sees as being crucial to their overall development as musicians-are also described, as well as their early bands and, of course, their work together on Family Style.
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Nicole Kidman
by David Thomson, James L. Dickerson
Traces the Oscar-winning actress's childhood as the daughter of Australian activist parents, her marriage to and divorce from Tom Cruise, her decidedly private lifestyle, the controversies surrounding her films, and her complex personality.
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Nicole Kidman
by David Thomson, James L. Dickerson
From the brilliant film historian and critic David Thomson, a book that reinvents the star biography in a singularly illuminating portrait of Nicole Kidman—and what it means to be a top actress today. At once life story, love letter, and critical analysis, this is not merely a book about who Kidman is but about what she is—in our culture and in our minds, on- and offscreen.
Tall, Australian, one of the striking beauties of the world, Nicole Kidman is that rare modern phenomenon—an authentic movie star who is as happy and as creative throwing a seductive gaze from some magazine cover as she is being Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Here is the story of how this actress began her career, has grown through her roles, taken risks, made good choices and bad, and worried about money, aging, and image.
Here are the details of an actress’s life: her performances in To Die For, The Portrait of a Lady, Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge!, The Hours, and Birth, among other films; her high-visibility marriage to Tom Cruise; her intense working relationship with Stanley Kubrick and her collaborations with Anthony Minghella and Baz Luhrmann; her work with Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Renée Zellweger, and John Malkovich; her decisions concerning nudity, endorsements, and publicity.
And here are Thomson’s scintillating considerations of what celebrity means in the life of an actress like Kidman; of how the screen becomes both barrier and open sesame for her and for her audience; of what is required today of an actress of Kidman’s stature if she is to remain vital to the industry and to the audiences who made her a prime celebrity.
Impassioned, opinionated, dazzlingly original in its approach and ideas, Nicole Kidman is as alluring and as much fun as Nicole Kidman herself, and David Thomson’s most remarkable book yet.
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Goin' Back to Memphis
Goin' Back to Memphis is an engaging survey of the town and its characters.
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Inside America's Concentration Camps: Two Centuries of Internment and Torture
Xenophobia, paranoia, and racism have long challenged democracy, a battle played out dramatically in the concentration camps that were built, staffed, and filled with adults and children under the orders of the U.S. government. Beginning in the nineteenth century with the imprisonment of Native Americans, camps reappeared during World War II with the roundup of Japanese Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, and Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. They resurfaced recently when Homeland Security awarded a major contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton for the construction of new camps.
In Inside America's Concentration Camps, author James L. Dickerson explores the history and the tragedy of the camps in a vivid narrative that brings the stories of the victims and the flaws of our government to life. Rebecca Neugin, Eleanor Berg, Roy Abbey, Marino Sichi, Louise Ogawa—these are some of the children and adults whose stories are found here, along with accounts of the U.S. government yanking children out of orphanages to imprison them in the camps.
To fight the erosion of democracy, Americans must remain aware of threats to our democratic ideals and understand where we have been. Inside America's Concentration Camps is an authoritative history, a heartbreaking and inspirational story of survival, and a call to action.
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Devil's Sanctuary: An Eyewitness History of Mississippi Hate Crimes
by James L. Dickerson, Alex A. Alston Jr.
Lynchings, beatings, arson, denial of rights, false imprisonment--the civil rights era brought attention to these heinous offenses that were the status quo for African Americans in many areas of the country. And no state was more notorious as a sanctuary for the murderers and perpetrators of hate crimes than Mississippi. In 1956 state lawmakers installed the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission to preserve segregation and “Mississippi Values” by declaring the state outside the jurisdiction of the federal government. Under the auspices of the governor and lieutenant governor, the commission joined forces with groups such as the White Citizens’ Councils, which would stop at nothing in their quest for white supremacy.
In Devil’s Sanctuary, Alex A. Alston Jr. and James L. Dickerson, both of whom grew up in small-town Mississippi, recount the state’s shameful racist history and explore how Mississippi was able to get away with its role as a safe haven for the most virulent and violent racists, allowing them immunity from prosecution. The breakdown of institutions, with everyone from judges and elected officials to clergy and the media looking the other way, not only permitted but even encouraged acts so horrendous that many citizens cannot believe they happened--and still could happen--in the United States.
Analysis of the major crimes, the institutional collusion, delayed and never-delivered justice, and the state’s attempts at atonement is interspersed with the authors’ accounts of what they saw, heard, and experienced as whites--thus “insiders”--from that troubled time to the present day. Devil’s Sanctuary is part shocking history and part moving memoir, an eyewitness account of judicial, media, and economic terrorism directed against African Americans.
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Chips Moman: The Record Producer Whose Genius Changed American Music
Chips Moman's genius began in the studio, where he instituted technical innovations that forever changed the recording industry, but it expanded from there with an uncanny ability to recognize hit songs when he heard them as rough demos, and then blossomed with an unsurpassed string of hit records. He rescued Elvis Presley's career with his recordings of "Suspicious Minds" and "In the Ghetto," and he provided Willie Nelson with one of his most memorable signature songs, "Always on My Mind." Not bad for a Georgia country boy who dropped out of school in the eighth grade and hitchhiked to Memphis in search of the American Dream.
"I think the Chips Moman story has provided me with the best book I have written since Colonel Tom Parker, which was purchased by Warner Bros. for its Elvis film starring Tom Hanks," says author James L. Dickerson. "I anticipate great interest in a movie based on Moman's story. Small wonder. He has been called the "Steve McQueen of the music business.'"
By any measure-sales, multi-genre capability, number of hit records, technical innovation, artistry, etc.-Lincoln "Chips" Moman was the most important record producer in American history. With several hundred hits to his credit in pop, country, rhythm & blues, and rock, both from record production and songwriting, Chips Moman is legendary within the music industry. This biography is the story of his life.
Early on, Chips Moman was a co-founder of Memphis's Stax Records, along with Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Moman found the location for the studio, organized the recording system, recruited the early talent and produced the legendary soul music record label's first two hits-"Gee Whiz" by Carla Thomas and "Last Night," an instrumental by the Mar-Keys.
As a record producer, he rescued Elvis Presley's career with hits such as "Suspicious Minds, "In the Ghetto," and "Kentucky Rain." He produced music icons such as Petula Clark and Dionne Warwick. In rock and pop he is associated with the Gentrys ("Keep on Dancing"), the Box Tops ("The Letter"), Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," Sandy Posey ("Born a Woman" and "Single Girl" ), Paul Revere & The Raiders ("Goin' to Memphis"), Dusty Springfield ("Son of a Preacher Man"), Ringo Starr (an unreleased album which the author listened to and
considers among Ringo's best; the album ended up in a celebrated court case); B.J. Thomas ("Hooked on a Feeling," "The Eyes of a New York Woman," and "(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Someone Wrong Song."
In country music, he produced Willie Nelson's "Always on My Mind" and numerous other albums; he originated the super group the Highwaymen (Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kristofferson) and produced two of their three albums; Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard (Pancho & Lefty), plus albums with Tammy Wynette, Gary Stewart, Brenda Lee and others. Moman also recorded a country album, as of now unreleased, with actor Robert Duvall, who got permission from Moman to use him as a model for the character he played in Tender Mercies, a role for which he was awarded an Oscar.
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Living on Deadline: The Amazing Adventures of a Southern Journalist
At a time when print journalism is rapidly fading away, there is a need for a book about the day-to-day life of a newspaper and magazine writer. This memoir by award-winning writer James L. Dickerson is such a book. In addition to providing exciting stories about investigative reporting and investigative editorial writing (a concept he developed at The Commercial Appeal of Memphis), the book pulls back the newsroom curtain on the many intrigues and scandals that happen behind the scenes at a daily newspaper.
Currently celebrating 50 years of journalism, James L. Dickerson is one of the most successful journalists in the South. He has been a staff writer for three Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers while writing for magazines and authoring more than 30 books on investigative history and investigative biography (one of his investigative biographies Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager was purchased by Warner Bros. for director Baz Luhrmann for his upcoming Elvis movie starring Tom Hanks).
In a fascinating transition from college rock musician to civil rights activist to Vietnam War resister, Dickerson enters the world of investigative journalism. His style of reporting is unique in that he assumes different personas for different interviews, becoming Bogart's Sam Spade (hence the book cover), Johnny Cash and Clark Kent-and he is one of the very few reporters to carry a gun on difficult assignments. For that reason, reading this memoir is like reading a Dashiell Hammett mystery novel.
Go on assignment with Dickerson when he investigates the Shah of Iran's sudden appearance in Jackson, Mississippi during the Iran hostage crisis; when he organizes a nude pictorial for Playboy on the "Girls of Country Music"; when he chases after Bill Clinton for a Q&A interview for Playboy; when Omni magazine asks him to investigate historical murder cases; when he interviews the first Marine Corps pilot in history; when he interviews the stars of country, blues and rock music; and when he romances one of the first women to be elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives; and much more as he writes more than 30 investigative books on civil rights, hate crimes, and internment camps, to name just a few.
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Mojo Triangle: Birthplace of Country, Blues, Jazz and Rock 'n' Roll
The winner of the 2006 IPPY Award for best non-fiction book from the South (presented by the Independent Publishers Association), the Mojo Triangle tells the true story—at long last—of the birth of the blues, rock 'n' roll, country and jazz!
Draw a straight line from New Orleans to Nashville, then over to Memphis and back down to New Orleans, following the curves of the Mississippi River, and you have the Mojo Triangle, a phrase coined by the author in the early 2000's.
"So much of what has been written about the music of the South is untrue," says Dickerson. "I wanted to set the record straight and put the development of the music in perspective. The Mojo Triangle is a land area in which all of America's original roots music was created: country, blues, jazz, and rock 'n' roll. How did this music come about? What is there about the Mojo Triangle that has contributed to the creation of so much original music?"The book points out that although the music itself was created in the geographical area defined by the Mojo Triangle, the two portals through which the various musical components entered and then morphed into the finished products were Natchez, Mississippi and Nashville, Tennessee, with the Natchez Trace serving as the main artery.
"A rich and rewarding book."—Beth Goehring, The Literary Guild.
"Mojo Triangle is a very good book. Author James L. Dickerson, a Southerner himself, has written a great, in-depth history of the area and its musical background … all aimed at the birthplace of American music. He hit it right on the button."—Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley's first guitarist and manager"In the search for a unified-field theory of American popular music, few journalists come as well equipped as James L. Dickerson. Blessed with the scene-setting panache of a natural storyteller, an eye for the telling detail, and the audacity to reach for the big picture, Dickerson has walked back out of the jungle bearing this remarkable, pioneering compendium … Again and again Dickerson dredges up forgotten or suppressed histories and teases out connections that other historians of southern music have missed. I learned a great deal from this book."—Adam Gussow, author of Mister Satan's Apprentice: A Blues Memoir.
Based on interviews with the recording artists, musicians, producers and songwriters who created and performed the music, it traces the development of the music from the early 1800s up to the present day. There is probably no author in history who has interviewed as many music legends and musicians as the author—and the reader benefits from that experience in a big way. Among the music legends who participate are: Al Green, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, Carl Perkins, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Chet Atkins, Ike Turner, Jack Clement, Marty Stuart, Mose Allison, Rita Coolidge, Roy Orbison, Scotty Moore, Tammy Wynette, Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Garth Brooks, Chips Moman, Billy Sherrill, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Jimme Vaughan, Willie Mitchell, Booker T. & the MGs, Bobby Womack, Estelle Axton, Dave Edmunds, Pinetop Perkins, Bobbie Gentry, and the list goes on and on.
This incredible book, which contains rare photographs, some of which were taken by the author himself, not only allows the music greats themselves to express themselves about the music they made famous, it explains for the first time the development of America’s music.
James L. Dickerson is a bestselling author and journalist. A leading authority on the music of the South, he is the author of Memphis Going Down, Just for a Thrill: Lil Hardin Armstrong, First Lady of Jazz, Faith Hill: The Long Road Back, Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager, The Fabulous Vaughan Brothers, Jimmie & Stevie Ray, and Scotty & Elvis: Aboard the Mystery Train (with Scotty Moore).
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Mojo Rising: Masters of the Art
Not only was all of America's original music--blues, country, rock 'n' roll, and jazz--invented within a small geographical area known as the Mojo Triangle, so was the country's most soulful and creative literature given birth within that same small patch of fertile land.
Mojo Rising: Masters of the Art pay tribute to that literature with short stories by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Faulkner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright (generally regarded as one of the top three African American writers in American history), noted Civil War historian and novelist Shelby Foote, author Willie Morris (legendary editor of Harper's Magazine in the 1960s, novelist, and journalist), American Book Award winner Ellen Gilchrist (who contributed a previously unpublished story), Stark Young, New York Times drama critic and author of "So Red the Rose," Elizabeth Spencer (graduate of Belhaven College and Vanderbilt University; University of Mississippi creative writing instructor; five-time winner of the O. Henry Award for short fiction, ) and novelist and short writer Ellen Douglas, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry collection of prize stories.
"As an art form, the short story has been shunted to the fringe of literary expression," says Sartoris Literary Group publisher James L. Dickerson. "We want to keep the short story alive--and the best way to do that is to provide it with a loving home. To that end we plan to publish each year an anthology of contemporary writers who are associated with the Mojo Triangle."
What is the Mojo Triangle?
Draw a straight line from New Orleans to Nashville, then over to Memphis and back down to New Orleans following the curves of the Mississippi River, and you have the Mojo Triangle, a geometrical, cultural, and spiritual configuration that represents the geographical birthplace of America's original music--Country, Blues, Jazz, and Rock 'n' Roll--and its most soulful and innovative literature.
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Colonel Tom Parker: : The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager
THIS IS THE BOOK WARNER BROS. PURCHASED FOR BAZ LUHRMANN'S "ELVIS" MOVIE STARRING TOM HANKS AS 'THE COLONEL.Based on unprecedented, original research and interviews with insiders, this authoritative biography of Colonel Tom Parker (1909-1997), Elvis Presley’s lifelong manager, includes new revelations and insights into the music industry’s most notorious and mysterious manager. Investigative journalist and music writer James L. Dickerson looks at topics such as Parker’s illegal entry into the United States, his work as a carny with Royal American Shows, and his management of country singer Eddy Arnold, his partnership with Hank Snow, and how he manipulated Elvis Presley and his family to seize control of the singer’s career.“This jaw-dropping biography . . . is a model of research, assembled with crafty objectivity and humor.”—Hal Kanter, director of the Elvis film Loving YouThe book examines Parker’s greed, his indebtedness to behind-the-scenes players in Las Vegas, his gambling addiction, and his fear of deportation played a role in ruining Elvis’s career. Because Colonel Parker was always there with Elvis, gazing ominously over his shoulder, the book presents behind-the-scenes glimpses of the entertainer’s career that you will read nowhere else.“An incendiary, powerful investigative account . . . An explanation, finally, of the twisted, corrupt relationship between Elvis and Colonel Parker.”—Joe Eszterhas, screenwriter of Basic Instinct “Dickerson is tough but fair with his slippery subject . . . This is a well-presented biography of Colonel Tom Parker (1909-1997), who, through gall and cunning, created the ultimate celebrity icon. Recommended.”—Library Journal.
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Dixie's Dirty Secret: How the Government, the Media, and the Mob Reshaped the Modern Republican Party Into the Image of the Old Confederacy
Inspired by Mississippi's stubborn refusal to ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery until 2012, GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump opened campaign headquarters in Mississippi to learn how the state has "handled" its blacks. Was the idea to take the Mississippi Plan nationwide? In this book, learn how the state's white leadership, has blocked blacks from being elected to statewide offices for 138 years, how they have used the winner-take-all provision of the Electoral College to nullify black votes for president, and how through legal and social pressures they have created reservations for blacks similar to the ones created in another century for Native Americans. Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state, but none of them are empowered to govern beyond their reservations.
Dixie's Dirty Secret exposes the longest running political gambit in American history and paints a frightful picture of the future of the United States if the current trend in politics continues. How did the populist Democratic Party lose its blue collar and Southern base? How did the elitist, stiff-upper-lip Republican Party become a vehicle for racism and right-wing political anarchy?
"Mississippians will recognize many names in this book, its governors, politicians and media figures. It's bound to spark outrage, and dispute, but more importantly, it should raise serious questions about the "white speak" that masquerades as political discourse both locally and nationally, and its effect on elections and public policy. While inferences and suppositions can be disputed, Dickerson's extensive research (the ample notes and references section is itself fascinating) provides facts beyond dispute."—Jim Ewing, Clarion-Ledger
At one time the Democratic Party was the political arm of the segregationist South and the Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln (as far as race relations were concerned). That all changed on a fateful day in 1960 when Democratic Party candidate John F. Kennedy telephoned Coretta King to offer his condolences that her husband Martin Luther King Jr. had been arrested for parading without a permit. That telephone call set in motion a decades-long transformation of the Democratic Party into a liberal, pro-civil rights party and the transformation of the Republication Party into a right-wing, anti-civil rights party that embraced the social values of the Old Confederacy.
Also working against civil rights activists in the South were various organized crime cells, especially the Mafia godfather in New Orleans, and various right-wing media organizations that cared more about protecting the values of the Old Confederacy than in advancing democracy.
When Dixie's Dirty Secret was first published in 1998 it was the first book to expose the super-secret Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and the involvement of the government, the news media, and organized crime in combating the civil rights movement. This newly published edition, with nearly 20 years of new information, is a revised, greatly expanded analysis of that era.
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