Ted Ownby, co-editor of the “Mississippi Encyclopedia,” told a crowd gathered at Turnrow Book Co. on Thursday that the new book from University Press of Mississippi weighs 9 pounds — “just about what my mother said I weighed at birth, though it took the book a lot longer to be born.”
Thirteen years in the making, “Mississippi Encyclopedia” is a mammoth collaboration that includes over 1,600 topical entries, 1,451 pages and entries from more than 700 scholars on all things Mississippi.
Co-editor Charles Reagan Wilson, who also was at Turnrow on Thursday and who penned the section on the Delta, said pulling together a state such as Mississippi in a scholarly fashion was a tremendous challenge.
“Mississippi is a state of great mystique and legend,” Wilson said. “We worked with authorities who knew their topics well, and we wanted to do justice to the scope of Mississippi, from Civil War generals to civil rights activists.”
The editorial team that combed through lists of suggested topics compiled by 30 topics editors also wanted to honor the state’s rich cultural output, including everything from its sports heroes to its artists and unique art forms.
Dr. Chuck Westmoreland of Delta State University contributed entries on basketball great Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) and football star Archie Manning.
“It taught me the toughness of being succinct,” Westmoreland said, referring to taking subjects about which he had written broadly and encapsulating key points to inform a general reader.
Local author and “Mississippi Encyclopedia” contributor Scott Barretta agreed.
Barretta, who teaches a course on the blues for the Center for Southern Studies at University of Mississippi, said he always tells his students that there is no simple definition of the blues. Yet he was charged with coming up with one for the encyclopedia.
“Coming up with a concise definition of the blues wasn’t something I’d done before, except to explain how complicated it is,” said Barretta.
Nonetheless, he condensed all he’d learned through his work with the Mississippi Blues Trail and came up with 550 words based on 194 historical markers across the state.
Wilson said that many states now have encyclopedias, though the bulk of them are digital products. He said this one will be available online, too, thanks to the Mississippi Humanities Council, but he is glad for the physical manifestation of so many years of work. “We are book lovers,” he said.
The “Mississippi Encyclopedia” is a scholarly work designed for general readers and as a basic reference tool, made possible by the University Press of Mississippi, the Center for Southern Culture, the Mississippi Humanities Council and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History with support from the University of Mississippi and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
A limited print run of 8,000 copies is now available for purchase.
• Contact Kathryn Eastburn at 581-7235 or keastburn@
gwcommonwealth.com.
