Interview with John Egerton, June 2, 1992

Partial Transcript: This is an oral history interview with John Egerton being conducted by Linda Beattie for the Kentucky Writers Oral History Project.

Segment Synopsis: Egerton names his parents and origins. He was the fifth child of the family. His father was a traveling salesman. His paternal grandfather wanted to be a doctor in India. His maternal grandfather was an inventor.

Keywords: American Tobacco Company; Bombay (India); Cadiz (Ky.); Rugby Colony (Tenn.); Utopias

Subjects: American Tobacco Company; Appalachia; Appalachian Region; Cadiz (Ky.); Egerton, John; Families.; Genealogy; Mumbai (India); Rugby (Tenn.); Utopias

Partial Transcript: Kind of place you would, uh, uh, love to raise kids because it was safe.

Segment Synopsis: Egerton attended the Cadiz Graded School through grade six. He feels that there were no good school systems in Kentucky during the time he was growing up. He was ill during second grade and wrote a gossip sheet of school news as a pastime during his illness. In the sixth grade, he worked for the local newspaper, writing up the school sports events.

Keywords: Cadiz (Ky.); Cadiz Graded School; Histoplasmosis; Trigg County High School; Tuberculosis

Subjects: Appalachia; Cadiz (Ky.); Education; Egerton, John; Histoplasmosis; Trigg County High School; Tuberculosis

Partial Transcript: And then after high school did you go directly to college?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton went to Western Kentucky University for a year, and then signed up for military service. After spending two years in the Army, he went back to college at University of Kentucky. After earning his BA and MA in public relations, he had a job in public relations in Lexington, where his son was born.

Keywords: Cadiz (Ky.); Germany; Public relations

Subjects: Appalachia; Appalachian Region; Cadiz (Ky.); Education, Higher; Egerton, John; Germany; Higher education; Public relations; United States. Army--Military life

Partial Transcript: I was doing this PR job and then writing other things at the Kentucky Research Foundation involved in their--they had an overseas program with Indonesia, and, uh, I was--

Segment Synopsis: Egerton got hired as a public relations administrator at the University of South Florida at Tampa, which was just being built at that time. He enjoyed his work, which entailed writing the college president's speeches. It seemed that the era's accusations of communism were based in racial inequality. Egerton was involved in a car accident while he was at South Florida University.

Keywords: McCarthyism; Public relations

Subjects: Education, Higher; Egerton, John; Higher education; McCarthy, Joseph, 1908-1957; Public relations

Partial Transcript: But, uh, I took this trip to Africa.

Segment Synopsis: While recovering from an accident, Egerton read about Albert Schweitzer, and decided to take a trip to meet him. He began the trip, but never met Schweitzer. When he came back to the USA, Egerton wrote some articles, which were published. He was writing for Southern Education Reporting Service, and submitted articles to other publications.

Keywords: Africa; Albert Schweitzer; Atlantic Monthly; Republic of Rhodesia; Rhodesia; Southern Education Reporting Service

Subjects: Egerton, John; Schweitzer, Albert, 1875-1965; Southern Education Reporting Service

Partial Transcript: When you were working here in Nashville, for the--what was it called, the Southern--

Segment Synopsis: Egerton was submitting some articles and published a book, and publishing the book led him to think the he could make a success of writing freelance.

Keywords: Freelance work

Subjects: Egerton, John; Self-employed; Writing

Partial Transcript: And I was working, I think I--by the time I quit, I was working or at least thinking about working on a book that, that, uh, eventually materialized in, uh, '74, "The Americanization of Dixie."

Segment Synopsis: Egerton describes his book, "The Americanization of Dixie" as an 'idea book.' His idea was the disappearing South. (His other category of books is what he would call a subject book, which originates externally to the author.) Egerton tells how he came to be known for the phrase, "the Americanization of Dixie," but his book on that topic was not a great success in terms of sales.

Keywords: Dixie; Kentucky writers; The Americanization of Dixie

Subjects: Egerton, John; Southern States; Writing

Partial Transcript: Uh, I was gradually shifting to other areas of interest, and history was one of them.

Segment Synopsis: Egerton discusses the idea for his book "Generations." Egerton had interviewed Sue Alston, a woman who was about 105 years old. Alston was able to give Egerton a lot of insight into American life over the past century. Hearing her story inspired him to write a book about the experience of an idealized, mainstream family in the South. To find this family, he wrote letters to people he knew who could help him find a family that met his criteria.

Keywords: Kentucky writers; Sue Alston; Tom Clark

Subjects: Alston, Sue, approximately 1873-1983; American literature--Kentucky; Appalachia; Appalachian Region; Beattie, Linda; Clark, Thomas Dionysius, 1903-2005; Egerton, John; Kentucky--In literature

Partial Transcript: So, I, uh, got a couple names out of there, and called them up on the phone and, uh--from Virginia.

Segment Synopsis: Egerton describes the process of writing and then trying to get it published. In the middle of writing "Generations," a story about the family of Burnam and Addie Ledford, Egerton wrote and published a book about Nashville's bicentennial, "Nashville, the Faces of Two Centuries." Then he went back and continued to try to have "Generations" published. The family whose story Egerton told gave permission for the story to be told after they read the first draft. Not all of the parts of the family's story are necessarily positive, but the family nevertheless permitted the story to be told.

Keywords: Alcoholism; Divorce; Kentucky writers; Nashville (Tenn.)

Subjects: Alcoholism; Divorce; Egerton, John; Families.; Nashville (Tenn.)

Partial Transcript: And since then, I guess the next thing I did of any major consequence was the food book.

Segment Synopsis: Egerton says that food was just such a natural way to look at the South and its social history. He talks about how much help his wife has been in support of his career as a freelance writer. She is now an antiquarian book dealer.

Keywords: Kentucky writers; Southern Food

Subjects: Cooking, American--Southern style; Egerton, John

Partial Transcript: --things like this, uh, uh, leaves me, uh, pretty much outside pretty much anybody's, uh, uh, little cubbyhole of definition.

Segment Synopsis: After the book, "Southern Food," came out, several magazines began to ask Egerton to write articles. He next attempted to syndicate a column with newspapers.

Keywords: Food and Wine Magazine; Kentucky writers; Southern Food; Travel and Leisure Magazine

Subjects: Cooking, American--Southern style; Egerton, John

Partial Transcript: What do you think is the most significant aspect of, of "Southern Food"?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton characterizes his book on Southern food as a collection of excerpts about southern food that appeared in authors from the South, about the South. Food is an important part of Southern culture.

Keywords: Kentucky writers; Southern Food

Subjects: Cooking, American--Southern style; Egerton, John; Writing

Partial Transcript: Um, I understand that you think most Americans have an unhealthy fear of food these days, especially foods, uh, laden with fat or cholesterol.

Segment Synopsis: Sugar, cream, butter, eggs, salt, and bacon grease define southern cooking, in Egerton's view. Nouvelle cuisine seems to be removing these characteristic elements from Southern cooking.

Keywords: Kentucky writers; Nathalie Dupree; Nouvelle cuisine; Southern Food

Subjects: American literature--Kentucky; Appalachia; Appalachian Region; Cholesterol; Egerton, John; Kentucky--In literature

Partial Transcript: What is the story of your hemorrhoid comic book?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton wrote the copy for a comic book about hemorrhoids, called "The Bottom Line," for patients. Egerton has collected his magazine articles into a book he calls, "Shades of Gray."

Keywords: Hemorrhoids; Kentucky writers; Medical information

Subjects: Egerton, John; Writing

Partial Transcript: Had you been, or were you raised, uh, thinking the same way thinking about race relations as you have as an adult?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton believes that it's unfair to treat some people one way and others another way. He remembers his father as being racially prejudiced, but his mother was opposed to prejudice.

[Note: use of a pejorative term referring to race at 1:44:19].

Keywords: Race relations; Racism

Subjects: Egerton, John; Race relations; Racism

Partial Transcript: Uh, I've read that you've been working on a book about the relationship between blacks and whites from the end of World War Two until the early 1950s.

Segment Synopsis: Egerton believes that the civil rights movement in the South started earlier than the traditionally accepted date of 1954. He is looking at the people from a generation before 1954 and how their beliefs shaped the events that surround segregation.

Keywords: Civil rights; Kentucky writers; Race relations; Racism

Subjects: Civil rights; Egerton, John; Race relations; Racism; Writing

Partial Transcript: What about future writing projects?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton has some unexplored ideas for further work, including a story about England that would help him explore his grandfather's journey to the United States. Other interests include elderly people, and travel. Egerton tries to define the kind of writing he does. It's some mix of journalism, fiction, and non-fiction. The lines are blurred. He writes in order to explore topics.

Keywords: Elderly people; Highways; Kentucky writers

Subjects: Egerton, John; Older people; Roads; Writing

Partial Transcript: Um, uh, will you discuss your research and, and writing methods, and by that I mean, you talked about discipline. Do you have a specific time, and place, and tools with which you write, and is it a daily thing or, or what?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton is not very rigid in his methods, but he does have to spend time in libraries doing research.

Keywords: Kentucky writers; Libraries; Newspapers; Research

Subjects: Beattie, Linda; Egerton, John; Libraries; Newspapers; Research; Writing

Partial Transcript: Um, there are a couple other things I probably ought to mention that, uh, I've done that don't, don't have, uh, either don't have my name on them, or I'm sort of secondary--

Segment Synopsis: Egerton has worked on some projects for which he is either not named or for which he took a secondary role. Egerton describes some of the books to the interviewer.

Keywords: Kentucky writers; Radnor Lake, Nashville's Walden

Subjects: Egerton, John; Radnor Lake (Tenn.); Writing

Partial Transcript: Would you comment on what you think the nature of creativity itself is?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton believes a person can learn how to write, but that a person cannot be taught. Sentence structure and such technical aspects of writing get in the way of the writer. Egerton believes that certain types of creativity arise from birth. For writing, people would have to be born with the desire for it. A person does not ever master writing. That keeps it interesting.

Keywords: Creative writing; Creativity; Kentucky writers

Subjects: Creative writing; Egerton, John; reative ability

Partial Transcript: You said you, you taught writing or journalism for a year at, uh, Virginia Tech, was it?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton liked working with students in his course teaching writing for journalism. He felt that his colleagues were not all hard workers, although there were good teachers who worked hard. By the end of school year, Egerton was too drained to write when he got home. He looked at the time as a sabbatical from writing.

Keywords: Journalism; Kentucky writers; Teaching; Writing

Subjects: Egerton, John; Journalism; Teaching; Writing

Partial Transcript: Do you do readings or writers' conferences very often?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton has done some work at conferences and giving talks, but it is not his favorite work. In some ways, it can be helpful to talk on a subject of his writing, in order to work out the explanation of the topic. Egerton enjoys reading other writers' work, and he lists some of his favorites.

Keywords: Ed McClanahan; Kentucky writers; Thomas D. Clark; Tom Clark

Subjects: Clark, Tom, 1941-; Egerton, John; McClanahan, Ed; Writing

Partial Transcript: Um, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think is particularly important to know about you as a person or as a writer?

Segment Synopsis: Egerton likes to try to figure out why people do what they do. His Kentucky heritage had a great deal of influence on his writing. He believes that the contribution of blacks to southern cooking is enormous. Both of Egerton's children have expressed an interest in writing.

Keywords: Kentucky cuisine; Kentucky writers; Social history

Subjects: African Americans; Egerton, John; Social history.