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Biography of W. J. CashName: W. J. CashBirth Date: May 2, 1900 Death Date: July 1, 1941 Place of Birth: Gaffney, South Carolina, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: writer, journalist W. J. Cash Although W.J. Cash (1900-1941) wrote only one book, The Mind of the South, before his untimely death in 1941, his work is recognized as one of the best single-volume histories of the American South ever published.A native son of the Carolinas, W.J. Cash grew up with an intimate knowledge of the region's culture, society, and history. An aspiring writer, Cash first taught English after graduating from North Carolina's Wake Forest College, a career that fell short of his long-term literary ambitions. Cash then pursued an intermittent career as a journalist, honing his insights on the American South by working for a number of newspapers. Yet his failing health and high-strung temperament allowed him to work for only short periods before retreating to his parents' home to regain his mental and physical strength. In 1936, based on a series of articles that he had written for the nationally renowned American Mercury …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…was only 41 years old.Although he produced only one book, Cash's contribution to the understanding of the American South was a masterpiece. Never out of print since its initial publication, The Mind of the South remains essential reading to any student of southern history, society, and culture. As Louis D. Rubin, Jr. wrote in the Virginia Quarterly Review upon the 15th anniversary of the book's publication in 1991, "If I wish to get a sense of the workings of that elusive but very real entity known as the 'mind' of the Southern community, and how it operated at those and other points in history, Cash's book will offer certain kinds of insights that no other study can provide." Further Reading Clayton, Bruce, W.J. Cash: A Life, Louisiana State University Press, 1991.Morrison, Joseph L., W.J. Cash: Southern Prophet, Alfred A. Knopf, 1967.Backlist, July-August 2000.Sewanee Review, Summer 1998.Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring 1991. |