Charles Sharp 232 pages hardcover
The Mississippi River flows through American history and culture as a
mythic waterway brimming with tragedy and hope, and awash in passionate
ambitions and harsh realities. In 1953, a young Charles Dee Sharp
traveled twice down the Mississippi (first by towboat and then by car
along the renowned river road Highway 61) to make a documentary film of
it, taking black-and-white photographs of the river, its communities,
and its people.
While Sharp's documentary never came to fruition, the striking
images he captured survived as moving and evocative historical
testaments to a lost era, now collected in his new book
The Mississippi in 1953. These images create a vivid portrait of
America's heartland a half century ago, and they are enriched with
excerpts from Sharp's original trip journal, intriguing anecdotes from
the people he encountered along his journey, and an engaging
environmental history of the river by historian John O. Anfinson.
The Mississippi in 1953 offers an original and poignant look at
the living artery of the American landscape and how it molded the United
States into the nation it is today.
