Paul Hemphill, an Atlanta Treasure!

Once upon a time there was a great writer in the Atlanta area, a man named Paul Hemphill. The guy came out of Alabama but he really seemed to dig the metro Atlanta area. He became a columnist for The Atlanta Journal and developed quite a following. Like me, my mother enjoyed his material also, saying he was like a blend of Caldwell, Faulkner and even Scott Fitzgerald. I remember the main thing that delighted me about the charismatic Mr. Hemphill was the fact he was able to capture the constant change that was happening in the Atlanta area and also for that matter the entire Deep South. I loved his books, also. Especially the material on baseball, Nashville and even later his great work on the mighty Hank Williams. It was a marvelous deal also that he snared the essence of great Atlanta Watering Holes like the magnificent Manuel's over on North Avenue and Highland. Paul Hemphill helped make The Atlanta Journal an interesting newspaper giving such great prose over and over to the Southern people.