Book excerpt: James Street was born and raised in the South and was one of its most passionate and eloquent voices. Through this collection of articles from Holiday and the Saturday Evening Post the people and the cities of the South come to life ― legends are explored, contradictions examined, historical milestones noted, personal anecdotes retold, and quips and quotes of a 1950's generation recorded. Flowing through his stories are the great rivers of the South, which although sometimes merry and sometimes gloomy, wind and roll and tumble through the collection like liquid poetry. To James Street the South was heaven and :contained everything good and big and wonderful in life" ― the things that made people human. The South was a love he cherished to himself and championed to the nations. For him, it was "the measure of life, the temper of men, and the crucible of artistic sensibility."