John Egerton Papers

The John Egerton Papers, 1950s-2014, include correspondence, manuscripts of writings, speeches, research materials, publication materials, publicity for books, reviews, legal and financial documents, memorabilia, clippings and photographs, programs from cultural events, scrapbooks and periodicals on race relations and school desegregation, and audio and video tapes. Major topics include civil rights, desegregation, race relations, Southern history, and Southern food. The collection is arranged in chronological order, beginning with Egerton’s early writings in the army and in public relations while in graduate school at the University of Kentucky and continuing through his extensive work as a free-lance writer and author of many books. These papers offer a fascinating insight into the career of a non-fiction writer in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Approximately thirty-two boxes of the collection contain materials relating to Egerton’s work as a writer for periodicals and as a participant in many conferences and projects concerned with civil rights and desegregation. These materials include the manuscripts and the extensive research for his articles on subjects such as civil rights, labor relations, education reform and equality of opportunity, Southern history, and Southern food. Especially important are the manuscripts and materials for the major articles he wrote for American Heritage and The New York Times Magazine. These boxes also contain correspondence related to the articles, highlights being letters from James Earl Ray, John Popham, Claude Pepper, Alex Haley, and Will Campbell.

The most extensive part of the collection is the material for Egerton’s books. Included are the manuscripts, research materials, correspondence, photographs, and publicity materials for A Mind to Stay Here, The Americanization of Dixie, Visions of Utopia, Nashville: The Faces of Two Centuries, Side Orders, Unfinished Business, and Shades of Gray. There is also a copy of the manuscript for Nashville: An American Self-Portrait, but the materials related to this book are deposited with the Metro Nashville Archives.

Perhaps the most significant part of the collection is the material related to his books Generations, Southern Food, and Speak Now Against the Day. The nine boxes containing Generations are comprised of manuscripts, including the Japanese edition, and extensive research materials. There are taped interviews as well as the transcripts of the tapes, much publicity material, many photographs, most taken by Egerton,and voluminous correspondence, especially with the Ledford family. The materials for Southern Food is in six boxes and contains multiple copies of the manuscript, reserach materials, correspondence, photographs, and publicity materials. The seventeen boxes of materials for Speak Now Against the Day include the tapes and tape transcripts constituting part of the research for the book and contributed to the University of North Carolina’s Southern Oral History Project. Additional tapes contain interviews with Robert Penn Warren, Gene Graham, and Studs Terkel. There are copies of the manuscript and eight boxes of extensive research materials and correspondence, including letters from Wilma Dykeman, John Popham, C. Vann Woodward, Alexander Heard, and John Hope Franklin. Two boxes contain photographs, photostats, and photocopies of footage from March of Time newsreels.

Subject Files contain many issues of Integrated Education: Race and Schools, Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and Inequality in Education. There are also scrapbooks of newspaper clippings pertaining to education issues in 1950-1951, especially in California.

In 2015, Egerton's family donated at addition titled the "Estate Papers." These thirty-five boxes cover a wide range of topics pertaining to his career from 1960 to 2014.

There are seven boxes of correspondence, ranging in date from 1963 to 2014. Some of the correspondence is personal, but most of it concerns his work as a writer.

Other material pertains to Egerton’s speeches and presentations, as well as his work as Journalist-in Residence at Virginia Tech in 1978-1979 and at the University of Texas at Austin in 1997.

Over five boxes contain materials relating to the many and wide-ranging projects in which he was involved between 1973 and 2013. Among these varied projects were advocacy for prisoners, proposals for film and video productions for some of his writing, establishment of a Southern Food and Drink Museum, his involvement in local politics, and work in improving Nashville, especially feeding the poor of the city.

Over two boxes contain his writing ideas for future articles and books. He collected magazine and newspapers articles for inspiration, as well as writing his personal observations about the local and national scene.

In the next eleven boxes are some of his completed writings, both published and unpublished, dating from 1960 to 2013. These include his Master’s thesis from 1960 as well as material pertaining to Generations, Speak Now Against the Day, and Nashville. Also included is his published novel, Ali Dubiyah and the Forty Thieves, as well as his unpublished novel, Paradise Island. There are also many of his magazine and newspaper articles, primarily on topics of education, politics, Tennessee history, and southern food. His work as an editor is included in this section also.

There are four boxes of the writings of others. Egerton served as a mentor to many, including poets, novelists, and writers of non-fiction. Their works and some of his comments are included.

The last part of the collection consists of Subject Files. They primarily concern race relations, civil rights, school desegregation, TVA, music, and the Metro Nashville Archives.

Personal items are contained in the last box. These include resumes he wrote through the years, honors awarded to him, publicity photos, and posthumous tributes. The program for his Memorial Service at the Nashville Public Library held on Sunday, December 8, 2013 is included.