Column: These books steeped in Macon history make great Christmas gifts

The holidays are always a special time in the midstate, but this year the festivities are enhanced by the fact that December is also the final month in Macon’s Bicentennial Celebration and several other landmark events. This is a “happenin’ place,” especially for book lovers who find cash in their stockings.

At the top of my list is the news that “The New Yorker” magazine has recently listed “Master Slave Husband Wife” as one of the most important books of the year. Having read Ilyon Woo’s tale of Ellen and William Craft’s flight from slavery in Macon — a locale easily recognizable by residents today — I was happy to loan my copy to a friend who subsequently failed to return it. Alas, such is the popularity of this book that I have not yet been able to replace it.

Another recently published book also set in downtown Macon is “The War Outside My Window,” the captivating journal of Leroy Gresham, a young invalid whose personal struggles run concurrent with the Civil War. This is social history of the highest order, the portrait of an adolescent living in the home of slave owners. It’s not so much about the Confederacy but about the inner life of the precocious young man.

Journalist Charles Richardson, now a McClatchy Journalism Fellow at Duke University among other honorifics, is one of the four authors of “American Deadline,” a collection of “dispatches” examining four geographical areas during the Trump era. Those who believe that introspection is the path to progress — as I do — will be captivated by this book.

“American Deadline” is a fitting companion piece to my favorite Christmas book, “Memory of a Large Christmas.” Written in 1961 by Lillian Smith — said to have lived briefly in Macon — this ahead-of-its-time portrait of the South circa 1910 is on one level a charming tale of family life, but running underneath those happy times are some of the issues that troubled Smith for most of her life. Some great recipes here, too.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Smith authored several books supporting gender equality and opposing segregation. She would undoubtedly enjoy these “dispatches” from “American Deadline.” She would also be positively elated to see the children’s book that I picked up for my grandchildren.

If there’s considerable gravitas surrounding these first three titles, the delightful children’s book from Bear’s Books, “All the Ways I Love You, from A to Z: An Alphabet Poem to Inspire, Empower and Uplift” is a paean to uniqueness, and it’s the work of local author Savelia Howell.

Several of the books that have arrived in time for Christmas 2023 also remind us that Macon’s Bicentennial will soon come to a close. But it’s not over yet. The Grand Finale Bicentennial Celebrations at Wini McQueen’s Canopy Gallery at the Macon Mall ensure that we will not forget the Macon of 1823.

Among other attractions, McQueen is currently displaying a quilt commemorating those enslaved people who lost their names in their passage to America. Appropriately, this exhibition will remain in place until the close of this bicentennial year.

On the horizon is 2024, and surely that will be the year that the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park evolves into the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve. Know someone who doesn’t yet own a copy of “Ocmulgee National Monument” by Mathew Jennings and Gordon Johnston? This fascinating book will make a wonderful last-minute gift as we prepare to greet a new year.

Larry Fennelly can be reached at larney_f@hotmail.com