I met Jackie Cooper in 2009 at the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop. After talking with him for a few minutes, and learning that he lived a mere hop and skip up the road in Perry, Ga, I purchased every book he’d ever written and then proceeded to read them within the week.
I read Journey of a Gentle Southern Man out loud in the car as my husband Richard and I drove back to Georgia from South Carolina. We both laughed and talked about the book. At the end of each story, I’d ask, “More?” And he’d tell me, “Keep going.” Time passed quickly. Before long we were in Tift County and I'd read an entire book. I often read to Richard while he drives, but not just any book will do. It requires a book with the humor and insight of Bailey White in order to please us both. Jackie Cooper gave us that and more.
Jackie Cooper was cooked slowly in the southern ways while being raised and reared under the hot South Carolina and Georgia skies. He says he spent a couple of years in California, but you’d never guess it from the cottonmouth consonants and vowels of the South that shape his words. He’s a perfect gentleman whose rich laughter echoes inside the walls of your heart long after he’s left the room. He’s a writer of memoirs: essays and short stories of events in his life that shaped him; he’s a critic who is honest, but never cruel; he’s a speaker with the gift of telling a story and telling it well. And he’s a family man, unashamed of the love that swells in his heart. It is that love that pulls us into his stories where we drink, quenching a long, dry thirst for humor and lessons of life.
Interesting facts that I’ve learned about Jackie from his books:
He does not like holidays. Not Christmas. Not Halloween. Nothing.
He has an obsession with electric fans and like my son always has to have one running.
He hates funerals, but loves sad movies.
His name is Jackie. Not Jack. Jackie is not short for anything.
He does not like holidays. Not Christmas. Not Halloween. Nothing.
He has an obsession with electric fans and like my son always has to have one running.
He hates funerals, but loves sad movies.
His name is Jackie. Not Jack. Jackie is not short for anything.
If you want to know more about him, you’ll have to read his books.
Jackie will be at ABAC in Tifton on March 29, reading from his new book published by Mercer University Press, “Back to the Garden: The Goal of the Journey”. The event is sponsored by ABAC’s student literary magazine, “The Pegasus”, ABAC Office of Academic Affairs, the School of Business, and the School of Liberal Arts. The event starts at 7:00 p.m. in Bowen Hall (across from the dining hall), and is free and open to the public. I’ll be there with my checkbook. I want to buy his new book and listen to him speak. This is an event you really don't want to miss. For more information, contact Sandra Giles at 229-391-4961.
Jackie will be at ABAC in Tifton on March 29, reading from his new book published by Mercer University Press, “Back to the Garden: The Goal of the Journey”. The event is sponsored by ABAC’s student literary magazine, “The Pegasus”, ABAC Office of Academic Affairs, the School of Business, and the School of Liberal Arts. The event starts at 7:00 p.m. in Bowen Hall (across from the dining hall), and is free and open to the public. I’ll be there with my checkbook. I want to buy his new book and listen to him speak. This is an event you really don't want to miss. For more information, contact Sandra Giles at 229-391-4961.
Brenda Rose
brendarose@bellsouth.net
