Sut Lovingood's Yarns by Geoge W. Harris
by Jeff Johnson
(Knoxville, TN)
The title page to "Sut Lovingood's Yarns"
I live in a mid-size city in Eastern Tennessee.
I have long collected books set in my town which includes a Pulitzer Prize winner, "A Death in the Family," by James Agee and "Suttree," an early novel by Cormac McCarthy who grew up here.
The best used and out-of-print book shop in our city is The Book Eddy, run by a knowledgeable fellow named John Coleman.
John keeps a cart near the door with recent acquistions. This is always the first place I head on my weekly visits. On the bottom of this cart one day, a small book blue with gilt lettering caught my eye.
It was "Sut Lovingood's Yarns" by George Washington Harris published in 1867. The stories are set in rural Tennessee and in Knoxville. I had heard a lecture on early southeastern humor many years ago and much of it was spent on the character of Sut Lovingood.
The book was in very good condition except for some pasted in newspaper clips about the author that dated from the 1930's or '40's. At $35, the price was right for me.
This book was reviewed and praised at publication by a young writer who had just published his first work. That writer happened to be Mark Twain!
