MONDAY - FRIDAY
10:00am - 5:30pm
SATURDAY
10:00am - 5:00pm
mccbi@bellsouth.net
(662)332-5038 825 South Main Street
Greenville, MS 38701
MOBILE REGISTER
June 8, 2003
A small city of literary giants
Greenville
In the past, it was a haven for writers in what some see as the most unlikely of places - along the Mississippi Delta Greenville, Miss. (population 42,000)is famous for its many writers, among them Hodding Carter, Walker Percy, David Cohn, Shelby Foote and Ellen Douglas. I recently visited this Delta town to explore its remarkable literary heritage, to see if and how it is celebrated and to learn whether any promising new writers are emerging there. The following is my report.
By JOHN SLEDGE Books Editor The weather didn't look good. A front was racing east from out of Louisiana and Arkansas, triggering storms and promising to catch us well before we got to Greenville... ...Along with an appetite for theater, concerts and art, Greenville's residents also developed a craving for books. From 1900 to 1925 there was never a day when there was not
at least one flourishing bookstore in town... ...In the final analysis, Greenville's writers are its most lasting
memorable contribution to the world. Not a bad legacy for any community, I thought, as we pulled out past the cemetery's black iron gates and left the town behind... LINK
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( The following article isn't about us. It's about all book stores everywhere.)
The New York Times Sunday Book Review:
June 25, 2006
THE END OF AUTHORSHIP
By John Updike
Booksellers, you are the salt of the book world. You are on the front line where, while the author cowers in his opium den, you encounter — or "interface with," as we say now — the rare and mysterious Americans who are willing to plunk down $25 for a book. Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light onto the sidewalk. They civilize their neighborhoods... For the entire article go to:
Sunday Book Review
- New York Times ~ |
1965
the original building
before
buster remodeled
today
~ |  Bluesman Eddie Cusick playing by the Book Inn bottle tree (May 2004) ~
|  Hugh accepting the Greenville Arts Council Business Award. ~ |
independent
readers
need
independent
booksellers. independent
booksellers
need
independent
readers.
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MOBILE REGISTER
June 8, 2003
A small city of literary giants
Greenville
In the past, it was a haven for writers in what some see as the most unlikely of places - along the Mississippi Delta Greenville, Miss. (population 42,000)is famous for its many writers, among them Hodding Carter, Walker Percy, David Cohn, Shelby Foote and Ellen Douglas. I recently visited this Delta town to explore its remarkable literary heritage, to see if and how it is celebrated and to learn whether any promising new writers are emerging there. The following is my report.
By JOHN SLEDGE Books Editor The weather didn't look good. A front was racing east from out of Louisiana and Arkansas, triggering storms and promising to catch us well before we got to Greenville... ...Along with an appetite for theater, concerts and art, Greenville's residents also developed a craving for books. From 1900 to 1925 there was never a day when there was not
at least one flourishing bookstore in town... ...In the final analysis, Greenville's writers are its most lasting
memorable contribution to the world. Not a bad legacy for any community, I thought, as we pulled out past the cemetery's black iron gates and left the town behind... LINK
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Some thoughts about
reading and books...
by Mary Dayle McCormick
I'm between books, today, taking a breather from the pages, thinking about why and what I read. With little or no risk reading takes me to unfamiliar territory.... LINK 
Hugh & Mary Dayle
at the C-SPAN Book TV
taping at the Book Inn
for Stuart Chapman's
"Shelby Foote"
March 2003 | MISSISSIPPI AUTHOR HOWARD BAHR WRITES ABOUT LANTERNS ON THE LEVEE Percy understood his responsibility and accepted it; for him, the stairs leading earthward were well trod. His work will endure because the values at its heart - often dismissed as "genteel" and which Percy himself saw as doomed - speak to the better part of us all. The catch-all "tradition" is much abused these days, but in Percy we discover its true sense: the humility to listen to those who might have been wiser than we, perhaps a little better than we, for having accomplished the journey. Asked to apply an adjective to Lanterns on the Levee, I would select "elegant." I use the word in the same way Percy would, as an antonym of all that is vulgar, boorish, and stupid: a vision of the world that affirms the beautiful over the ugly, the honest over the false, and the dignity of all persons. This distinction may endow both plowman and poet with elegance, but excludes those without grace who are merely rich or powerful or smart. Howard Bahr
"The Most Elegant Book I Read" |
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| Newsletter ArchivesReviews Archives Literary Greenville Archives FROM A COMMENTARY
BY MICHAEL SKUBE
FOR THE WASHINGTON POST AUGUST 2006 Are we now 'writing off' reading?
How does one explain the inability of college students to read or write at even a high school level? One explanation, which owes as much to the culture as to the schools, is that kids don't read for pleasure. And because they don't read, they are less able to navigate the language. If words are the coin of their thought, they're working with little more than pocket change.
ALSO BY MICHAEL SKUBE
FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES AUGUST 27, 2006
Want to write? Read
"I wish I could write like that," more than one student has told me, her tone betraying what she wished she had been exposed to. "I do too," I say. "But you learn to write well by reading good writing. And by emulating. It's not too late to start."
And just think: Younger students have an even better head start. They need only be exposed to possibilities in things outside themselves. The creative spirit, if it's there, will find the expression it needs. MICHAEL SKUBE teaches journalism at North Carolina's Elon University. He is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism.
American RadioWorks presents: Who Bought the Farm?
Correspondent Chris Farrell went to Greenville, Mississippi to report on agriculture, but he also discovered the town's surprisingly rich literary history.
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About Us Archives Delta Democrat Times: Sunday, March 26, 2006
DELTA PROFILES
Fixtures:
McCormicks part of Greenville lore
Story by Woodrow Wilkins
GREENVILLE - For 41 years, McCormick Book Inn has been a fixture on South Main Street, specializing in books of local or regional interest.
With some space given to national best sellers, the thing that sets this store apart from others in the area is its Mississippi content. That not only helps the business stay in the game long after national chain book stores have left Greenville, but also attracts visitors from all over — particularly those with an interest in Greenville or Delta history.
...In the years since... the advent of personal computers, McCormick Book Inn has become a bridge between the old world and the new world, Hugh McCormick said... LINK
Life in the Delta: October 2005
McCormick Book Inn - 40 Years and Counting
by Lynn LaFoeIn this day of throw-away everything, it's surprising to find a business that has not only been around for 40 years, it has always been owned by the same family.
Opened in 1965, McCormick Book Inn at 825 South Main Street is a Greenville icon that not only enables us to browse the shelves and purchase books of every description, it also offers a literary haven in a world of too much television and video games and too little reading. It is not only the oldest bookstore in Greenville, it's most likely the oldest independently owned bookstore in the Southeast that has remained under the same ownership... LINK
photo by greg campbell, delta magazine
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Delta Magazine: September/October 2004
McCormick Book Inn: The Delta's literary mainstay
by Mary Ann PercyNearly forty years is an admirable life span for a business, but for an independent bookstore in today's world of corporate franchises, this survival rate is actually quite astounding. "Based on statistics by the American Booksellers Association, we never should have made it, but the people of Greenville made a point of supporting us and the community in general," says Hugh McCormick, who along with his wife Mary Dayle, is proprietor of McCormick Book Inn, the bookstore which has been a vital element of Greenville's literary history since 1965... LINK
The Mississippi Business Journal: November 15, 2004
McCormick Book Inn promotes Greenville
and the Delta's writers
by Lynn LoftonGREENVILLE - McCormick Book Inn opened in 1965 on South Main Street. Its owner believes it's the oldest independent bookstore in the state and says he has the gray hair to prove it. Hugh McCormick's parents, Kathleen and Hugh, opened the store and it's always been a family operation. "When it first opened, we were in the center of things between the residential and commercial areas, but now we're sort of on the outskirts" McCormick said. "The commercial areas are all farther south now and we're an island, sort of an oddity." The four-room cypress house was built before the big flood of 1927 and has large windows across the front... "The old house reflects character, and I attempt to be a character," McCormick said. "Folks from the big city find us charming - yes, we've reached the stage of charming." ...LINK |
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Scrapbook Archives
| Bob Deans reads his "The River Where America Began" -- April 2007 | 
| Authors Gayden Metcalfe (Greenville) & Steve Yarbrough (Indianola native) read for the Ole Miss Delta Lit Tour -- March 2007 |  | Stern Enhancement School visited us in March. TO SEE MORE PHOTOS CLICK HERE:
Carrie Stern Visit |  | "Points of Origin" author Darden North signs for fans -- December 2006 |  | Andy Taggart and Jere Nash III, co-authors of "Mississippi Politics" entertain the crowd at their signing - Nov. 12, 2006 |  | Mary Dayle McCormick, contributor to "Stories From the Sleeping Porch," signs for Kay Stricklin - Nov.11, 2006 |  | Bill Dunlap & Julia Reed, "Dunlap" intro author at the "Dunlap" siging - Nov.6, 2006 |  | "Cotton Song" author Tom Bailey reads at his signing - Nov. 3, 2006 |  | Ava Leavell Haymon reads from her book of poetry "Kitchen Heat." - October 2006 |  | Carolyn Haines signs "Bones to Pick" for a fan -- July 2006 |  | Mayersville's Unita Blackwell reads "Barefootin'" as co-author JoAnne Pritchard (in red) looks on -- June 2006 |  | Indianola native Steve Yarbrough reads "The End of California" -- June 2006 |  | Lewis Nordan & Cynthia Shearer (w/Mary Dayle, center) read at MBI for the Delta Lit Tour -- May 2006 |  | Local history author Princella Nowell reads "Lanterns on the Levee" at the Percy grave for the Delta Lit Tour -- May 2006 |  | Greenville natives and co-authors Charlotte Hays & Gayden Metcalfe sign "Being Dead Is No Excuse" at MBI -- March 2005 |  | Jay Stein signs "Stein Mart" -- April 2005 |  | Greenville native Beverly Lowery was a featured author on the Ole Miss Delta Lit Tour at MBI -- May 2004 |  | Blues master Eddie Cusic plays for the Delta Lit Tour at MBI (with photographer Butch Ruth & MDM) -- May 2004 |  | Chef/food columnist Robert St. John signs "Deep South Staples" -- December 2003 |  | Eden Brent and friends' blues jam in the Book Inn's backyard -- March 2001 |  | Tasting samples for the "Southern Palette" signing with author Robert St. John & illus. Wyatt Waters -- December 2002 |  | Vogue's Andre Leon Talley confers with Julia Reed at his signing for "A.L.T.: A Memoir" at McCormick Book Inn -- May 2003 |  | "Delta Ice" co-editors Mary Dayle McCormick & Becky Wasson -- April 1996 |  | Angie McCormick is surprised with a Ghost Writer's Party for her unsung efforts on two books -- July 2000 |  | As grandmother Betty Carter looks on, W. Hodding Carter IV hears his father's congratulations on his first book signing ("West-ward Whoa") -- July 1994 |
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