The Glad River

The Glad River is a deeply affecting novel.

No one in Claughton County ever understood why Doops Momber refused to be baptized: his people were all good Baptists. And no one in Cummings, Mississippi, knew that Kingston Smylie’s daddy was really his granddaddy and that Kingston wasn’t really white. And at Camp Polk, no one knew anything at all about Fordache Arceneau because he spoke only Cajun. They met in basic training. Green kids who’d always felt themselves to be outsiders, they formed a community of three. They called it the neighborhood. After seeing action together at Guadalcanal, the three friends went back to the lives they’d each known, but they went on meeting regularly, keeping up the neighborhood. Their lives were untroubled, until the day Fordache found himself accused of murder, on trial for his life. And in a small Southern courtroom in the autumn of 1952, the neighborhood – bound by love and based on understanding – faced its ultimate test. The Glad River is a deeply affecting novel. Grounded in a particular place and time, its themes are, nonetheless, universal. A novel that probes the limits of religion and the state, it is also the work of a master storyteller and civil rights activist whose works are considered a treasure of modern Southern literature.

Will D. Campbell is a widely recognized and honored preacher, writer, speaker, and civil rights leader. He is a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Lillian Smith Prize and the Christopher Award. In 2000, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. His major works are nonfiction, telling among others, the stories of Mercer University (The Stem of Jessee), a communal farm (Providence), and his own life (Brother to a Dragonfly). He is also an esteemed writer of fiction, including The Glad River, Cecilia’s Sin, and two children’s books. Before his death in 2013, Will lived in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.

Praise for The Glad River

In these days of books about religion and community, we need a book like The Glad River – about real religion and real community. And it’s real funny, a testament to the big heart of a great man, one of America’s outlaw heroes: Will Campbell.” – Clyde Edgerton, author of Raney and Walking Across Egypt

In The Glad River, Will Campbell offers us a wild ride, a picaresque pilgrimage through the Deep South, ar, and madness to salvation. His book explores themes of community, race, and redemption; the claims of the past and the power of stories. But it’s a free-wheeling free-for-all, a rollicking gift of a novel. If Will Campbell writes like a crazy angel, maybe it’s because he is one. You’d better join up – this is one trip you don’t want to miss.” – Lee Smith, author of Oral History and The Last Girls

Author Biography

Will D. Campbell is a widely recognized and honored preacher, writer, speaker and civil rights leader. He is a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Lillian Smith Prize and the Christopher Award. In 2000, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. His major works are nonfiction, telling among others the stories of Mercer University (The Stem of Jesse), a communal farm (Providence), and his own life (Brother to a Dragonfly). He is also an esteemed writer of fiction, including The Glad River, Cecelia’s Sin, and two children’s books. Will and his wife, Brenda, live on a farm in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.