William

Rawlings

Author of Southern Stories

 

 

The Books

My first five novels are shown below--click on the thumbnails for a enlarged view of the cover and a brief description.  The Rutherford Cipher and The Mile High Club are available on Amazon.com in both the trade paper and Kindle versions.  As with such things, the others are officially now out of print, but I still have a few remaining copies for purchase--contact me via email if you would like one or more.  
Crossword, puzzles, international terrorism, underground Atlanta, Highlands, St. Simons, Sea Island,

Magazine and Newspaper Articles

Occasionally, I enjoy writing articles for magazines and newspapers.  I usually choose topics that interest me--and other readers, hopefully.  They range widely from history to humor, from travel to technical things.   The list that follows below contains a few I've done over the past years.  Some are topical and perhaps a bit dated, others deal with more timeless subjects.  The sites of publication are given with the article.

Note:  Some of the files are PDFs and may download a bit slowly.  Please be aware of this if the window does not open immediately.

History and Travel

The Pig Monument of Washington County:  Read the most interesting story of a poor farmer and his pig in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s.  A heartwarming tale!

Gutzon Borglum and the Lost Stone Mountain Confederate Memorial: The monumental carving that adorns the side of Georgia's Stone Mountain today is a mere wisp of the one originally planned.  It was to have as many as two thousand figures, and was to cover the entire north face of the granite wall.  It was never completed for various reasons including money troubles, squabbling amongst the promoters and possibly because of internal divisions among members of the Ku Klux Klan.  Read this article to learn the definitive truth. 

Reign of Terror--The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s in Macon, Georgia:  The history of the KKK in Macon is an amazing one, and speaks to the error of the stereotype of this organization.  Organized in 1915 as a "beneficial fraternal order," the Klan went bad when it assumed a self-annointed role of judge, jury and enforcer against things it considered morally wrong.  Kidnapping and flogging everyone from doctors to bootleggers, for nearly two years it terrorized the city until the ringleaders were arrested and put on trial.  


The Drum Comes Home:  This is the fascinating story of a drum made on a Georgia plantation in 1861, carried off to war, lost and finally returned to its home county.  A bit of personal history of the Civil War.


The Freedmen's Land Insurrection: In August 1875, near the end of the Reconstruction Era, freed slaves plotted a bloody insurrection that was to encompass a twenty-odd county area of east central Georgia.  The plan was to kill all the whites and set up a black mini-state known as Freedmen's Land.  The plot was discovered and thwarted before the slaughter began, but the tale is one of the most interesting in Georgia history.   Click on the title to read the article that appeared in Georgia Backroads magazine.


The Myth of the Boll Weevil:  It is pretty standard history that the boll weevil wiped out the cotton economy in Georgia in the 1920s, resulting in dramatic changes in the economics, demographics, and politics of the state that would last for most of the twentieth century.  No so, or so say I.   It was the economy that wiped out the economy!  Yes, the weevil was important, but it was other factors that did the damage.  Read my essay and form your own opinion.

The Strange Journey of the Confederate Constitution:   The original Constitution of the Confederate States of America reposes deep in a secure vault in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia in Athens.  How it go there is an exciting tale.  Read it here in this article from the Winter 2014 issue of Georgia Backroads magazine.

Ashantilly--The Unfinished Legacy:  Ashantilly, the winter home of Thomas Spalding near Darien on the Georgia coast, later became the home of Bill Haynes and the award-winning Ashantilly Press.  It is one of Georgia's true hidden treasures, full of history that stretches back some 200 years.  Read more and plan a visit.
 
The Second Coming of the Invisible Empire:  The name "Ku Klux Klan" evolks images of cross-buring racists, but in the 1920s the Klan was a manstream organization in American life, with wide political, social and moral influence in all of the then 48 states.  It was, at the time, primarily a northern mid-western organization, with fewer than one out of eight members in the traditional Southern states.  Moreover, its explosive growth in the 1920-25 period represented one of the most successful marketing efforts in American history.  Read more and learn.
 
A Vast Pool of Oil:  In 1919, the potential discovery of a massive amount of oil hidden under the soil of rural Washington County, Georgia was announced by a group of prominent businessmen.  Everyone was sure to get rich, provided they bought in "on the ground floor."  But a few folks, like the State Geologist, were not so sure.... 
 
A Killing on Ring Jaw Bluff: This was the original work on which the book of the same name was based.   It concerns chiefly the killing of Gus Tarbutton that took place on Ring Jaw Bluff in February 1925. 
 
The Genius of Georgia Architect Charles E. Choate:  Choate was one of the state's premier architects and builders from about 1890 until the 1920s.  An unusallly fine collection of his structures is located in Washington County Georgia.
 
Georgia's Official Historical Plates:  Few may be aware of it, but there is an official state plate made by the English firm, Wedgwood.  Here's the tale of how the idea got started in the 1930s.
 
Behind the Bars at Sandersville's Old Jail:  An interesting look at a marvelously well preserved jail dating from the early 1890s--now a genealogy museum.
 
The Great Yazoo Fraud:  The tale of one of America' first national scandles, and the reason that the state of Georgia no longer stretches from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.
 
The Lost Confederate Treasure:  When Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Government fled Richmond in April 1865, they took with them the contents of the Treasury and the local banks.  Six weeks later when Davis was captured, the money was missing.  What happened?
 
The Old Rail Station in Tacna, Peru:  An amazing bit of railroad history in the Peruvian desert.
 

Writing, Humor and Miscellaneous

The Tale of the Tuscan Terrier:  A personal view of dogs.

 

Have I Got A Pill for You...: A humorous look at Direct to Consumer (DTC) advertising for prescription medicines.

The "Jaybird Wray" Episode:  The true tale of how jaybirds and Baptist ministers with shotguns are not a joyful combination.
 

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics:  Never trust someone who quotes statistics.  Here's why.

 

Mysteries vs. Thrillers:  There is a difference, and we explain it here!
 
The Importance of a Second Career:  Why you should never retire.  Ever!
 
Confessions of a Cruciverbalist:  Believe it or not, this often disgusting practice is legal in most of the United States.
 
In Praise of Beetles:  There are a lot more of them than there are of us, and they'll be here long after humankind has gone. 
 
Where's My Book?!:  Thoughts on the electronic reader revolution.