John Grammer

John Grammer, like many of the musicians he likes best, is a Texas boy who moved to Tennessee and has never made it back home. He lives in Sewanee and has taught English at the University of the South for more than 30 years. He also founded the Sewanee School of Letters and directed it for 12 years, and now directs the university’s Center for Southern Studies. He’s the author of Pastoral and Politics in the Old South and is currently writing a book about Southern culture in the 1970’s.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. My wife Elizabeth
2. My now-adult kids Zoe, Jessie and John
3. Dogs, specifically our current three: a beagle (pure mischief), a beagle-foxhound (nearly pure mischief) and a golden retriever (angelic).
4. My books. How many do I have? More than I need but not as many as I want. And for the record, yes, I have heard of the library. Those books just aren’t the same.
5. My students. So many of them become lifelong friends.
6. Barbecue (to keep the peace, I won’t pick the usual Texan fight about what real barbecue is made of).
7. Martinis, gin, with a twist.
8. Moby-Dick, the only novel that, when I finish reading it, I just want to start again
9. Fishing (or maybe, more precisely, the belief that at some point in the future I’ll do more fishing).
10. Coffee, apparently.