A monumental anthology, drawn from four volumes, collecting fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama written by authors from Mississippi, a state that has been called the cradle of storytellers. In a five-year project sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, Abbott made selections from the works of Faulkner, Welty, Williams, Percy, and Wright along with stories, essays, poems, and plays both by eminently known and by emerging writers from Mississippi.