{"title":"Maryjean Wall","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"how-kentucky-became-southern-book-maryjean-wall-9780813126050","title":"How Kentucky Became Southern","description":"The conflicts of the Civil War continued long after the conclusion of the war: jockeys and Thoroughbreds took up the fight on the racetrack. A border state with a shifting identity, Kentucky was scorned for its violence and lawlessness and struggled to keep up with competition from horse breeders and businessmen from New York and New Jersey. As part of this struggle, from 1865 to 1910, the social and physical landscape of Kentucky underwent a remarkable metamorphosis, resulting in the gentile, beautiful, and quintessentially southern Bluegrass region of today. In her debut book,  How Kentucky Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and Breeders, former turf writer Maryjean Wall explores the post--Civil War world of Thoroughbred racing, before the Bluegrass region reigned supreme as the unofficial Horse Capital of the World. Wall uses her insider knowledge of horse racing as a foundation for an unprecedented examination of the efforts to establish a Thoroughbred industry in late-nineteenth-century Kentucky. Key events include a challenge between Asteroid, the best horse in Kentucky, and Kentucky, the best horse in New York; a mysterious and deadly horse disease that threatened to wipe out the foal crops for several years; and the disappearance of African American jockeys such as Isaac Murphy. Wall demonstrates how the Bluegrass could have slipped into irrelevance and how these events define the history of the state.  How Kentucky Became Southern offers an accessible inside look at the Thoroughbred industry and its place in Kentucky history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49728953221393,"sku":"CIN0813126053VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50800814620945,"sku":"CIN0813126053G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008246251793,"sku":"NIN9780813126050","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813126053.jpg?v=1751201374"},{"product_id":"madam-belle-book-maryjean-wall-9780813147062","title":"Madam Belle","description":"Belle Brezing made a major career move when she stepped off the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and into Jennie Hill's bawdy house -- an upscale brothel run out of a former residence of Mary Todd Lincoln.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49748204126481,"sku":"CIN0813147069G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008101089553,"sku":"NIN9780813147062","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813147069.jpg?v=1751107371"},{"product_id":"how-kentucky-became-southern-book-maryjean-wall-9780813136561","title":"How Kentucky Became Southern","description":"The conflicts of the Civil War continued long after the conclusion of the war: jockeys and Thoroughbreds took up the fight on the racetrack. A border state with a shifting identity, Kentucky was scorned for its violence and lawlessness and struggled to keep up with competition from horse breeders and businessmen from New York and New Jersey. As part of this struggle, from 1865 to 1910, the social and physical landscape of Kentucky underwent a remarkable metamorphosis, resulting in the gentile, beautiful, and quintessentially southern Bluegrass region of today. In her debut book,  How Kentucky Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and Breeders, former turf writer Maryjean Wall explores the post--Civil War world of Thoroughbred racing, before the Bluegrass region reigned supreme as the unofficial Horse Capital of the World. Wall uses her insider knowledge of horse racing as a foundation for an unprecedented examination of the efforts to establish a Thoroughbred industry in late-nineteenth-century Kentucky. Key events include a challenge between Asteroid, the best horse in Kentucky, and Kentucky, the best horse in New York; a mysterious and deadly horse disease that threatened to wipe out the foal crops for several years; and the disappearance of African American jockeys such as Isaac Murphy. Wall demonstrates how the Bluegrass could have slipped into irrelevance and how these events define the history of the state.  How Kentucky Became Southern offers an accessible inside look at the Thoroughbred industry and its place in Kentucky history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50361435816209,"sku":"CIN0813136563G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53272933466385,"sku":"CIN0813136563VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813136563.jpg?v=1751076199"},{"product_id":"how-kentucky-became-southern-book-maryjean-wall-9780813126074","title":"How Kentucky Became Southern","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe conflicts of the Civil War continued long after the conclusion of the war: jockeys and Thoroughbreds took up the fight on the racetrack. A border state with a shifting identity, Kentucky was scorned for its violence and lawlessness and struggled to keep up with competition from horse breeders and businessmen from New York and New Jersey. As part of this struggle, from 1865 to 1910, the social and physical landscape of Kentucky underwent a remarkable metamorphosis, resulting in the gentile, beautiful, and quintessentially southern Bluegrass region of today. In her debut book, \u003ci\u003eHow Kentucky Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and Breeders,\u003c\/i\u003e former turf writer Maryjean Wall explores the post-Civil War world of Thoroughbred racing, before the Bluegrass region reigned supreme as the unofficial Horse Capital of the World. Wall uses her insider knowledge of horse racing as a foundation for an unprecedented examination of the efforts to establish a Thoroughbred industry in late-nineteenth-century Kentucky. Key events include a challenge between Asteroid, the best horse in Kentucky, and Kentucky, the best horse in New York; a mysterious and deadly horse disease that threatened to wipe out the foal crops for several years; and the disappearance of African American jockeys such as Isaac Murphy. Wall demonstrates how the Bluegrass could have slipped into irrelevance and how these events define the history of the state. \u003ci\u003eHow Kentucky Became Southern\u003c\/i\u003e offers an accessible inside look at the Thoroughbred industry and its place in Kentucky history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50368059375889,"sku":"CIN081312607XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/081312607X.jpg?v=1751395770"},{"product_id":"madam-belle-book-maryjean-wall-9780813168449","title":"Madam Belle","description":"Belle Brezing made a major career move when she stepped off the streets of Lexington, Kentucky, and into Jennie Hill's bawdy house -- an upscale brothel run out of a former residence of Mary Todd Lincoln. At nineteen, Brezing was already infamous as a youth steeped in death, sex, drugs, and scandal. But it was in Miss Hill's \"respectable\" establishment that she began to acquire the skills, manners, and business contacts that allowed her to ascend to power and influence as an internationally known madam.  In this revealing book, Maryjean Wall offers a tantalizing true story of vice and power in the Gilded Age South, as told through the life and times of the notorious Miss Belle. After years on the streets and working for Hill, Belle Brezing borrowed enough money to set up her own establishment -- her wealth and fame growing alongside the booming popularity of horse racing. Soon, her houses were known internationally, and powerful patrons from the industrial cities of the Northeast courted her in the lavish parlors of her gilt-and-mirror mansion.  Secrecy was a moral code in the sequestered demimonde of prostitution in Victorian America, so little has been written about the Southern madam credited with inspiring the character Belle Watling in Margaret Mitchell's  Gone with the Wind. Following Brezing from her birth amid the ruins of the Civil War to the height of her scarlet fame and beyond, Wall uses her story to explore a wider world of sex, business, politics, and power. The result is a scintillating tale that is as enthralling as any fiction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008146571537,"sku":"NIN9780813168449","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51328310313233,"sku":"CIN0813168449VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0813168449.jpg?v=1750786595"},{"product_id":"she-s-the-mother-of-us-all-book-maryjean-wall-9781476699578","title":"She's the Mother of Us All","description":"\u003cp\u003eSweet Evening Breeze (1895-1983), born James Herndon, was a well-known LGBTQ figure in Lexington, Kentucky, whose gender identity defied categorization at the time. While she wore men's clothing and answered to her birth name at work and church, she was Sweet Evening Breeze in her personal time, during which she dressed as a woman. As a Black individual living through the Jim Crow era, she achieved a rare level of visibility and influence, becoming a fixture in the city's social and political life. Despite the cultural constraints of the Old South, she formed relationships across institutions of power, including the mayor, local police, university athletes, and members of the regional elite, challenging conventional ideas of who could access and exercise influence.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis book traces the life and legacy of Sweet Evening Breeze, examining her place at the intersection of race, gender, and power in the American South. Drawing from archival records, oral histories, and cultural analysis, it explores how she navigated a deeply segregated and gendered society while maintaining a public presence and exerting her influence on local culture and politics. Rather than seeking to define her using contemporary terms, this work focuses on the specific roles she played, and how her story complicates dominant narratives of Southern history, LGBTQ identity, and Black experience in the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53548703121681,"sku":"NGR9781476699578","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781476699578.jpg?v=1778624530"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-maryjean-wall.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}