The Mississippi in 1953: A Photographic Journey from the Headwaters to the Deltaby Charles Dee Sharp, John O. Anfinson, John O. Anfinson (Essay By)
The Mississippi River flows through American history and culture as a mythic waterway brimming with tragedy and hope, and awash in passionate ambitions and harsh realities. In 1953, a young Charles Dee Sharp traveled twice down the Mississippi (first by towboat and then by car along the renowned river road Highway 61) to make a documentary film of it, taking black-and-white photographs of the river, its communities, and its people.
While Sharp's documentary never came to fruition, the striking images he captured survived as moving and evocative historical testaments to a lost era, now collected in his new book The Mississippi in 1953. These images create a vivid portrait of America's heartland a half century ago, and they are enriched with excerpts from Sharp's original trip journal, intriguing anecdotes from the people he encountered along his journey, and an engaging environmental history of the river by historian John O. Anfinson. The Mississippi in 1953 offers an original and poignant look at the living artery of the American landscape and how it molded the United States into the nation it is today.
"While Sharp''s documentary was never realized, the striking images and insightful writings he made have survived in this book as a moving and evocative testament to a lost era."—Photo Review
Meet the Author
Charles Dee Sharp, shortly after his Mississippi River odysseys, became an assignment editor for the Midwest bureau of CBS News. He later started his own documentary film company, producing films in the Soviet Union, Middle East, and South America. For fifteen years, he was an associate professor of cinema at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, before retiring. He is the author of The Wonder of American Toys, 1920-1950.
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