Louisiana governor Willie Stark's obsession with political power leads to the ultimate corruption of his gubernatorial administration, in the story of the rise and fall of a Southern politician and demagogue in the 1930s. This edition has been fully restored and reintroduced by literary scholar Noel Polk. Polk presents the novel as it was originally written, revealing even greater energy, excitement, complexity, and subtlety of character in this landmark...

A Southern lawyer battles his way to the governorship, with the help of his secretary. Once elected, he becomes a dictator.

Hamish Bond is a plantation owner who has a secret past of slave trading. Rau-ru is a freedom-yearning slave who has been raised as a son by Bond. Amantha Starr is a fiery belle who goes on the auction block when her part-African heritage is revealed - and is sold to Bond. She loathes Bond at first but is eventually won over.

"Features the voices ... of twenty-six of the most luminous artists and thinkers in the American cultural firmament, from Eudora Welty, Pete Seeger, and Alice Walker to William Eggleston, Bobby Rush, and C. Vann Woodward ... drawn from one-on-one interviews conducted by folklorist William Ferris over the past forty years"--Dust jacket flap.