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The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish In Mississippi
by Edward Cohen
Cohen's wonderful memoir is a book Ye Editor could not put down . . . and now it's been released as a Bantam Dell paperback. You'll love it! Click here to read more.
Edward Cohen, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, moved with his wife Kathy and three cairn terriers (Gridley, Sterling, and Hollywood) to Venice, California, where he is a freelance writer and filmmaker.
Previously he was head writer and executive producer for Mississippi Educational Television. His documentaries on southern or Jewish subjects include Good Mornin' Blues with B.B. King, The Islander, starring James Best, Passover and Hanukkah, narrated by Ed Asner, all broadcast nationally by PBS. His other documentaries include The Parchman Trials (an expose of Mississippi's penal farm), and The Last Confederates (the story of the little known culture of the descendants of the expatriate Confederates who emigrated to Brazil after the Civil War).
His documentary work has received numerous international film festival awards, as well as two CINE Golden Eagles.
More recently he wrote, produced, directed and edited The Natchez Jewish Experience for the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience. The film tells the bittersweet story of a once-thriving congregation in Natchez, Mississippi, now down to a handful of members dedicated to keeping their temple open until the last member shuts out the lights. The documentary won the Judah P. Magnes Museum Muse Award for Best Historical Documentary.
His memoir, The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi, 1999; Bantam Dell, 2002), received the 2000 Author's Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters and the Nonfiction Award from the Mississippi Library Association. The book was a selection for January-February of BookSense, the top recommendations of independent booksellers nationwide. The hardcover edition was also a BookSense selection.
An excerpt from The Peddler's Grandson appears in Christmas Stories From Mississippi (University Press of Mississippi, 2001). To read an excerpt here at USADEEPSOUTH, click here.
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