Jack Neely

Jack Neely writes a local history column for an alternative weekly paper in Knoxville. I always look forward to his columns. He writes like a storyteller about obscure events or facts in Knoxville's history. It's sort of like Paul Harvey's “The Rest of the Story” on a local scale, although the stories often involve people who made a name for themselves well beyond Knoxville. The stories in this collection feature a 19th century doctor who experimented with resurrecting the dead, a popular 19th century author who died in town under mysterious circumstances, the story of New York Times publisher Adolph Ochs, who got his start in the business at a Knoxville paper, a story about Hollywood director Clarence Brown, a story about WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle's visit to Knoxville, Hank Williams, Sr.'s last night in a Knoxville hotel, and a connection between poet Ezra Pound and protestors against the desegregation of a high school in a neighboring county.

Although there isn't anything in this book to indicate it, I think it may be a compilation of previously published material, probably from his Metro Pulse articles. I was already familiar with some of the stories, so I had either read them in the Metro Pulse or heard Neely tell them in one of his talks at a local library association meeting. Neely is a regular visitor in local libraries, particularly the historical collections, so I know how carefully he researches each story. Newspaper articles typically don't include source citations, but I wish that citations had been added to compilations like this so that others can find them years from now when Neely isn't around to ask about them.… (more)