The Voice of Small-Town America
The Selected Writings of Robert Quillen,
1920–1948
Edited by John Hammond Moore
Deemed “the Sage of Fountain Inn” by Alexander Woollcott, newspaper publisher
and editor Robert Quillen (1887–1948) used the forum of the Fountain Inn Tribune
to bring his anecdotes and opinions from small-town upstate South Carolina to an
international audience. The Mark Twain or Garrison Keillor of his day, Quillen developed a reputation as an authentic voice of small-town life, and his words were reprinted in Collier’s, the Saturday Evening Post, Literary Digest, and other publications.
At the height of his syndication, Quillen’s writings could be found in more than four
hundred newspapers in North America and Europe with a combined circulation
above twelve million. Edited by historian John Hammond Moore, the essays, editorials, one-liners, fables, and random comments collected in this volume return to print
Quillen’s wit and insights after a decades-long hiatus.
A native of Kansas, Quillen became a converted Southerner over time, and his
conservative opinions—especially concerning national politics, Depression-era
reforms, and the war effort—reflect those circumstances. Presented in chronological
order, the previously published and unpublished pieces collected in this volume include Quillen’s rants against noisy neighbors, barking dogs, cats, birds, litter, bootleggers, lynching, sordid county politics, and the encroachment of the federal government. Here, too, are his most famous hometown characters, Willie Willis and Aunt
Het, as well as “Letters to Louise,” his comic public messages to his teenage daughter
that proved wildly popular with everyone but the addressee.
In addition to Quillen’s pieces, Moore also provides a brief biography and overview
of his subject’s career and literary aspirations beyond the venue of newsprint. Twelve
photographs and drawings add a visual element to the collection.
John Hammond Moore is a veteran
journalist and historian with more
than twenty books to his credit,
including A Plantation Mistress on
the Eve of the Civil War: The Diary
of Keziah Goodwyn Hopkins Brevard,
1860–1861 and Carnival of Blood:
Dueling, Lynching, and Murder in
South Carolina, 1880–1920. Moore
resides in Columbia, South Carolina.
November 2007, 344 pages, 12 illus.
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