<p>LIGHTWOOD the novel appeared originally in 1939. Set in the piney woods of south Georgia just after the Civil War, it tells the story of a struggle between local land owners and Northern investors. The investors sought to harvest the "wooden treasures" of virgin pine forests. Over time,they used the power of money and the courts to wrest the title to the lands. A labyrinthine legal battle stretched out for more than half a century, culminating in the murder of the Company's land agent, along with as many as 35 more deaths. Based on historical fact, Cheney's novel brings to life a lost time in our history. Reviewed nationally on publication, it highlighted Cheney's friendship and literary connection to many of the Fugitive and Agrarian movement figures. A companion volume, THE LIGHTWOOD CHRONICLES tells both the fictional and true stories of LIGHTWOOD.</p>

Lightwood

Literature & Fiction

Cheney, Brainard

History & Criticism

MMJW BookHouse

1910. The piney woods of south Georgia. Adam Atwell, a black man, struggles to save the widow Lucy Hightower and her family from financial ruin. As the family's overseer, his business partnership pits him agains bankers and speculators out to steal the Hightower land. Adam faces the specter of Jim Crow, even murder, in his quest to save Lucy's legacy to her children. In turn, she wrestles with her desire to return to her family and an old sweetheart in Charleston or remain in the Georgia hinterlands raising her three children alone. Brainard Cheney (1900-1989) published four novels in his lifetime, all set in the south Georgia land of his youth. He later attended VAncerbilt in Nashville and became part of the 1920s and 1930s literary scene, a friend of Robert Penn Warren, Caroline Gordon, Allen Tate and Flannery O'Connor. Many consider THIS IS ADAM as his most fully-realized work.

This Is Adam

United States

Marcellus Hightower, the young boy in the novel, THIS IS ADAM, returns to his hometown as a grown man in DEVIL'S ELBOW. He seeks answers, turning for help to Adam Atwell, his surrogate father. Adam, a black man in the segregated South, shares with Marcellus the haunting memory of David Ransom's murder on the mighty Ocmulgee River. The memories interweave with a quarter century of Marcellus Hightower's quest for love and redemption, through his developing character, economic calamity and the turmoil of war. With Adam's sage guidance, he finds a way to "cleanse his heart" and face life anew. "DEVIL'S ELBOW is a powerful novel indeed. The old verities-a man's troubles with women, with himself, with love and guilt-are all treated as freshly as if Cheney had discovered them." Walker Percy (1969)

Devil's Elbow

Erotica

After the Civil War, 1870. Deep in the south Georgia river swamp forests. Ratliff Sutton, a young white boy, runs away from a broken home and grows up the adopted son of former slaves. In the swamps of the Oconee and Altamaha Rivers, he transforms into Snake Sutton, mythic timber raftsman, struggling with mighty rivers, fighting both men and alligators, steering great log rafts to Darien by the sea. He confronts his greatest struggle-breaking into Darien's timber merchant society. Forsaking China Swann, a "fancy lady" and his champion, Snake marries society belle Robbie McGregor. Fighting his way into the merchant ranks through hurricanes and murder, he moves beyond tragedy and into an awakening that summons him back to his roots upriver.

River Rogue

Literary

THE LIGHTWOOD CHRONICLES tells the epic story of a violent struggle over land rights. The novel LIGHTWOOD told the story in fiction. The CHRONICLES offers the historical background and also celebrates the work of Brainard Cheney, author of LIGHTWOOD. Following the Civil War, another war broke out in the piney woods of south Georgia between Northern land barons-the Dodge Company-and local landowners. The Dodge Company began harvesting the ancient pine forests and shipping the timber to customers worldwide. They made hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. They evicted the squatters from land occupied for decades. Epic court battles led to violent struggle and murder. Angry 'land squatters'demanded that the Dodges "be sent hellward." An alleged conspiracy led to the murder of Captain John Forsyth, the timber company boss. Prominent citizens went to prison and many others died. The Dodge Company left the majestic pine forests a wasteland, with 300,000 acres of wooden treasure ransacked,the lives of the natives forever altered.

The Lightwood Chronicles: Murder and Greed in the piney woods of South Georgia, 1869-1923, being the true story of Brainard Cheney's novel, Lightwood (Lightwood History Collection)

History

Gordon, Caroline

Whigham, Stephen

Americas

MMJW

“A superior novel of the South, exceedingly well-written. . .” New York Times, 1939 A rousing novel of the post-Civil War era, widely praised when published in 1939. LIGHTWOOD conjures a vivid lost world in this “rebellion in the backlands” story based on historical fact. Set in the south Georgia “piney woods,” Brainard Cheney’s tale of murder and greed re-creates the battle between the forces of Wall Street timber barons and local landowners. “LIGHTWOOD has the unimpeachable honesty, goodness, flatness, of a mouthful of cold, excellent corn bread.” Time magazine, October, 1939 “Here is a southern novel with a theme that is significantly American. It tells the story of men trying to preserve the integrity of their human rights against the encroachments of property rights: an old story, but one that has become increasingly important. . . Mr. Cheney’s first novel. . .is no inconsiderable achievement.” Saturday Review, 1939 Brainard Cheney (1900-1990) grew up in Lumber City, Georgia on the Ocmulgee River. He published four novels based on autobiographical and historical events in the pine forests of the Altamaha River basin in south Georgia. Long out of print, his four exciting and innovative novels are available once again.

Lightwood: a novel of the piney woods (Lightwood History Collection)

Genre Fiction

RIVER ROGUE A tale of romance and adventure After the Civil War, 1870. Deep in the south Georgia river swamp forests. Ratliff Sutton, a young white boy, runs away from a broken home and grows up the adopted son of former slaves. In the swamps of the Ocmulgee and Altamaha Rivers, he transforms into Snake Sutton, mythic timber raftsman, struggling with mighty rivers, fighting both men and alligators, steering great log rafts to Darien by the sea. Forsaking China Swann, a “fancy lady” and his champion, Snake marries society belle Robbie McGregor. Fighting his way into the merchant ranks through hurricanes and murder, he moves beyond tragedy and into an awakening that summons him back to his roots upriver. “The world of (River Rogue) is the world of the rivers down which the raftsmen brought their timber to the Darien market (in the late 1800s). The quality of this world—the aspect of the country, the sprees in the bars and dives, the cunning, viciousness, and honor of the rogues, the code of the raftsmen, who felt themselves set apart from other men—is rendered with a fine imaginative precision.” Robert Penn Warren, Saturday Review (1942) “Brainard Cheney tells all about (Snake Sutton) in his rip-snortin’, rootin’-tootin’ novel…Rarely will you encounter a book that plunges more deeply into a strange and specialized way of life…(Cheney) has a wild story to tell and a wild life to describe, and he does it with relish.” Orville Prescott , New York Times (1942) BRAINARD CHENEY (1900-1990), acclaimed Georgia author, grew up along the Georgia rivers he writes about. He published four novels during the period 1939 through 1969. All are available from MM John Welda BookHouse.

River Rogue: a novel of romance and adventure on the Altamaha River (The Lightwood History Collection)

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