This Goodly Land

Frye Gaillard (December 23, 1946–present)

Alabama Connections

• Mobile, Mobile County: birthplace, childhood residence
• Mon Louis, Mobile County: adult residence

Selected Works

• Gaillard, Frye. Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978. Rpt. as Watermelon Wine: Remembering the Golden Years of Country Music. Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2004.
• Gaillard, Frye. The Dream Long Deferred. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Rpt. as The Dream Long Deferred: The Landmark Struggle for Desegregation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006.
• Gaillard, Frye. Lessons from the Big House: One Family's Passage through the History of the South: A Memoir. Asheboro, N.C.: Down Home Press, 1994.
• Gaillard, Frye. As Long as the Waters Flow: Native Americans in the South and the East. Illus. Carolyn DeMeritt. Winston-Salem, N.C.: John F. Blair, 1998.
• Gaillard, Frye. Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.
• Gaillard, Frye. Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007.
• Gaillard, Frye. With Music and Justice for All: Some Southerners and Their Passions. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 2008.
• Gaillard, Frye, Sheila Hagler, and Peggy Denniston. In the Path of the Storms: Bayou La Batre, Coden, and the Alabama Coast. Auburn and Tuscaloosa: Pebble Hill Books and Auburn University with University of Alabama Press, 2008.

Literary Awards

• Lillian Smith Book Award, Southern Regional Council and University of Georgia Libraries, 2005, for Cradle of Freedom
• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 2007, for Cradle of Freedom

Biographical Information

Frye Gaillard was born and grew up in Mobile, Ala. He attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., earning his BA in history in 1968. After graduation, Gaillard became a journalist. He worked for Race Relations Reporter in Nashville from 1970 to 1972. In 1972, he moved to Charlotte, N.C., where he worked for The Charlotte Observer until 1990. That year, Gaillard became an instructor in nonfiction writing at Queens College (now Queens University of Charlotte). His first book, Watermelon Wine (published in 1978), was a collection of essays about country music. Since then, Gaillard has authored or co-authored over twenty books. The Dream Long Deferred was made into a documentary film broadcast by the UNC Center for Public Television in 1991. In 2005, Gaillard returned to Alabama and became Writer-in-Residence in the history and English departments at the University of South Alabama. In the late 2000s, Gaillard began working with singer-songwriter Kathryn Scheldt. Scheldt's album Southern Girl contains ten songs co-written by Gaillard and Scheldt. Gaillard lives on the Gulf Coast of Alabama near Mobile.

Interests and Themes

Many of Frye Gaillard's nonfiction books concern politics and race relations. Others examine aspects of contemporary Southern culture.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

• Gaillard, Frye. "The Heart of Dixie"; The Remembered Gate: Memoirs by Alabama Authors. Ed. Jay Lamar and Jeanie Thompson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, . 193-203.

Reference Web Sites

• "Frye Gaillard". Hoover Library Live: Videos and Podcasts. 2008. The Hoover Public Library and Southern Voices. http://hooverpl.org/live/uncategorized/sv/22/.
• Frye Gaillard: Writer. 2009. http://fryegaillard.blogspot.com/.
• Bass, Greg. "September 29, 2005: Frye Gaillard Interview". Tapestry. 2005. WBHM 90.3FM. http://www.wbhm.org/Tapestry/Sept29-05.html.

Location of Papers

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Last updated on Dec 12, 2009.