Charlotte observer, book reviews, Susan Wells, A game called Salisbury, snubbed?
There is a rumor circulating that the Charlotte Observer has snubbed Susan Wells, penname Susan Barringer Wells. Susan has written a new book, “A Game Called Salisbury.” The book is about the murder of the Lyerly Family in 1906 and the subsequent arrest and later lynching of 3 sharecroppers. The book is also about racial attitudes in the south and the nation. There is a Charlotte connection beyond any racial aspects. The 3 prisoners were brought to Charlotte for their safety before the trial was to begin. After their return to the Rowan County jail, an angry mob, stirred up by outsiders, lynched the 3 men.
Book signings have been taking place all over the state and the Greensboro Daily News, The Asheville Citizen and Salisbury Post have written articles about Susan and the book. With the involvement of the Mecklenburg County Jail in the story and Susan’s ancestral roots going back over 250 years all around Charlotte, one would think that sufficient to warrant coverage. Is there some other reason? Is this just a unjustified rumor? Are there still remnants of racism in Charlotte? Charlotte Observer, do you have a response?
I really appreciate thIS publicity!
Incidentally, I am proud of the response to my book and reviews (pasted below), posted by reputable writers/educators, Tex Wood and Rob Neufeld. I am hoping that these reviews, the integrity of my research, and the positive response from the general public will begin to break down some of the barriers the book faces as a “self-published” work.
Below are Wood’s review and a link to Neufeld’s at Asheville Citizen-Times’ . Also see professor Glenda Gilmore’s, found on the back cover.
Posted on February 27, 2008.
Professor George Tex Wood of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College has provided a review of “A Game Called Salisbury”, the new book by Susan Barringer Wells:
“…Faulknerian in its revelations and observations of human nature, clearly spotlighting the question of real responsibility not just for active human evil, but also for spawning its activity. Those PEOPLE in the media (not some amorphous Media) are held to account. I doubt they’ll appreciate seeing that fact bared, so I doubt we’ll see many reviews of this thorough indictment. Wells shows us that lynchings were (and are) the tip of the iceburg, the cruel result of calculated manipulation of our base human natures and our cowardliness in not confronting evil when we see it, either now or then.
While this book lacks Twain’s humor, it rivals his incisiveness.”
http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880215129&template=printart
CITIZEN-TIMES.com
Author does dogged detective work about a family murder
Rob Neufeld
Columnist
February 17, 2008 12:15 am
“One of the most chilling recent books about local history comes to our eyes via self-publication. In “A Game Called Salisbury” (Infinity Publishing), Susan Barringer Wells presents the story of a series of murders and retributive lynchings that had taken place within her family a century ago.
The book is exhaustively researched and compellingly related. To be passionate about a subject is one thing; to tell the story in a fresh and focused way, as Wells does, is a rarer achievement.”
Susan Barringer Wells
March 23, 2008