"What came first, beer or bread?"
"Return to Thunder Road" author Gabbard launches Pellissippi State series
He shot the Gap at Cumberland, and screamed past Maynardville.
With G-men on his tail lights, road blocks up ahead,
The mountain boy took roads, that angels fear to tread."
-"Ballad of Thunder Road"
So,
which one did come first-beer or bread? Award-winning writer Alex Gabbard
kicks off the yearlong Authors Series with that question September 26 in
the Performing Arts Center. The series is sponsored by Edward Francisco,
the College's writer-in-residence, and the English Department.
Gabbard's presentation will revolve around his latest book, "Return to Thunder Road." In it, the writer takes a look at the effects of Prohibition on Appalachia. The book's title is based on the 1958 movie "Thunder Road," about a young whiskey runner, played by Robert Mitchum, who ultimately meets his maker in a high-speed evasion of the feds. The movie, which premiered in Knoxville, was filmed in East Tennessee and around Asheville, N.C. Gabbard will not only put the book in the context of America's "spirited" history but will also run the first 12 minutes of the movie. A highlight of the discussion will be the introduction of Knoxville native John Fitzgerald, who saw the real-life car crash on which "Thunder Road" was based. Fitzgerald was 15 when the wreck took place on what's now known as Bearden Hill.
Then right outside of Bearden there, they made the fatal strike.
He left the road at ninety, that's all there is to say,
The devil got the moonshine, and the mountain boy that day."
Beside "Return to Thunder Road," Gabbard is also the author of several books on fast cars, including "Vintage & Historic Racing Cars." NASCAR racing is said to have begun with whiskey runners trying to elude the law.
The Gabbard presentation is scheduled 12-1:30 p.m. and is free. The public is encouraged to attend.
Second in the Fall Authors Series will be UT History Professor Stephen V. Ash on Oct. 23, discussing his most recent book, "A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865."
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