Nelle Was Not a One-Trick Pony

 Nelle was not a one-trick pony.  She wrote essays at UA  One is an hysterical description of Southern writers.  What Southern writers need:

An abussive father. an abusive, alcoholic mother.  mistreatment by older siblings.  all leading to the required unhappy childhood.  Sexual frustrations are especially desirable.  Self love.  Cursing God at regular intervals.  Best environment is a small town.  In the South is best.  Periodic race riots are a big plus.  Pentecostal and Holiness revivals are also a big plus.  Crooked town officials.  Bootleggers,  Blatant hypocrisies.

I think she nailed it.

She was loyal to UA and did not like Auburn. Apparently she was totally parochial in her political views and could not rise above her juvenile prejudices and grow to the point of maturity to what was best for the state she supposedly loved. She could be petty.

Her nickname was Doty.  Origin uncertain.

She was a great admirer of Jane Austen and all things British, making trips to England always by ship with her motion sickness.

Austen parallels to Austen's life and fiction.  P. 50

Good riff on Jane Austen.

Harper Lee once said she wanted to be the Jane Austen of South Alabama. P.51

Isolated incidences of kindness beneath her gruffness and rudeness.  P. 53

She only used the KJV believing it represented the classical language of highest English culture.  P. 55

Her favorite Biblical book was Exodus.  Why?  "Because they're leaving."  Who knows what she meant except:

Her own personal leaving was to head for New York.  She would have gone stark, raving mad if she had stayed in Monroeville.  P 56

Was she religious?  If so, it's complicated.  She liked C.S.  Lewis.  I personally dispensed with Lewis yrs ago.  P. 60

Wayne Flynt thinks her writings are religious.