The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volumes 13-14
FAIN: RQ-50543-11
Rice University (Houston, TX 77005-1827)
Lynda L. Crist (Project Director: November 2010 to May 2016)
Preparation for publication of volumes 13 and 14 of the collected papers of Jefferson Davis. (36 months)
The Jefferson Davis Project encompasses preparation of The Papers of Jefferson Davis, a multi-volume edition published by Louisiana State University Press, a substantial website, and an archive of manuscripts, books, microfilm, and printed matter open to researchers. Volumes 1-12 and revised editions of Volumes 1, 2, and 5 have been published since 1971. Volume 13, covering the 1870s, will appear in 2011. Volume 14, covering 1880-89, is the last in the chronological series and will be submitted to the Press in early 2013.
Media Coverage
The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 13: 1871 - 1879 (Review)
Author(s): John David Smith
Publication: North Carolina Historical Review
Date: 1/1/2013
Abstract: Positive review of the volume and the series.
URL: http://www.ncpublications.com/nchr/
Associated Products
The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 13: 1871-1879 (Book)Title: The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 13: 1871-1879
Author: Jefferson Davis
Editor: Introduction by T. Michael Parrish
Editor: Lynda Lasswell Crist
Editor: Suzanne Scott Gibbs
Abstract: Volume 13 of The Papers of Jefferson Davis follows the former president of the Confederacy as he becomes head of the Carolina Life Insurance Company of Memphis and attempts to gain a financial foothold for his newly reunited family. Having lost everything in the Civil War and spent two years immediately afterwards in federal prison, Davis faced a mounting array of financial woes, health problems, and family illnesses and tragedies in the 1870s. Despite setbacks during this decade, Davis also began a quest to rehabilitate his image and protect his historical legacy. Although his position with the insurance company provided temporary financial stability, Davis resigned after the Panic of 1873 forced the sale of the company and its new owners canceled payments to Carolina policyholders. He left for England the following year in search of employment and to recuperate from ongoing illnesses. In 1876, Davis became president of the London-based Mississippi Valley Society and relocated to New Orleans to run the company. Throughout the 1870s, Davis waged an expensive and seemingly endless legal battle to regain his prewar Mississippi plantation, Brierfield. He also began working on his memoirs at Beauvoir, the Gulf Coast estate of a family friend. Though disfranchised, Davis addressed the subject of politics with more frequency during this decade, criticizing the Reconstruction policies of the federal government while defending the South and the former Confederacy. The volume ends with Davis’s inheritance of Beauvoir, which was his last home. The editors have drawn from over one hundred manuscript repositories and private collections in addition to numerous published sources in compiling Volume 13. Lynda Lasswell Crist has edited The Papers of Jefferson Davis since 1979.
Year: 2012
Primary URL:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/papers-of-jefferson-davis-1871-1879/oclc/760973533&referer=brief_resultsPrimary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL:
http://lsupress.org/books/detail/papers-of-jefferson-davis-1871-1879/Secondary URL Description: Publisher's website
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780807139066
The Papers of Jefferson Davis: Volume 14, 1880-1889 (Book)Title: The Papers of Jefferson Davis: Volume 14, 1880-1889
Author: Jefferson Davis
Editor: William C. Davis, Introduction
Editor: Lynda Lasswell Crist, Editor
Editor: Suzanne Scott Gibbs, Assistant Editor
Abstract: The final volume of The Papers of Jefferson Davis follows the former president of the Confederacy through the completion of his two monumental works on the history of the Confederate States of America. In the first, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881), Davis sought to recast the Confederacy as a just and moral nation that was constitutionally correct in standing up for its rights. Himself the subject of heated debates about why the Confederacy lost, Davis also used the book to castigate Confederate government and military officials who he believed had failed the cause. Later, A Short History of the Confederate States (1890) attempted to burnish the image of the former Confederacy and to refute accusations of intentional mistreatment of Union prisoners.
While completing these books, Davis attended and spoke at numerous Confederate memorial services and monument dedications, all the while waging a bitter feud with two of his former top generals—Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard—over the reasons for the fall of the Confederacy. In late 1889, having returned to New Orleans from a trip to his plantation, Brierfield, Davis succumbed to pneumonia. His funeral procession attracted an estimated 150,000 mourners, a testament to the lasting popularity of the Confederacy’s only president.
Year: 2015
Primary URL:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/papers-of-jefferson-davis-1880-1889/oclc/894313654&referer=brief_resultsPrimary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL:
http://lsupress.org/books/detail/papers-of-jefferson-davis-vol-14/Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780807159095
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes
Prizes
Jules and Frances Landry Award
Date: 5/1/2015
Organization: Louisiana State University Press
Abstract: The Jules and Frances Landry Award is presented annually to the LSU Press book published during the year which, in the judgment of the Press, constitutes the most outstanding achievement in the field of southern studies. From the first Landry Award winner—George Brown Tindall’s classic Emergence of the New South, 1913-1945 (1968)—to the most recent, the recipients of the Landry Award have all made significant contributions to scholarship on the American South.
Jules and Frances Landry, both graduates of the LSU Law School, practiced law in Baton Rouge for more than fifty years. They shared a keen interest in the history and culture of the South, and the Landry Award is a continuing expression of that interest. The prize is funded from an endowment the Landrys established specifically for that purpose, and includes a monetary award of $1500 for each winning author.