By p m terrell, Columnist
for Southern Writers Magazine
"Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it.” -- novelist
George Santayana (1863-1952)
Those words have been repeated innumerable
times in countless variations. Authors are in a unique position of bringing
history to the masses, not in the form of unimaginative lists of dates and
titles but in stirring emotionally charged scenes. Consider the statement that
some people were abducted, taken halfway around the world, and placed into
slavery. Now imagine the scene in Alex Haley’s bestselling book, Roots, in which
Kunta Kinte arrives in America and is sold to a Virginia plantation owner. They
both tell the same story, but one is so emotionally charged as to make it
unforgettable.
