Garden & Gun

garden & gun

David DiBenedetto Senior Vice President & Editor in Chief Executive Managing Editor Phillip Rhodes / Creative Director Marshall McKinney Photography and Visuals Director Maggie Brett Kennedy / Deputy Editors Amanda Heckert, David Mezz Style Director Haskell Harris / Art Director Julia Knetzer / Photo Editor Margaret Houston Senior Editor CJ Lotz / Copy Chief Donna Levine Editorial Assistant Caroline Sanders / Art Production Assistant Jacqueline Stofsick Editorial Intern Abigail Tierney Chief Digital Officer Chris Kraft Digital Director Kim Alexander / Digital Editor Dacey Orr Sivewright / Social Media Editor Olivia Dello Buono Digital Projects Manager Emily DealContributing Editors Roy Blount Jr., Rick Bragg, Dominique Browning, Monte Burke, Marshall Chapman, John Currence, John T. Edge, Clyde Edgerton, Charles Gaines, Allison Glock, Winston Groom, Mike Grudowski, Jessica B. Harris,…

island escape

Jewelry designer and Cumberland Island resident Gogo Ferguson. Growing up a river rat in coastal Georgia, I was a student of all of the state’s fifteen barrier islands, but the wildest ones enthralled me most. Even their names seemed to conjure adventure—Ossabaw, Blackbeard, Wassaw (where I left plenty of tracks in the sand), St. Catherines, Sapelo, Wolf, and the crown jewel, Cumberland. At eighteen miles long, it is the largest of the islands and was once primarily owned by the Carnegie family, of steel and philanthropy fame. Here there were remains of forts, mansion ruins, wild horses—the stuff of a young explorer’s dreams. DiBenedetto (center) takes in an island morning with Ferguson and her husband, Dave Sayre. I first visited the island when I was fifteen. And though…

sweet tooth

I often joke with Jenny that if the house catches fire, grab the kids first, the dogs next, and then my Megalodon tooth. I found it when I was thirteen. My jon boat’s anchor miraculously snagged it while dragging along the bottom on a windy day. I’d collected plenty of shark teeth by then, but I’d never found one as big and as perfectly preserved, its serrated edges still sharp enough to cut even after spending at least three million years in the mud. And while many friends have suggested it belongs in a frame, I keep it on a shelf so I can let others feel its heft or run my own fingers down its ridges. These days I take great delight in my children’s passion for shark…

“you can see the sights, burn some calories, and get a po’boy—or a sno-ball—afterward”

—Maurice Carlos Ruffin on running with streetcars, p. 140 John Grisham WRITER More than thirty years ago, a small-town Mississippi lawyer named John Grisham arose early before work to write. After he finished that first book, A Time to Kill, Grisham began writing The Firm, which became 1991’s top-selling novel and kicked off one of modern history’s most celebrated writing careers. Grisham, who was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, will release his next legal thriller in October. He’s also writing another book set on fictional Camino Island, which takes inspiration from Amelia Island, Florida—Grisham’s favorite place for “serious loafing,” as he calls it in his ode to summer by the shore (“Classic Weekend Escapes,” p. 101). Ada Limón WRITER Ada Limón has written…

“every trip to kentucky has me hauling a suitcase of white lily flour back to oregon”

ROLL OUT THE WELCOME Several weeks ago, I received a subscription offer to your magazine. It was a surprise to me, a traditional woodchuck Yankee. I took a chance and mailed my check, and the April/May 2019 issue arrived. Russell Worth Parker’s Good Dog essay was worth the subscription price. I’ll be looking forward to the next issue. Amy Brill Sutton, VermontWhen my April/May 2019 issue of G&G arrived, I jumped for joy seeing Scott Peacock’s name. He is my biscuit god, and I have been following his recipe for nearly a decade. But I knew little about the man. Every trip to Kentucky has seen me hauling a suitcase full of White Lily flour back to Oregon. Now I am excited to try a different flour that…

social chatter

WE ASKED... How do you describe summer heat? On Facebook, you shared your favorite Southern expressions for temperatures hotter than the hinges on the gates of hell.It’s like walking in dogs’ breath. Walter Schwarz Hotter than Georgia asphalt. Heather Smith As hot as burlap underwear. Kelli Gathright Hotter than Billy blue blazes. Kimber Williams I’m ’bout to smother. Sandra Yarboro Hotter than chicken-fried hell. Dee Thompson Hotter than two foxes “fornicating” in a forest fire. Barbara Lawson Air you can wear! Nancy Thornton-Waterhouse Hotter than a two-dollar pistol. Anne Dolan I just saw a hound dog chasing a rabbit—and they were both walking. Christine Clayton Hutchinson…