Melville House Books

Larry Brown, the author who became a writer after being a fireman in Oxford, Mississippi for nearly twenty years, died of an apparent heart attack last week at the age of 53. As an Associated Press wire story notes, Brown “wrote about the often rough, gritty lives of rural Southerners.” Among his books were the novels Dirty Work and Big Bad Love. I”I don’t know why all my stuff has such a bleak turn in it, because I’m certainly a happy person,” he once told the AP. “I love living and everything that goes along with it.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.