G. Wayne Dowdy is the agency manager of the Memphis Public Library and Information Center's history department and Memphis and Shelby County Room. He holds a master's degree in history from the University of Arkansas and is a certified archives manager. He is the author of A Brief History of Memphis"; "Mayor Crump Don't Like It: Machine Politics in Memphis"; "Hidden History of Memphis" and "Crusades for Freedom: Memphis and the Political Transformation of the American South."

A tour of the Tennessee city filled with famous faces, fascinating trivia, and forgotten lore-plus a former mayor's previously unpublished private papers.

Step inside the fascinating annals of the Bluff City's history and discover the Memphis that only few know. G. Wayne Dowdy, longtime archivist for the Memphis Public Library, examines the history and culture of the Mid-South during its most important decades. Well-known faces like Clarence Saunders, Elvis Presley, and W.C. Handy are joined by some of the more obscure characters from the past, like the Memphis gangster who inspired one of William Faulkner's most famous novels; the local Boy Scout who captured German spies during World War I; the Memphis radio station that pioneered wireless broadcasting; and so many more. Also included are the previously unpublished private papers and correspondence of former mayor E.H. Crump, giving us new insight and a front-row seat to the machine that shaped Tennessee politics in the twentieth century.

Includes photos