[MUSIC] One of the South's greatest contributions to the 20th century is it's literature. The great voices of William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty have given us truly memorable novels, short stories, poetry and theater plays. And the key to this body of literature is the oral tradition, the rich storytelling and music. Those worlds were tapped by Southern writers who used them to elevate American letters and Southern letters in ways that are much loved throughout the world. William Faulkner said that in the South the past is never dead. It's not even past. And these writers keep that past alive through their writings. We can see that in the work of Robert Penn Warren, who visited his grandfather as a child. And, heard tales from his grandfather of the Civil War, and his battles in which he fought. And those memories shaped Robert Penn Warren's poetry, and fiction in a powerful way that defined him as a writer. We can see also Richard Wright's work wrestling with the pain and the struggle of black families who grew up under the worlds of Jim Crow. And many black writers like Alice Walker are uncomfortable with the phrase Southern writer. Because they identify the South as a title with the white world. And they feel as blacks, it's not a world they would like to be associated with. But Alice reflects, and she says on the other hand, I am Southern because I was born and grew up in the South. And my novels, like The Color Purple, were all set in the American South.