Mississippi Library Association

High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta

Helferich, Gerard. High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta.
New York: Counterpoint, 2007.
308 pp. $25.00 (hardcover)

Through Gerard Helferich’s writing, one follows a modern day cotton planter for a full year. His subject, Zack Killebrew, first cousin to Helferich’s wife, Teresa, farms 1,700 acres outside the small town of Tchula within the Mississippi Delta. One-thousand acres are for cotton, the rest set aside for soybeans and corn. Some of the acreage is prime two-inch-deep soil known locally as ice cream.
The book’s format is fresh and alternates between present, work-a-day Killebrew and historically knowledgeable Helferich. Readers join Killebrew and his trusty lab Duke in his white pickup as he plants genetically modified seeds, fends off weeds and insects, deals with field hands, and harvests hurricane beaten cotton. Then Helferich shifts into four-wheel drive and goes off road to introduce topics such as slavery, the 1927 flood, sharecropping, the Civil Rights Movement, and Southern politics. After the historical perspective, it is back in the cab with Killebrew at the wheel as he frequently stops to fix irrigation pivots, replace tractor tires, check insect traps, and extinguish module fires.
Two major concerns all planters face are crop prices and weather. As of the printing of this book, government subsidies offset any low prices for American cotton; unfortunately, one cannot control weather. During Killebrew’s 2005 season, his cotton is pummeled by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The resulting damage is substantial with arrested development and defoliation during the first storm and wet and dirty cotton after the second. All is not dire, for Killebrew blows off steam with various southern activities. Not only is the reader treated to two seasonal hunts, deer and dove, but a whole lesson in the art of catfish hand-grabbing, or noodling.
Guest critic for The New York Times Book Review, Dale Maharidge, wanted to hear more about Killebrew’s employees and pending divorce. Helferich faces the social and economic problems of the South with honesty and directness through examples of both disgruntled employees Ben and Charlie and a contented Willie Waters. As for the divorce, it involves two people growing apart and not cotton growing in between. This reviewer feels these topics are adequately covered.
From the moment the soil is broken until the last fiber is woven into jeans, this book is a comprehensive look at cotton through a family owned and operated business. It is highly recommended for all types of Mississippi libraries.

Maggie Moran
Public Service and Reference Librarian
Northwest Mississippi Community College

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: October 1st, 2008