In addition to the books and articles noted within the novel, I’m indebted to the following sources for research: Mark Pendergrast’s For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It; Edward M. Coffman’s The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I; Lizzie Collingham’s The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food; Brassaï’s The Secret Paris of the ’30s; Vera Petrov’s Carb-o-Nation; Lawrence Dietz’s Soda Pop: The History, Advertising, Art, and Memorabilia of Soft Drinks in America; A. N. Wilson’s Burt Reynolds; Scott Faragher and Katherine Harrington’s Images of America: The Peabody Hotel; Anne Cooper Funderburg’s Sundae Best: A History of Soda Fountains; Fiorella Grayson’s “The Lion’s Roar: An Oral History of ‘The Pride’” from Annals of Organized Crime; William Alexander Percy’s Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter’s Son; William Wiser’s The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s; The WPA Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers’ Project Guide to 1930s New York; the diary and correspondence of Pearl Ledbetter; and James C. Cobb’s The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity.
Above all, I’m thankful for my family, in particular my parents, Charles and Becky Wright, and my grandfather Fred Snowden, to whom this book is dedicated. I wish he were still here to read it.
About the Author
Born and raised in Mississippi, SNOWDEN WRIGHT has a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.F.A. from Columbia University. He has written for The Atlantic, Salon, Esquire, the Millions, and the New York Daily News, among other publications, and he previously worked as a fiction reader for The New Yorker, Esquire, and The Paris Review. Wright’s small-press debut, Play Pretty Blues, was the recipient of the 2012 Summer Literary Seminar’s Graywolf Prize. He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Snowden Wright
Play Pretty Blues
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
american pop. Copyright © 2019 by Snowden Wright. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Ploy Siripant
Cover illustration by Bruce Emmett
Hand-lettering by Joel Holland
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Wright, Snowden, 1981– author.
Title: American pop : a novel / Snowden Wright.
Description: New York, NY : William Morrow, [2019]
Identifiers: LCCN 2018032678 | ISBN 9780062697745 (hardback)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Literary. | FICTION / Family Life. | FICTION / Historical.
Classification: LCC PS3623.R5648 A85 2019 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018032678
Digital Edition FEBRUARY 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-269776-9
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-269774-5
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower
22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor
Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3
www.harpercollins.ca
India
HarperCollins India
A 75, Sector 57
Noida
Uttar Pradesh 201 301
www.harpercollins.co.in
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com