JOHN SOWARD BAYNE

I am a Tennessee native and Clemson graduate. I work as a mathematician for AT&T Consulting Solutions, Inc., in Atlanta. I collect books.

I became interested in Southern writers' graves when I began speaking at the Cemeteries and Gravemarkers section of the annual conference of the American Culture Association in 2003. I wrote a book proposal in early 2006 and finished the book in the summer of 2010. Meanwhile I visited a lot of cemeteries.

I had many helpers, particularly my family. About 20 of the photographs in Gravely Concerned were taken by my nephew Bob Bayne, a professional photographer in Memphis.

My articles have appeared in the Eudora Welty Newsletter, the Eudora Welty Review, the Journal of the Georgia Philological Association, Studies in American Culture, and FIRSTS.