Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Mourning the loss of Jack Temple Kirby


Jack Temple Kirby, one of the foremost historians of the American South and a great friend to the University of Georgia Press, has died at age seventy. At his death Kirby was the W.E. Smith Professor Emeritus of History at Miami University and president of the Southern Historical Association.

Kirby’s seven books include three published by UGA: MEDIA-MADE DIXIE; THE COUNTERCULTURAL SOUTH; and NATURE'S MANAGEMENT, a selection of Edward Ruffin’s writing on landscape from the nineteenth century which Kirby edited. A leading historian of the southern environment, Kirby served on the editorial board for Georgia’s series Environmental History and the American South, edited by Paul Sutter.

The University of Georgia Press joins the historical community in mourning Kirby’s death. His obituary in the St. Augustine Record is available here.