Forty Acres and a Goat: A Memoir - Softcover

Describing himself as a “steeple dropout” and a “bootleg preacher” who also works as a “freelance civil rights activist,” Will D. Campbell has earned a notable place among America's favorite storytellers. Detailing his harrowing exploits during the racially charged 1960s as a liberal white man of God, this memoir brilliantly describes Campbell's attempt to live a spiritual life in a time of mistrust, racial intolerance, and violence. Despite such a dire backdrop, Campbell serves as a guide through the events with his patented humor and poignancy. In one instance he notes that black Muslims protected the grand dragon of the KKK in an upstate New York prison, demonstrating the contradictions and strange circumstances that bring people together.

Will D. Campbell is the author of 16 books including Brother to a Dragonfly, winner of the Lillian Smith Prize and a National Book Award Finalist, and The Glad River, winner of first prize for fiction for Friends of American Writers. He lives in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.