High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta

High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta by Helferich, Gerard. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781582433530.

In this dirt-under-the-fingernails portrait of a year in the life of a present day cotton farmer, Gerard Helferich captures the hope and heartache that collide under the scorching sun of the Mississippi Delta. High Cotton follows small-time farmer Zack Killebrew through the annual cycle of planting, laying by, and picking, as he struggles to defend his crop from perennial menaces such as insects and drought, and against the twenty-first-century threat of globalization. In the course of his tumultuous year Zack teeters between the promise of a six-figure payoff and the threat of financial ruin. Then, as the harvest nears and the delicate cotton is at its most vulnerable, two hurricanes named Katrina and Rita come ashore on the Gulf Coast and steam toward the Delta. Interwoven with Zacks narrative is the rich history of cotton, a crop dating back to ancient India, Egypt, and Mexico. In America cotton played a pivotal role, fostering the spread of slavery, fueling the tensions that led to the Civil War, and setting the pattern of race relations for the better part of two centuries. Even today the United States remains the worlds leading exporter of cotton, and the humble plant still shapes our literal and social landscape. Combining personal narrative, a palpable sense of place, and a meticulous attention to process, High Cotton documents the farming life in the Mississippi Delta, "the Souths South," with precision, honesty, and much affection.