"Ever since I have had a wish, I have wished to be a writer of articles, the perusal of which would not be confined to a few partial friends, but which would be conned over by everybody that took up the book or paper or magazines in which I wrote." Thus wrote Joseph Addison Turner, then thirty-three years old, as he launched one of the several editorial ventures which earned him a place in Southern literary history. His life was short, but most of his adult years were devoted to the written word, either by contributing to established journals or by starting new ones which provided platforms for his varied literary and editorial visions. Not only did he pursue publication vigorously, but he did it with a fierce independence of thought. He was proslavery, antisecession, anti-Yankee, and passionately devoted to the development of a truly Southern literary tradition...