By James Calemine
Born in Alvarado, Texas, in 1924, Terry Southern earned two Academy Award nominations for writing the Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider screenplays. Other Terry Southern screenplay contributions include The Loved Ones, The Cincinnati Kid, Barbarella and uncredited rewrite jobs on Casino Royale and The Collector.
As a novelist, Southern’s books include Flash & Filigree, Candy, Blue Movie, The Magic Christian, Virgin, and Texas Summer. Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes ranks as his greatest book. A collection of 23 stories, published in 1967, Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes contains a wide range of topics and dramatic tales. The story “Red-Dirt Marijuana” takes place in Texas where a young boy accompanies a family friend out to an area where a crop of reefer is being grown.
“Razor Fight” tells the story of two brothers diffusing a disagreement with knives. “Twirling At Ole Miss” finds Southern highlighting Faulkner’s old hometown with a twist of acerbic humor. “I Am Hammer” documents the literary style of Mickey Spillane. “The Blood of A Wig” proves as a hilarious story about those who use the blood of a schizophrenic for medicinal purposes.
Southern’s literary skills transcended all geographic boundaries in film, literature, music and comedy. Southern kept time with legendary artists such as Mason Hoffenberg, Stanley Kubrick, Peter Sellers, the Rolling Stones, The Beatles (Southern appears on the cover of Sgt. Pepper‘s wearing sunglasses tucked behind Edgar Allen Poe and Lenny Bruce), and later the Black Crowes.
George Plimpton wrote in the book’s introduction that William Burroughs was once asked to write an appraisal of Southern’s work. “He scratched around, hoping to come up with some highfalutin verbiage, and finally came down to the nub of it all: “Terry Southern knows how to write!”
Terry Southern died of a heart attack on October 29, 1995. Red-Dirt Marijuana and Other Tastes ranks as a high-grade literary buzz.