Fountain City Books That Make A Difference

In My Own Voice

Barbara Blum Mabry

(The Clark Group, Lexington, Kentucky, 2007)

($21.95, 298 pages)

In My Own Voice is highly recommended for personal enjoyment and as an excellent gift for an esteemed former teacher, friend or one’s kin.    The reader need not have known any of the subjects, for their appeal is universal, and humor more than balances out the serious.  In addition, these poems are notably accessible and speak to everyone—even those who think they “don’t like poetry.”

Now, more than 50 years after her first poetry was published, we have an abundant collection of poetry and several prose essays to enjoy.   In My Own Voice is a 298-page celebration of her life, describing events, including those in the lives of her grandparents, her parents, her husband, her four children, her grand-children and many other individuals she has encountered or imagined in all walks of life.   Several poems describe her spiritual journey along the way.  

To accompany many of the poems, Mabry's  personal photographs are artfully presented. Altogether, the book is an outstanding example of the publishing art from the publishers of The Kentucky Directory Gold Book, Kentucky General Assembly Blue Book and Clark’s Kentucky Almanac and Book of Facts.

The book can be ordered from The Clark Group Publishers, 250 E. Short Street, Lexington, Ky. 40507 (or by credit card at 1-800-944-3995; $21.95 plus shipping and handling).  

The future Barbara Mabry presenting a gift to 

Central High School Principal Hassie K. Gresham (Circa 1947)

(Courtesy of the Knoxville News-Sentinel)