Bales, Jackie

Jack Bales began work as a reference library for the University of Mary Washington Libraries in 1980. He also works a researcher and writer. Amongst other works, he has published Willie Morris : An Exhaustive Annotated Bibliography and a Biography and edited Shifting Interludes : Selected Essays and Conversations with Willie Morris.

Willie Morris was born 29 November 1934 in Jackson, Miss., and soon after moved to Yazoo City, where he spent his childhood and youth. He was educated at the University of Texas, where he became editor of The Daily Texan, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1956. After graduation, Morris went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. From 1960 to 1962 he edited the Texas Observer. From 1963 to 1967 he was an associate editor at Harper's Magazine, and editor-in-chief from 1967 to 1971. In 1980 he became the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.