How much thought do most of us give to the Mississippi River, other than its picture-perfect sunsets?

James F. Barnett Jr. of Natchez looks beyond the stunning view in his brand-new book, “Beyond Control:  The Mississippi River’s New Channel to the Gulf of Mexico.”

He takes the reader up, down, into and beyond the river by tracing its history, politics and engineering.  All evidence leads Barnett to a dramatic conclusion.  “It’s not ‘if’ but ‘when’ will the river jump its historic channel and plunge through the Atchafalaya Basin to the Gulf of Mexico,” Barnett says.

Barnett’s book is both a history and a close look at an inexorable, living process still happening right now.

From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Barnett will be honored at an open house that will introduce the book. Copies of the new book will be sold and signed at the free event, which will be at the Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez Literary Research Center in the Willie Mae Dunn Library, Copiah-Lincoln Community College, 11 Co-Lin Circle.

At 6 p.m., Barnett will present a short program about his research and, as he writes, “how the wild Mississippi will eventually deliver a cataclysm.”

The book, published this month by the University Press of Mississippi, retails for $28. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez Literary Research Center and its efforts to collect, preserve and make available a comprehensive collection of resources focused on the rich and extensive literary history related to Natchez. The special collection, housed in the Willie Mae Dunn Library, is named in honor of Carolyn Vance Smith, the founder of the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration. Smith now serves as advisor to the Center.

Barnett is also author of “The Natchez Indians:  A History to 1735” and “Mississippi’s American Indians,” both published by University Press of Mississippi.  His work has also been included in The Journal of Mississippi History, Mississippi Archaeology, and The Southern Quarterly.  He is the retired Director of the Historic Properties Division, Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

A major exhibit during the open house is a showing of “Return to the River: A Television Voyage,” a Mississippi Public Broadcasting film. On a steamboat cruise from Memphis to New Orleans, the Mississippi River is the stage for an array of writers, musicians, historians and scholars to share their experiences.  Natchez is a port of call mid-way through the film.

Other exhibits include a collection of steamboat photographs taken in the 19th century by Henry Norman of Natchez, on loan from the Historic Natchez Foundation, and an array of books featuring the Mississippi River, taken from the Natchez Literary Research Center’s collection.

For more information or to purchase copies of Barnett’s new book in advance or after April 20, please email beth.richard@colin.edu or call 601-446-1107.
Beth Richard is the Library Director of the Willie Mae Dunn Library on the Natchez campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College.