starkey flythe jr.

An old friend from our days in Augusta, Georgia, Starkey Flythe has died. Starkey was the person around whom the literary life of the city and the region revolved. His law office on Telfair, which I got a look at only one time, was crammed with books and magazines piled several feet high. He sat in his comfortable chair in the cluttered and claustrophobic office most days, reading and writing, not taking depositions or prepping for a trial. Starkey never knew it, but he was the model for the character Fox Ledbetter in my novel, Louisiana Power & Light. Starkey lived across the river in South Carolina, and the North Augusta Star has a lovely tribute to Starkey. Here's the obit in the Augusta Chronicle. Starkey loved nothing better than to tell a story. He was a compelling and seductive reader of his stories and poems. I can recommend his wonderful collection of stories, Lent: the Slow Fast, which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award in 1990. He was a gentleman and a man of letters and we will miss him.