PROFESSORS
entire book on the boll weevil, so now I had to take something I knew well and condense it down to about 800 words," Giesen said. "Crop dusting I knew something about, but I was building from scratch."
Giesen enjoys encyclopedias because of the ability to flip through and see different entries, all from an array of topics.
"It's a good way to experience the state by flipping through and seeing the breadth of things that make up the state," Giesen said. Munn's article focused on pine forests. "For me, it was an opportunity to tell a real success story about the timber industry and our forests in Mississippi," Munn said. "It's hard to believe that at one point in the state's history, we were completely clear-cut."
Munn said after years of effort put in by the government, private industries and individuals, 70 percent of Mississippi is now forested and the state supports a $16 billion lumber industry.
"It's a fun story to tell, from riches to rags," Munn said.
Co-editor Ted Ownby worked for 12 years putting "Mississippi Encyclopedia" together. The book has 1,500 pages, 1,400 entries, 650 contributors and is the first encyclopedia on Mississippi since 1907. It was published in May, and Ownby has been to 18 events for the book since it was put on the shelves.
"The goals are to be thorough and inclusive and both to do all the things we know we have to — governors and famous people in every county, famous writers and famous musicians — and also to expand beyond that," Ownby said.
Ownby said he hopes the book allows readers to expand their questions when they think about what Mississippi is.