Knoxville in Knox County, Tennessee — The American South (East South Central)
Cormac McCarthy
1951
— Describing Market Square in his novel "Suttree" (1979) —
Market Street on Monday morning, Knoxville, Tennessee. In this year 1951. Suttree with his parcel of fish going past the rows of derelict trucks piled with produce and flowers, an atmosphere rank with country commerce, a reek of farmgoods in the air tending off into a light surmise of putrefaction and decay. Pariahs adorned the walk and blind singers and organists and psalmists with mouth harps wandered up and down. Past hardware stores and meatmarkets and little tobacco shops. A strong smell of feed in the hot noon like working mash. Mute and roosting peddlars watching from their wagonbeds and flower ladies in their bonnets like cowled gnomes, driftwood hands composed on their apron laps and their underlips swollen with snuff.
He went among vendors and beggars and wild street preachers haranguing a lost world with a vigor unknown to the sane. Suttree admired them with their hot eyes and dogeared Bibles, God's barkers gone forth into the world like the prophets of old. He'd often stood along the edges of the crowd for some stray scrap of news from beyond the pale.
He crossed the street, stepping gutters clogged with greenstuff. Coming from behind the trucks a beggarlady's splotched and marcid arm barred his way, a palsied claw that gibbered at this chest.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music • Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features. A significant historical year for this entry is 1951.
Location. 35° 57.938′ N, 83° 55.189′ W. Marker is in Knoxville, Tennessee, in Knox County. Marker can be reached from Wall Avenue west of Strong Street. Marker is in the center of Market Square, near the north end. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 27 Market Square, Knoxville TN 37902, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. David Madden (a few steps from this marker); Elvis Presley (a few steps from this marker); James Agee (within shouting distance of this marker); St. James Hotel (within shouting distance of this marker); Knoxville's Market House (within shouting distance of this marker); Robert Birdwell (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line); Market House Bell (about 400 feet away); Krutch Park (about 400 feet away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Knoxville.
Also see . . .
1. Cormac McCarthy. Wikipedia article (Submitted on May 23, 2019, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan.)
2. Suttree. Wikipedia article (Submitted on May 23, 2019, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan.)
Credits. This page was last revised on July 25, 2021. It was originally submitted on May 23, 2019, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan. This page has been viewed 315 times since then and 61 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on May 23, 2019, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan. 2. submitted on July 25, 2021, by J. Makali Bruton of Accra, Ghana.