Major Works
Nonfiction
- Selected Writings of Jay Higginbotham (2008)
- Mauvila (2000)
- Man, Nature, and the Infinite; Random Thoughts and Impressions…. (1998)
- Discovering Russia: People and Places (1989)
- The Vital Alliance: Speeches and Statements on Soviet-American Relations, 1979-1988 (1988)
- Autumn in Petrishchevo (1987)
- Fast Train Russia: A Memoir (1981)
- Old Mobile (1977)
- Fort Maurepas: The Birth of Louisiana (1969)
- Mobile: City by the Bay (1968)
- Pascagoula; Singing River City (1967)
- Pascagoula Indians (1967)
- The Mobile Indians (1966)
Fiction
- One Man in the Universe (2005)
- Narrow is the Way (2004)
- Alma (2002)
- Brother Holyfield (1972)
Biography of Jay Higginbotham
Jay Higginbotham was born in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in 1937. He attended Pascagoula Public Schools and then the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1960. He also attended City College of New York in New York City and American University in Washington, D.C.
From 1955 to 1962, he served as a clerk in the Mississippi House of Representatives. Higginbotham taught public school in Mississippi, then in Mobile, Alabama, from 1962 to 1973. In 1966, he traveled around the world, visiting forty-two countries.
He married Alice Louisa Martin in 1970, and they have three children. In 1973 to 1978, he was Head of the Local History Department of the Mobile Public Library. From 1979 to 1970, he was Head of Special Collections. He is an author and historian and founded the Mobile Municipal Archives, where he worked as director from 1983 to 2001. In 1991, he was awarded the Mobile Scroll of Merit Award. He has written for the Encyclopedia Britannica, for Funk and Wagnall’s and is listed in Contemporary Authors, Outstanding Young Men in America, Who’s Who in America, International Authors and Writers Who’s Who, and the Dictionary of International Biography. His Old Mobile is considered a classic in Southern history and has received praise in a number of scholarly journals. His works have been translated into twenty-seven languages. His novels are not as well known.
Higginbotham joined the international peace movement, traveling to Russia numerous times and later to Havana, Cuba. He currently lives in Mobile and volunteers with the Red Cross and various other boards.
Related Websites
- University of Mississippi Writer’s Page: Higginbotham
- University of Southern Mississippi Higginbotham (Prieur Jay) Papers contains interesting biographyical information.
- Open Library lists books by Higginbotham.
- Higginbotham biography appears in Encyclopedia of Alabama