Martin Hames left us ten years ago in November.
After a conversation I had with a friend and fellow Trustee Board member, we agreed that even years after his death, our Altamont/ B.U.S./ Brooke Hill family had not had adequate opportunity to grieve the loss of Martin Hames. Many of us still wanted to honor him in some meaningful way, Martin style—have a party, a celebration, with remembrances and art and abundant fare. But we needed something more tangible and lasting.
How fitting, then, that the seed for a biography about this amazing man took root at one of Melanie Grinney's fabulous parties. There, I saw Charles Gaines and Barry McRae, two people I knew could write rich stories about their relationships with Martin. He reigned for such a long time, though, that we would need many voices to paint a full, accurate portrayal. Maybe Warren St. John, Katherine Clark, Fannie Flagg. Dozens of others who knew him well. And so the book began, around a candlelit table, with many colorful characters and lots of good food. Martin would have loved it!
Having graduated from Brooke Hill, the all-girls school that merged with B.U.S. to become Altamont School, I feel a great indebtedness for my fine education. I knew this was true of so many of the young men who had been lucky enough to work with Mr. Hames at B.U.S. It seems the B.U.S. boys had lost their feeling of connection to the school, and it was my hope to locate many of them and begin a conversation about Mr. Hames that would reignite their memories. A year later, seventy-plus friends, colleagues, students, and fellow travelers agreed to tell their stories and share their photographs, and this book took shape.
To keep his memory and influence alive, Larger than Life, this wonderful collection of personal essays is a tribute to a unique man, a monumental teacher, a fierce advocate for education and the arts. Rarely does a person of such stature pass through our lives. We were lucky to have known him, to have him inspire us in such unforgettable ways. As one of his students from 30 years back said, "He whispers in my ear every day.
The book’s “Publication Premiere” is scheduled
for Friday, November 2, 2012, in The Hames Gallery at Altamont School (4801
Altamont Road South), Plans are presently in works to “celebrate all things
‘Martin’.” After November 2nd, the book will be available for
purchase at the school, as well as local retailers and online at
www.martinhames.com.
Selected Excerpts from Larger Than Life:
CHARLES GAINES:
No one
came as often, or stayed as late, or pitched so whole-heartedly into the
opinions, conversations and wine as Martin did. And when we were not sitting up
very late with him there, chewing over how the world works, we were doing it at
his mother Mary’s house in West End, where he lived with her and his brother,
William.
Eating Mary’s lasagna; moths beating against the
screens of the wide front porch; big bottles of Gallo; conversations (with
Mary’s cigarette voice and dagger wit, the brilliant Bill Balance’s kind and
measured stories) that often went on until dawn; Martin sitting with one foot
tucked under his then vast self, holding a Marlboro like Greta Garbo in one
hand and a drink in the other, and steering those conversations from Greek
history to Aubussons, from Philip Larkin to Franz Kline, with a Wildean
mixture of erudition, wit, venomous relish and hyperbole… Talk was what Martin
was always best at. In those days he was a precocious and indefatigable genius at
it.
KATHERINE CLARK
In October of 2000, when I
was still living in New Orleans, the editor of my book Milking the Moon had arrived from New York for a literary
conference. Over the past year, we had talked on the phone for hours and
exchanged countless e-mails about the editing of my manuscript. But we had
never met one another. On the Friday night of his arrival, he came to my house
for dinner. We hit it off in person just as well as we did long distance. At
the end of the evening, however, I had to tell him that I was not going to be
able to meet him in the French Quarter for Sunday brunch as planned.
“I
just learned that my high school English teacher is in town,” I explained.
“He’s here for some convention of private school principals, and Sunday at noon
is the only time I can see him.”
“And
your teacher from Birmingham takes precedence over your editor from New York?”
Doug said, feigning offense.
“Well…,”
I said.
“Let
me guess,” he said. “This man was the most important teacher in your life. He
transformed your existence and inspired your future like no one else.”
All
of this was quite true, but I only grinned, as I thought Doug was pulling
clichés out of the hat until he added, “And this man weighs over 600 pounds.”
“What?!”
I stared at him. “How on earth did you know?”
Doug
laughed. “Katherine,” he said. “I have three authors who came from Birmingham,
Alabama, and they all had the same damn English teacher.”
Contributors to Larger Than Life include the following published authors: Joyce Ackermann, Anne Markham
Bailey ’80, Katherine Clark ’80, Margaret Eby ’04, Fannie Flagg, Charles Gaines ’60, Tom Huey ’68, Lanier
Scott Isom ’83, Diane McWhorter ’70, Howell Raines, Carolyn Green Satterfield ’60, Warren St. John ’87, Larry Taunton,
and Chris Thomas ’90.
There will be a "Publication Premiere and Celebration of All Things Martin" at the Altamont School, 4801 Altamont Road South, Friday, November 2 at 6:30.
$50/person, $75/couple. http://www.martinhames.com/
