Mac Hyman - comedy or tragedy writer?

By Benny Wade

Which of the following is true? A. I laughed until I cried. B. I laughed so hard my ribs hurt. C. I laughed until I fell out of the chair and rolled on the floor.

Actually all three statements were accurate when as a teenager I first read the exploits of young Will Stockdale of Callville, Georgia in Mac Hyman’s, No Time for Sergeants.

Later the laughter continued unabated when I saw a surprisingly accurate movie rendition of the Will Stockdale story which starred Andy Griffith. I never saw the Broadway version of the story, but it too was hilarious and also starred Griffith.

For non-native readers within our midst, I should point out that Mac Hyman was born in 1923 in Cordele. He was a graduate of Cordele High School where he reportedly first displayed his skill as a humorous writer in an article published in the school newspaper.

He won international fame for No Time for Sergeants which was the only book he published prior to his untimely death in 1963 one month shy of his 40th birthday.

His second book, Take Now Thy Son, was published two years after his death.

As a youngster I discovered there were a number of sophisticated matrons living in the local community whose pronunciation of the word Cordele sounded like “Kaw deal.” While reading about Will Stockdale I quickly surmised that a hastily uttered colloquial pronunciation of “Kaw deal” does indeed sound somewhat like Callville.

I never had the chance to meet Mac Hyman but I was fortunate enough to meet his widow, Gwendolyn, when she was the director of DFACS in Dooly County. I asked her about the derivation of Callville and my idea about its origin.

She replied that she never heard Mac say how he happened to use the word. However some of the articles about Mac Hyman which appear on the Internet indicate his hometown was used as the setting for both novels.

I envy those people who are able to observe and to record in print those aspects of the human condition which invoke laughter when read. Ferrol Sams is a contemporary Georgia novelist who has this gift.

The late Lewis Grizzard also had a boundless ability to make people laugh. Yet I am told that few writers want to be remembered only for their work which makes people laugh.

Readers of the works of both Sams and Grizzard will find interwoven within the funny lines and stories messages which communicate beyond that of fun and enjoyment. Years ago I read in a literary magazine that Mac Hyman, despite his fame achieved from No Time for Sergeants, wanted to be remembered as more than a writer of comedy.

Yet when one hears about or reads about Mac Hyman, invariably his name is linked to No Time for Sergeants. If his second novel, Take Now Thy Son, is mentioned at all it is usually as an afterthought. An Internet article merely says it is a much darker novel than, No Time for Sergeants, with no additional information or explanation given.

Until yesterday I had neither read nor did I know anything about the content of Take Now Thy Son. I went to the local library and checked out copies of both novels.

I intended to review the first and to read the second. Since apparently a small number of people have read the second book I thought I would try the first few pages and if I did not find it worth my time, I would return it to the unread books file.

I began reading, Take Now Thy Son, at 1 p.m. yesterday and shortly before 7:30 p.m. last evening I stopped reading as I finished the last paragraph on the last page.

I have heard of books which were called “page turners” and for me this must have been a page turner. This book contains much more about Callville than did the previous book , and it was exciting to locate in my mind the various landmarks of Cordele described by Hyman.

Apparently the artist who designed the book jacket knew little about the Confederate Memorial Monument now located on the Community Clubhouse lawn as the jacket illustration shows a soldier on a horse.

I had trouble remembering some of the landmarks mentioned such as the college but a commentary did say it was a fictional version of Cordele.

There was no hint of laughter during the reading of Take Now Thy Son. The reader was more likely to shed tears.

I had wondered about the title of the book. The reason for the name given to the novel was not revealed until the next to last paragraph in the book. The writer of the blurb on the book jacket said Truitt Scott, the central character, represented a remnant of a society long since gone.

One need only read the murder stories which appear regularly in the news when someone kills someone else because his so called “honor” was violated to realize that the code described in Take Now Thy Son is alive and flourishing today.

If you have not read Take Now Thy Son, and if you want to know more about Mac Hyman the writer, I highly recommend that you read it. The book will not make you laugh. It will make you think.

It will also make you wonder what Mac Hyman would have accomplished as a writer had he not died so young.

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