Looking for Andy Griffith - by Evan Dalton Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Andy Griffith (1926-2012) was one of North Carolina's most beloved exports for decades, capturing America's heart as Sheriff Andy Taylor. Evan Dalton Smith was born in Asheboro, North Carolina a few decades after Andy, just over an hour south of Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy. Both were small-town boys who grew up in similar places, where the counties were dry and the churches plentiful. But for both, there was darkness, crushed hopes, and tragedy, hidden just below the surface. For Smith and many of his generation in North Carolina, Andy Griffith was like the air--everywhere, all the time, a part of daily life. Even after he left the state, Smith always felt the pull of home and the lingering ghost of Andy alongside it. This is an exploration on celebrity and the self, on home and what that means when you leave it, and why we love and admire the people we do--even if we've never met them--all told through the entwined lives of iconic actor Andy Griffith and writer Evan Dalton Smith. It is through Smith's telling of Griffith's life that he finds his own story, one that is both informed by and freed from the legacy of one of North Carolina's most famous sons"--

Book Synopsis

Andy Griffith (1926-2012) is one of North Carolina's most beloved exports, capturing America's heart as Sheriff Andy Taylor. Evan Dalton Smith was born in the North Carolina Piedmont over four decades after Andy, just an hour south of Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy. Both were small-town boys who grew up in similar places, where the counties were dry and the churches plentiful. But for both, there was darkness, crushed hopes, and tragedy, hidden just below the surface.

For Smith and many generations in North Carolina, Andy Griffith was like the air--everywhere, all the time, a part of daily life. Even after he left the state, Smith always felt the pull of home and the lingering ghost of Andy alongside it. This is an exploration on celebrity and the self, on home and what that means when you leave it, and why we love and admire the people we do--even if we've never met them--all told through the entwined lives of iconic actor Andy Griffith and writer Evan Dalton Smith. It is through Smith's telling of Griffith's life that he finds his own story, one that is both informed by and freed from the legacy of one of North Carolina's most famous sons.

Review Quotes

"A comprehensive examination into the life and career of actor Andy Griffith . . . [that] is intended to offer a glimpse into the impact of both Griffith and The Andy Griffith Show on the author's life. . . . [S]uitable for inclusion in any academic or local public library with a focus on North Carolina cultural history."--North Carolina Libraries

"A poignantly candid memoir . . . . Shot through with admiration and grief for all the father figures Smith ever loved, this unique, at times wistfully lyrical memoir is a moving celebration of fatherhood as well as a warm tribute to the lessons all fathers, real and imagined, have to teach us."--Kirkus Reviews

"Smith bounces his life against Griffith's to see where the sparks fly. Their twined lives get meted out in vignettes, in short capsules glancing on Griffith's career, his fan base, his cultural legacy, North Carolina history, Smith's shambolic post-divorce existence, and, perhaps most of all, 'our desire and nostalgia for things that didn't exist.' . . . A surfeit of pain courses through this book, but, as Smith reminds us, a similar river trickled through Mayberry."--Jonathan Miles, Garden & Gun