Roy Blount: author, humorist, sportswriter

Despite having been born in Indianapolis and attending Harvard for graduate school, Roy Blount Jr. is about the most culturally Southern humorist in the country.

Blount Jr. attended Vanderbilt University, where he edited the school newspaper with future Tennessee governor and presidential candidate Lamar Alexander and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1963. After receiving his master's degree from Harvard the following year, he served in the U.S. Army for two years before becoming a journalist.

After working briefly as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal, he moved to Sports Illustrated and became an associate editor before going freelance full-time in 1975. In 1973, while still working for SI, Blount spent a football season on the road with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The result was his first book, "About Three Bricks Shy of a Load," which Jonathan Yardley of the Washington Post named one of the ten best sports books ever.

Blount's second book was "Crackers" (subtitled This Whole Many-Sided Thing of Jimmy, More Carters, Ominous Little Animals, Sad-Singing Women, My Daddy and Me). Although now somewhat dated by its emphasis on then-President Jimmy Carter, it firmly established Blount as a humorist with a perspective shaped by his Georgia roots.

Having been essentially without a steady job since the mid-1970's, Blount has mainly been published in the form of periodic, short humor pieces. These were published in one of the dozen or so magazines that have given him regular space or in any of more than 100 others to which he has contributed. Most of his books are collections of such pieces.

Because of Blount's diverse inspirations, a single theme rarely pervades ("What Men Don't Tell Women" is a notable exception). Within a piece, Blunt meanders through topics, making them seem spun together over a drink on a front porch.

George V. Higgins described him as "a cynic gone antic, with occasional intervals of utter battiness…It's very difficult to devote full attention to anything else while sitting next to him." Blount's writings also include a novel about the husband of the fictional first female president of the United States ("First Hubby"), a volume of poetry ("Webster's Ark and Soupsongs"), an analysis of hair in American culture ("It Grows on You"), the screenplay for the MGM movie Larger Than Life, and an autobiography ("Be Sweet").

He also edited the best-selling "Roy Blount's Book of Southern Humor," which includes writings from Edgar Allen Poe to Dave Barry and could arguably be considered the definitive anthology on the subject.

As his varied employers may indicate, Blount is either a dilettante or stubborn free spirit, depending on your perspective. He has appeared regularly on the Prairie Home Companion radio show, has done several one-man shows, had small roles in the films Married to the Mob and Larger Than Life, been a background singer in the literary band the Rock Bottom Remainders, and covered the 1992 Democratic and Republican national conventions for Comedy Central.

Biography courtesy of Central Booking

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