The fun part about reading books and offering insight is that it opens doors to diverse writing styles and defines a variety of interesting Kentucky authors and characters. We have many talented people in our state.
This week the spotlight shines on a biography penned nicely by the late Carlton Jackson (1933-2014). In his life, Jackson served as a distinguished professor of history at Western Kentucky University and was the recipient of four Fulbright Awards, teaching abroad on four separate occasions. The Fulbright Award, signed into law by Harry Truman, promoted goodwill throughout the world via education, culture, and science. Jackson, himself a Kentucky paragon, wrote nearly 30 books in his lifetime.
The professor’s final book is titled: Kentucky Maverick, The Life and Adventures of George M. Chinn. This book is remarkable in detail and cordial in style. There is a folksy joy about this biography because it focuses on Mercer County’s George M. Chinn, a Kentucky character of incomparable flair.
According to Jackson’s publisher, The University Press of Kentucky, “Colonel George M. Chinn’s (1902–1987) life story reads more like fiction than the biography of a Kentucky soldier.” Here, I have to agree.
Chinn was a smart and fun-loving man. He attended and graduated from Danville’s Centre College and was a key member of the famous “Praying Colonels” football team that won the 1921 National Championship.
Some noteworthy flair from Jackson’s book provides depth: after graduation and back in Mercer County, Chinn partnered with a munitions expert “Tunnel” Smith. Together the two men dynamited a cliff and the resulting hole became Chinn’s Cave House—a diner that also served as an underground gambling operation during Prohibition. Chinn also served as Governor A. B. “Happy” Chandler’s bodyguard before joining the Marine Corps in 1943.
More from The University Press of Kentucky: “In Kentucky Maverick, Carlton Jackson details the life of a legendary and highly decorated Marine [and Kentuckian] whose career spanned [two] world wars, the Korean War, and Vietnam. Chinn’s service paired a love of history with a special kind of genius: he documented the history of military technology while designing innovative weapons such as the M-19 automatic grenade launcher…still used in the armed forces today.
“Chinn’s often outrageous personality led him to carve his own moral path and earned him a reputation as a maverick. During prohibition, he blasted a cave into the limestone cliffs of the Kentucky River and used it as an illegal watering hole and gambling den called Chinn’s Cave House… he defended himself, arguing that he was not running a game of chance because every slot was rigged so that anyone who played it lost money. He was acquitted.”
Such noteworthy personal charm and obstinacy enabled Chinn to win a waiver to join the Marine Corps during World War II (and later in Korea and Vietnam), despite being ten years over age and some 120 pounds overweight.
Kentucky Maverick is an engaging book that reveals Chinn’s grand sense of humor, his unbending will, and a sense of destiny. The Mercer County native, as depicted by Jackson, was a true 20th Century Renaissance Man.
Regarding Chinn’s exceptional character, Jackson hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “All societies could use the services of a Colonel Chinn. This is especially true of democratic societies. It is all too easy, even in a democracy, for citizens to respond to the rantings of demagogues. Colonel Chinn did not invent the phrase ‘Get a life,’ but he just as well might have… above all else the colonel adjured us never, never to automatically accept anyone else’s ideas unless and until you have thoroughly analyzed them for yourself. Total conformity, Chinn would assuredly argue, is the worst thing that can happen to a democracy.”
The foregoing is sage advice for all and is particularly apropos in these dubious times. The book offers many similar insights. For the history buffs among us, this offering should be your cup of tea.
Jackson’s book Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel, of Gone with the Wind fame, was on the New York Times list of the fifty most notable books of 1989.
For more information about Kentucky Maverick, a well written and researched book, visit www.kentuckypress.com.
Donald Then, a novelist and experienced editor and journalist, is NKyTribune’s literary editor. He reviews books written by local authors or those with a Northern Kentucky setting. Reach him at author@djamesthen.com. Visit his website at www.djamesthen.com.