
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140170
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

"LITTLE" BOOK THAT COULD FINALLY DOES

When Howard Owen was writing "Littlejohn," he didn't tell anyone he was working on a book besides his wife, Karen.

"I didn't want people asking me, `So how's the novel coming?' " said Owen, sports editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

He quietly worked on the book for 100 days in 1989, with the modest goal of just getting it published. Over the next three years, Owen got many rejections before Permanent Press published "Littlejohn" in 1992. It got some favorable reviews and sold 1,600 copies.

Now, news of the book is spreading because of an enthusiastic word-of-mouth campaign started by a bookstore owner. Villard Books, a unit of Random House, has published 25,000 copies and sent Owen on a 20-city tour.

Owen wrote "Littlejohn" to keep a promise to himself to write a novel. He based the book on memories of his youth; stories from friends; and Southern quirks and traditions.

Though set in the South, the book's themes of family, love and loss are universal, said Marcia Meisinger, a Richmond-area bookseller who enjoyed the book so much that she sold it with a money-back guarantee. None was returned, she said.

She also sent copies to booksellers nationwide.

"What I wanted more than anything was for people to read the book," said Meisinger, who now lives in Greensboro, N.C. "I've been cruising around Greensboro making sure everyone has it.

"A bookseller is on the lookout for that little-known book that everybody will love. My customers got such a big charge out of reading something that they really liked."

The book is built on the reflections of 82-year-old Littlejohn Geddie McCain, who confronts the events in his past as he waits to die in the hot sun of rural North Carolina, a place resembling Owen's hometown of Vander, just outside Fayetteville, N.C.

"I knew people like Littlejohn. People who patiently, quietly went about their lives," Owen said. "They didn't complain, went straight ahead like a mule plowing the field.

"Everything I've absorbed in my life, I've brought to this," he said.

by CNB