An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood

The former president and best selling author of Sources of Strength and The Virtues of Aging writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a sharecropping economy of Depression-era Georgia. He renders an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and strict segregationist who treated black workers with his own brand of "separate" respect and fairness, and his strong-willed and well-read mother, a nurse who cared for all in need - regardless of their position in the community.

Carter describes the other people who shaped his early life (only two of whom were white), including the boyhood friends who could not attend the same school, and the eminent black bishop who refused to come to the back door but would stand in the front yard discussing crops and politics with Jimmy's father.

Carter evokes a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple while the rules were heartbreaking and complex. An Hour Before Daylight is a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation.