Born in Georgia, raised in Florida and resident of North Carolina since 1966, Jim Wise is an alumnus of Duke University (BA, English) and the University of North Carolina (MA, folklore). He has been a reporter, editor and/or columnist for newspapers in Durham, North Carolina, for more than twenty-eight years and has taught adult classes on local and Southern history for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke. His previous History Press books are On Sherman's Trail: The Civil War's North Carolina Climax and Durham Tales: The Morris Street Maple, the Plastic Cow, the Durham Day that Was and More. He and his wife, Babs, live in Durham with an aging dog and cat.