A closer look

The story of a man of inexhaustible energy, relentless drive, and visionary, calculated risk.

In the generation following the devastation of the Civil War, Fuller Earle Callaway became a personification of the New South. Known principally to history as a textile magnate, Callaway in fact was at heart a merchant, an expert in both retail and wholesale, with a gift for advertising as well as for buying and selling.

Now available as a 320-page hardcover book with over 200 images.

"It is a must-read for anyone interested in the story of American business, in the power of transformational leadership, and in how modern Georgia was created."

- W. Todd Groce, Ph.D., President and CEO, Georgia Historical Society

Endorsements:

“In this superb study, Fuller E. Callaway at last finds his biographer and his proper place in Georgia’s and the nation’s story at a turning point of history... After this biography, it will be impossible to think of business history in the New South and the nation without putting Fuller Callaway in the top ranks of his peers.”

- Jamil S. Zainaldin, President, Georgia Humanities Council

“Buck and Carol Melton’s deeply researched and full-bodied biography captures both the public and private lives of this self-made industrialist, setting his remarkable career firmly within the contexts of the multiple stages—local, state, national, and international—on which it played out.”

- John C. Inscoe, Editor, New Georgia Encyclopedia; Albert B. Saye Professor of History, University of Georgia

“Fuller Callaway Sr. was one of the most remarkable figures in Georgia history, a man whose vision, sagacity, and entrepreneurial spirit helped the state recover from the devastation of the Civil War and move with confidence into the 20th century. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the story of American business, in the power of transformational leadership, and in how modern Georgia was created.”

- W. Todd Groce, Ph.D., President and CEO, Georgia Historical Society

Fuller E. Callaway as a five-year-old boy.

Photo courtesy of Troup County Archives

Fuller E. Callaway and family gathered in the boxwood garden at Hills and Dales, which Fuller purchased in 1912.

Photo courtesy of the Fuller E. Callaway family

Fuller with a cane in the historic Ferrell Gardens.

Photo courtesy of Hills & Dales Estate

1924 pencil sketch of Fuller Callaway Sr. by Vance Lovejoy Cotter.

Photo courtesy of Hills & Dales Estate

Callaway acquired his favorite horse, Jim, in 1920 and was frequently see riding him around LaGrange and the surrounding countryside.

Photo courtesy of Troup County Archives

Buckner F. Melton, Jr.

(Ph.D., History, Duke University; J.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is the author of a number of books including Aaron Burr: Conspiracy to Treason; A Hanging Offense: The Strange Affair of the Warship Somers; and Sea Cobra: Admiral Halsey’s Task Force and the Great Pacific Typhoon. A former Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Mercer University, he currently teaches at Middle Georgia State University.

Carol Willcox Melton

(Ph.D., History, Duke University) is the author of Between War and Peace: Woodrow Wilson and the American Expeditionary Force in Siberia, 1918–1921. She is Associate Professor of History at Middle Georgia State University.

Order from the Hills & Dales gift shop at

706-882-3242

The publication of Fuller E. Callaway: Portrait of a New South Citizen is a collaborative effort between Fuller E. Callaway Foundation, the Georgia Humanities and Looking Glass Books.