Paul James Hemphill (February 18, 1936 – July 11, 2009) was an American journalist and author who wrote extensively about often-overlooked topics in the Southern United States such as country music, Evangelicalism, football, stock car racing and the blue collar people he met on his journeys around the South.
He graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (later renamed Auburn University), working on the school newspaper, The Plainsman, earning a bachelor's degree in 1959.
His writing led to a spot as a featured columnist in the Atlanta Journal shortly thereafter, where he became a reader favorite for his reporting on people and places from the South.
[1] He started his first and most successful book, The Nashville Sound: Bright Lights and Country Music (1970), while at Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship, a program designed to allow journalists the time to reflect on their careers and focus on honing their skills.
[1] The book provided an eye on the scene around the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, at a time when country music was starting to achieve broader cultural recognition.