Civil War diary out in paperback; proceeds will fund scholarship

The Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 1861-1866, published by the Louisiana State University Press, was edited by Dr. John Marszalek, who also wrote a new introduction for the paperback. The book originally was published in hard cover in 1979.

Holmes lived in Charleston, S.C., while she recorded the events during and immediately after the Civil War. She was the great-aunt of Mississippi State engineering professor Alester Garden Holmes Jr.

Marszalek said revenues from the paperback version will be funneled to the Mississippi State Foundation to fund the Johnson Whittaker Scholarship for history majors. The history professor wrote a book about the court-martial of Whittaker, one of the first black cadets at West Point. It was later made into a Showtime movie, "Assault at West Point."

For more information on the scholarship, call Lynn Eiland, Office of Development, at 325-3410; to learn more about the diary, call Dr. John Marszalek at 325-7088.