George Sessions Perry

Perry's own farm was the scene of his best-known book. The Handbook of Texas says Hold Autumn in Your Hand, about a year in the life of a tenant farmer, grew from the semifeudal tenant system around Rockdale, and that Jean Renoir filmed it as The Southerner in 1945. After the war Perry wrote Tale of a Foolish Farmer about buying and running that same farm. He disappeared on December 13, 1956, and his body was recovered two months later, which fits the plaque's death year of 1956-57.

What the plaque says

George Sessions Perry The son of Andrew and Laura Perry, George Sessions Perry was born May 5, 1910, in Rockdale. In 1933, he married Claire Hodges of Beaumont. Four years later, he published the first in a long line of fiction and non-fiction stories and novels, many of which were based on people and events from his growing-up years in Rockdale. As a World War II correspondent, he brought first-hand accounts of the war to readers of "The New Yorker" and "The Saturday Evening Post." Perry won several major awards, including the 1941 National Book Award, before his death in 1956-57. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 13 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Calvert — 29 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Rockdale — steps away
• Site of Mundine Hotel — steps away
• City of Rockdale — steps away
• Railroads in Rockdale — steps away