In researching and writing what would become the book about his father, The Prince of Frogtown, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg says he knew there were good stories about the cotton mill village and the mill itself in Jacksonville that might not get told unless he pursued them.

On Wednesday, October 7, Bragg will share those stories in print for the first time as he debuts his latest book, The Most They Ever Had, in the town where the events took place.

Bragg’s visit to Jacksonville will launch the national tour for the book, which he says was not intended to be a commentary on the American worker.

“It seemed to me that the textile workers of my childhood are in their twilight, and that was a story worth telling,” Bragg explains.

“These are the toughest people I’ve ever met, and some of the best people I’ve ever had the chance to know. I’m honored to tell their stories, and grateful to them for sharing them.”

Over the course of about five years, Bragg and “as many as a dozen people helping at one time or another” interviewed around 100 residents of “Frogtown,” the mill village where many of the events in Bragg’s previous books took place.

Some, Bragg says, “gave us a line, or a word, and some could have written their own book, easy.”

When it came time to decide where to debut the finished work, Bragg knew that there was no other place but Jacksonville. In coming home, those whose lives he shares in the book will have the opportunity to see their stories appreciated, and he will have the chance to visit with hometown folk.

He plans to stay around until there are no more necks to hug and no more books to sign.

Hardback copies of The Most They Ever Had will be available for the first time at the launch party. MacAdam/Cage published the title, which will retail for $23.

The event will take place at Leone Cole Auditorium on the Jacksonville State University campus. It begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free.