On April 2, 2021, Neal Hutcheson will release The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, a biography and collection of photographs and interviews detailing the life and legacy of Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, a moonshiner active in East Tennessee until his death in 2009. The book features contributions from Southern Appalachian novelist David Joy and Penn State anthropologist Kirk French, and has earned praise in early reviews from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Foreword Reviews, and The Midwest Book Review.
Sutton was previously featured in Hutcheson’s Emmy award-winning documentary, The Last One, and many other television and documentary productions. The iconic moonshiner came to represent, for many, the heritage of traditional mountain culture and the craft of moonshine. The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton will be available from Fruit Jar Alley in Newport, the Rhythm Section in Gatlinburg, the Moon Pie General Store in Pigeon Forge, and bookstores in Knoxville and Nashville, and is available online from suckerpunchpictures.com.
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Those interested in Appalachian history and culture would do well to spend time with this book. Popcorn's wit, jokes and indelible way of speaking offers readers a better understanding of how the people of the region survived when outside forces came to exploit, and when neighbors, friends and family began to leave. — Timothy Lydon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The definitive biography of a famous Appalachian moonshiner ... its beautiful layouts and glossy paper will make it work as a coffee table book and a keepsake. — Foreword Reviews
In Popcorn, Hutcheson met the perfect subject, a man who chose to cling to the past, to preserve (in words and liquid) what he believed was worth preserving, and to answer to no greater law than his own simple conscience. Popcorn Sutton’s legacy is not in worldly goods but in his unique character that will, through Hutcheson’s careful, caring collation, live on. — Barbara Bamberger Scott, GoodReads
The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton is an inherently fascinating read and certain to be an immediately welcome and enduringly popular addition to personal reading lists of anyone with an interest in American moonshine history and traditions, as well as community, college, and university library Contemporary American Biography collections. — Midwest Book Review
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NEAL HUTCHESON is an award winning filmmaker with a large body of work documenting heritage in transition. Hutcheson’s documentary Mountain Talk (2002) featured Popcorn Sutton, among many other citizens of Western North Carolina, and he subsequently produced two documentary features with Sutton, the Emmy award-winning The Last One (2009) and Popcorn Sutton – A Hell of a Life (2014).
KIRK FRENCH is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, where he created a popular course entitled The Anthropology of Alcohol or “Booze and Culture.” Over fourteen hundred students enroll in the class each year, making it the largest anthropology course in the United States.
DAVID JOY is the author of the Edgar nominated novel Where All Light Tends To Go and the critically-acclaimed novels The Weight Of This World, The Line That Held Us, and When These Mountains Burn. His latest short stories and essays have appeared in Time, The New York Times Magazine, Garden & Gun, and The Bitter Southerner.
Published March 26, 2021
