Until the Dawn

About the Book

Until the Dawn explores the inner feelings of an artist who grows up in a small Southern town. It is a thoughtful and heartfelt look into conflicts of religion, race and sexual orientation, and an insightful look into the struggle between a painter and what he puts on the canvas.

"A stunning debut novel by a wise new voice in American fiction" - Dave Gantt, librarian in Washington, D.C. from review on amazon.com

"A wonderfully guilty pleasure: like reading Valley of the Dolls or something with all the juicy stuff and art stuff that is actually believeable." - Becky Hendrick, author of Getting It: a Guide to Understanding and Appreciating Art (Houghton Mifflin)

During the art explosion of the eighties, when contemporary painters became glittering media stars, Red Warner was the most famous of all. He was as well known for his wild-man persona as he was for his deliciously harsh, abstract paintings. But his fame ended with a disastrous final show at the Broome Street Gallery and the now notorious party that left him slumped on the floor in a pool of blood. Hundreds of partygoers fled in panic, and a beautiful woman no one had seen before whisked the injured artist away. Red and the woman were never again seen in New York.

Johnny Lewis, an art collector and childhood friend of Red Warner’s, sets out to find the missing artist and discover what really happened at that party.  His search takes him from New York to Tupelo, Mississippi, where the artist grew up — where he was known not as Red Warner the painter, but as Travis Earl Warner the football player.

Johnny Lewis tells the story of the Warner clan through three generations, three wars, and the tumultuous Civil Rights struggles in Mississippi.  His story begins in 1939 when Travis’s adoptive grandfather, the wealthy banker Charlie Warner, strikes a bargain with the drunken janitor at Tupelo High School.

At the heart of this story is Marybelle Sullivan, a strong and independent woman who survives spouse abuse and builds a new life for herself and her son. And Travis, her son, who is torn between the town’s expectations for him and his private dream of becoming a famous artist.

Travis is born during World War II, and he comes of age at a time when another Tupelo native, Elvis Presley, is becoming a national icon.  At a party following an appearance by Elvis at the Mississippi-Alabama State Fair and Dairy Show, Travis’s sexuality is awakened in a disturbing and unexpected way.

Soon he leaves Tupelo to study art at the Memphis Art Academy, and later at the University of Alabama, but he keeps being drawn back home.  During one of his summer visits a friend from high school is raped and murdered, and Travis is a key witness to the crime. In court, he faces an impossible choice. If he lies about what he witnessed, as the DA is pressuring him to do, he can save a friend from conviction. But if he refuses to lie, another friend will be sent to prison.

The choice he makes haunts him, and he runs away from Mississippi. And from himself. But voices from Tupelo follow him to New York City — the voice of Brother Barnes, the hellfire and brimstone preacher; of Mabel Cook, the teacher who said Travis would come to a no-good end and who repeatedly warned, “Blood will out;” and the remembered voices of his buddies, Charlie and Hoss, sweet and sad Sam Littlejohn, and sassy, sexy Wanda Ramsey.  These people and more fill his head and refuse to leave him alone.

To the people who come to his shows and read about him in the magazines and gossip rags, it seems that Red Warner is living the dream of a successful New York artist, but for Travis, the dream is turning into a nightmare. He thinks he has escaped his past, but he has not, and so once again, he tries to run away…

But can he ever stop running?

We learn the answer when Johnny Lewis finally finds the missing artist and discovers that Travis, scarred t

About the Author

Alec Clayton grew up in Mississippi in the fifties and sixties. He did graduate studies in art at East Tennessee State University, and then moved to New York, where he edited an alternative weekly newspaper for five years. After moving back to Mississippi in 1977, he and his wife, Gabi, published a weekly newspaper, Persons, and then a literary arts quarterly, Mississippi Arts & Letters. The Clayton’s publishing business was operated out of their home, where they also ran an emergency shelter. Alec also taught art and directed the art gallery at the University of Southern Mississippi. Alec is a senior editor for the Ft. Lewis Ranger newspaper. He writes art criticism for the daily Olympian newspaper in Olympia, Washington, and for Art Access, a statewide magazine published in Seattle. His paintings are shown in galleries in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently working on his second novel.