This image is the cover for the book A History Lover's Guide to Memphis & Shelby County, History & Guide

A History Lover's Guide to Memphis & Shelby County, History & Guide

This tour of Memphis goes well beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journey through the Home of the Blues. Explore the city's African American heritage from Church Park to beautiful Mason Temple, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final, prophetic speech. Visit Court Square, where a young Thomas Edison delighted children and adults with his popular invention: the cockroach shocker. Discover hidden gems like the nineteenth-century dueling grounds on the banks of the Mississippi and a charming Depression-era country store. From Beale Street to the bluffs, author Bill Patton traces the incomparable history of Memphis.

Bill Patton

Midtown resident Bill Patton is the founder of Memphis-based tour company Backbeat Tours (www.backbeattours.com). He is the author of A Guide to Historic Downtown Memphis, published by The History Press in 2010.

The History Press