Nightwatchmen was published by Viking Press in 1973. Set in a Mississippi town, the novel follows several intertwined narratives — a group of nightwatchmen at a hospital, a series of racial confrontations, and various sexual and creative obsessions — through a prose style that was more compressed, more fragmented, and more experimental than Geronimo Rex. The narrative moved by association rather than chronology, and the connections between characters and events were often implied rather than stated.
The novel was less commercially successful than Geronimo Rex but demonstrated Hannah’s determination to push his prose toward greater intensity and compression.
Collecting Nightwatchmen
First edition (Viking Press, New York, 1973): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $100–$300
- Very good: $40–$100
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation.
Campus Gothic
Hannah’s second novel (1973) is set on a Southern university campus where a series of bizarre events — a serial killer, a mad professor, racial tensions, and sexual excess — create a Gothic atmosphere that parodies academic life while also taking its violence seriously. The novel is less controlled than Geronimo Rex but demonstrates Hannah’s willingness to push fiction toward extremity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Hannah teach creative writing? Yes, for decades. He taught at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) from 1983 until his death in 2010, becoming one of the most influential creative writing teachers in the South. His students included a generation of Mississippi writers, and his influence as a teacher may prove as lasting as his influence as a writer.