The American South is a diverse region with its own vocabulary, peculiarities, and complexities. Tennessee whiskey may technically be bourbon, but don't let anyone in Kentucky hear you call it that. And while boiling blue crabs may be the norm across the Lowcountry in South Carolina and Georgia, try that in front of Marylanders and they۪re likely to put you in the pot.

Now, from the editors of Garden & Gun comes this illustrated encyclopedia covering age-old traditions and current culture.S Is for Southern contains nearly five hundred entries spanning every letter of the alphabet, with essays from notable Southern writers including:

• Roy Blount, Jr., on humidity
• Frances Mayes on the magnolia
• Jessica B. Harris on field peas
• Rick Bragg on Harper Lee
• Jon Meacham on the Civil War
• Allison Glock on Dolly Parton
• Randall Kenan on Edna Lewis
• The Lee Brothers on boiled peanuts
• Jonathan Miles on Larry Brown
• Julia Reed on the Delta