Basil Marceaux on WSMV-TV in 2010
Former Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Basil Marceaux has announced that he plans to come to Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville to hold a book-signing event Thursday night. Marceaux has personally confirmed this with our staff to be “a correct, factualized statement” [sic], despite the fact that Davis-Kidd Booksellers no longer exists, and Marceaux has not yet published, or even written, a book.
“I believe in the freedom of the all the books” [sic] declared Marceaux in a phone interview with the Rhinestone Monday. “If a man or a woman or a person and child wants a book to have it signed by Basil Marceaux.com like I am, I can do that for them. They can bring me any book as they have it of theirs. I’m not racist about books like that way. I will sign books because that’s my American right and so it’s also theirs. I am proud of American and freedom and books about people.”[sic]
Further complicating Marceaux’s plan to apparently sign any book which is presented him is the fact that he has picked a venue which no longer exists. Davis-Kidd Booksellers, long considered a favorite destination of Nashville book-buyers and site of frequent book-signing events, closed in December of 2010 after parent company Joseph-Beth Booksellers declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. When informed of this circumstance, the former candidate said that does not in any way deter him from following through with his commitment to sign books there, an agreement he claims was made in the summer of 2010, prior to the store’s closure.
“A promise is a contract with words in it, and I never don’t go back on a statement, a promise. Contract. That’s what? I follow through on things. If Congress and the police say the store is closed, that doesn’t just mean it. The store has to decide, and if they don’t, Congress isn’t true. Banks can be bankrupt and still open. It happens. It happened now. So I said I’d be there, and I’m be there.” [sic] Marceaux then began to sing his song “Come Christmas”, which is available on iTunes.
Marceaux, a self-proclaimed inventor and historian residing in Soddy-Daisy, rose to fame in 2010 when his campaign for Governor in the Tennessee Republican Primary garnered the fascination of the internet and, shortly thereafter, television comedians. Though he had run for Congress and Governor in previous elections without achieving notoriety, Marceaux’s claims in a 2010 campaign video (and subsequent interviews) that he would recall all gun permits, oppose slavery at traffic intersections, and abolish all criminal charges other than moving traffic violations made his candidacy an instant internet meme and talk-show fodder for the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, Steven Colbert, and The Soup.
The location formerly occupied by Davis-Kidd in Nashville’s Green Hills Mall is currently occupied by “The Container Store”, a shop specializing in containers for a variety of purposes. Evan Sashe, manager of The Container Store, was surprised and bemused when notified that Marceaux would be appearing at his store Thursday. “Obviously, that isn’t an arrangement we had with him. I can’t imagine the bookstore setting it up, either” noted Sashe. “But I’ve seen him on TV, and he seems like a funny, nice man. If he shows up, I’m sure we can set him up a table or something. It might be fun.”
When asked what books he anticipates his fans might bring, Marceaux speculated that it might be the United States Constitution or “one of the James Patterson number books”, amongst other possibilities. Marceaux also admitted that his favorite book is “The Monster at the End of This Book”, a Sesame Street children’s book. Reported Marceaux, “I like Grover”.
The Rhinestone 