James Higdon Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

James Higdon is an accomplished published American author.

He attended St. Augustine School, Marion County High School, Centre College, and then the MFA writing program at Brown University. He also attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

His debut book is titled The Cornbread Mafia. This book first came out for readers to enjoy in 2012 and came out in paperback format in 2013. It also was released as a revised paperback in 2019. Higdon would follow this up with the second book which he released in 2018 which is titled The Nearly Forgotten History of Portland, Kentucky.

James is the co-founder and the chief communications officer for Cornbread Hemp. It is a CBD brand that offers consumers the choice to consume USDA organic CBD products from Kentucky.

The Cornbread Mafia: A Homegrown Syndicate’s Code of Silence and The Biggest Marijuana Bust In American History is a book written by James Higdon. This is a true story about a man named Johnny Boone.

In the summer of ‘87, Johnny Boone went about planting, growing, and eventually harvesting one of the largest outdoor marijuana crops in modern times to happen. By doing so, he would set into motion a resulting series of events that would come to define not only him but his associates as well in the largest homegrown marijuana syndicate in the history of the United States, known as the Cornbread Mafia.

Higdon has a close relationship with Johnny Boone, who is a federal fugitive. This led to him being the first journalist to be subpoenaed under the Obama administration. The author takes the readers back to the seventies and the eighties, focusing on the clash between local and federal law enforcement and a band of Kentucky farmers with moonshine and pride making up a large part of their bloodlines and something that had run in the family for a long time.

By the time that 1989 rolled around, a task force had been assigned to take down the type of men like Johnny Boone. 69 men had been arrested as well as one woman from busts that took place on 29 different farms located in 10 different states, seizing 200 tons of pot along the way.

From the 70 individuals who had been arrested, none of them talked. They all banded together and said nothing. It all went down in a Mafia-style story way that took place in the Bluegrass State, populated by Vietnam vets and various cannabis-enjoying characters that somehow got caught up in a spree of violence and altruism.

With a soundtrack of rock and roll and rhythm and blues, this is a work of investigative journalism and history that comes together thanks to the author in incredible detail and is so colorful that readers may just find themselves staying up late to find out what happens. Read The Cornbread Mafia by James Higdon to find out what happens.

The Nearly Forgotten History of Portland, Kentucky is a book by James Higdon. Love books that are based on the real events of history and cannot get enough? This is a book that is practically tailor made for you.

This is a true story about the creation of an independent town that is located below the fall of the Ohio. Today it is a resurgent neighborhood located on Louisville’s northwest end.

The story starts with the geologic forming of the 350 million year old Devonian Era fossil beds that are now referred to as the Falls. It shows glimpses of its prehistory and then the reader encounters the Shawnee, who are present when Daniel Boone comes.

From that place, Portland becomes a point of departure for Lewis & Clark and the adventurers that came after. The story of early Portland includes a number of important figures from history and rolls the names out, from John James Audubon to Abraham Lincoln, Henry Clay, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens.

It is the residents of Portland who truly make this story intriguing. From Jim Porter to Pink Varble to the Batman brothers to Mary Millicent Miller to Gen. William “Bull” Nelson. This is one of those unique page turners that once you complete it, you will not want to wait to share it with family and friends. Check out this book based on the truth of history and a specific place that many continue to know and love today– get a copy of The Nearly Forgotten History of Portland, Kentucky by James Higdon to find out what he has to say.