Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood

by Wilma Dykeman, Robert Morgan (Foreword by)

Overview

Discovered as a typewritten manuscript only after her death in 2006, Family of Earth allows us to see into the young mind of author and Appalachian native Wilma Dykeman (1920–2006), who would become one of the American South’s most prolific and storied writers. Focusing on her childhood in Buncombe County, Dykeman reveals a perceptive and sophisticated understanding of human nature, the environment, and social justice. And yet, for her words’ remarkable polish, her voice still resonates as raw and vital. Against the backdrop of early twentieth-century life in Asheville, she chronicles the touching, at times harrowing, story of her family’s fortunes, plotting their rise and fall in uncertain economic times and ending with her father’s sudden death in 1934 when she was fourteen years old.

Featuring a new foreword by fellow North Carolinian Robert Morgan, Family of Earth stands as a new major literary work by a groundbreaking author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469629148
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	612,778
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Wilma Dykeman (1920-2006) was a novelist, historian, journalist, educator, speaker, and environmentalist who pioneered in the areas of water pollution, civil rights, oral history, Appalachian studies, and the empowerment of women.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

As is true of so many writers from western North Carolina, Wilma Dykeman's fiction played an important role in my development, and the publication of a work we did not even know existed is cause for celebration. This precocious memoir shows a young author finding her voice as she describes a childhood whose seismic event was the death of a beloved father. Family of Earth is a valuable addition to understanding Dykeman and her later work, but it is also a fascinating, deeply moving account of a writer's developing sensibility.—Ron Rash, author of Above the Waterfall

Wilma Dykeman is indeed a 'tall woman' who has cast her long shadow over many other Appalachian women writers, especially me, inspired early on by both her beautiful writing and her social conscience. Family of Earth is a revelation; here is a little poet, an only child raised in relative isolation who knew her parents as friends, who lived and breathed the mountains and the whole natural world around her—this extraordinary childhood clearly informed the woman she would become, what she would do and write. I will place this book next to Eudora Welty's One Writer's Beginnings on my shortest and most important bookshelf.— Lee Smith, author of Dimestore: A Writer's Life

A gorgeous meditation on Dykeman's memories of home.—Wiley Cash, author of This Dark Road to Mercy

Editorial Reviews

…a haunting and exquisite book, not to mention a rare exception to the rule that no one so young should write a memoir. Even without much life experience, Dykeman has a great deal to say about life…To read Family of Earth is to fall into the embrace of a Southern landscape that, in the hands of this author, is as cerebral as it is sensual, that gives us not just the bad news about the state of our union but grants a special wisdom to those willing to look beyond regionalism and actually understand something about a region.

The New York Times Book Review - Meghan Daum

★ 2016-06-30
The first publication of a long-lost work by revered Appalachian writer Dykeman (1920-2006).Written in the early 1940s, just after her graduation from Northwestern University, Dykeman’s observations on nature display her charming ability to remember small joys: sitting on a rock near the creek watching life floating by over the creek bed, a luna moth in flight, the sounds and feel of the country. Her intimacy with water is evident as her descriptions transport readers into the moment: rain, puddles, mists, walking in damp earth, and even the smell of newness after a flood. Her stories of the first 14 years of her life evoke the innocence of childhood before we lose the sense of incredibility and uniqueness of things. Predating Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring by almost 20 years, Dykeman’s work bemoans the negative changes to nature: the housing booms and the losses of woodlands, habitats, and, mostly, solitude, something her father introduced to her as a singular freedom. A person who lives with nature is the only truly real person, compelled only by natural laws—laws so primal and universal that they also rule the lives of plants and animals. In addition to the author’s abiding affinity for nature, she has a beautiful, lyrical writing style. Throughout her life, she ached to satisfy her imagination not with facts but with the feel of things. Dykeman grew up near Asheville, North Carolina, and her father, 60 when she was born, was her light, her guide, and her muse. He and her mother, more than 35 years younger, took their only child for walks in their woods, to the creeks, hollows, and meadows, reveling in everything they saw—and it shows in this enjoyable series of reflections. A captivating, poetic, difficult-to-categorize book that abundantly showcases the author’s talent for making words dance. Anyone who has lived in the countryside, or wished they had, will enjoy Dykeman’s celebration of nature.

Kirkus Reviews

A haunting and exquisite book, not to mention a rare exception to the rule that no one so young should write a memoir. Even without much life experience, Dykeman has a great deal to say about life.”—New York Times Book Review

“A captivating, poetic, difficult-to-categorize book that abundantly showcases the author’s talent for making words dance. Anyone who has lived in the countryside, or wished they had, will enjoy Dykeman’s celebration of nature.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Explores the bonds of family, and a child’s place in this great big world. . . . An ode to the captivating rhythms of nature.”—Our State

“We are fortunate to have this remarkable beginning to a distinguished literary career, and an endearing addition to an ever-growing array of richly revealing Appalachian life stories.—Appalachian Journal

“The writing is pungent, earthy and raw yet at the same time elegant. . . . A quick read that will leave you wishing Dykeman had written more.”—Carolina Mountain Life

“A gift to lovers of Appalachian lore.”—Wilmington Star-News

“A fortunate find. . . . This memoir from a North Carolina treasure will keep you busy. There is much to think about and ponder in these pages.”—Herald-Sun

“It’s a gift that UNC Press has put the story that showcases the mind of a young author and Appalachian native into print.”—Mountain Times

“A wonderful introduction to Dykeman’s works . . . for first-time readers and a welcome addition for fans.”—Library Journal

“Dykeman’s writing is. . . poignant and poetic and she leaves her reader with a deeper understanding of what it was like to grow up in the mountains of North Carolina during the Depression era.”—Tennessee Libraries

From the Publisher

09/01/2016
Dykeman (1920–2006), from Asheville, NC, wrote both fiction and nonfiction discussing the social, racial, and environmental issues of the people and land of Appalachia. Along with her husband, James Stokely Jr., the author enriched the cultural life of the area for over 50 years. This memoir, found among her papers after her death, conveys two central themes: Dykeman's intimate relationship with the natural world and her closeness to her family. The book features a thoughtful forward by writer Robert Morgan, offering new readers an insightful look into Dykeman's literary reputation in her lifetime. The writing style is clear and concise, her imagery is lively, and her storytelling harkens to an earlier era without becoming overly sentimental. VERDICT A wonderful introduction to Dykeman's works (e.g., The French Broad) for first-time readers and a welcome addition for fans.—Pam Kingsbury, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence

Library Journal