Family of Earth
A Southern Mountain Childhood
Wilma Dykeman
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 09/2016
Pages: 208
Subject: Biography and Autobiography, History
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9780000000000
eBook ISBN: 9781469629162
DESCRIPTION
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.
