Ten Famous Tar Heel Books
If you were asked to compile the ten great¬
est books written by North Carolinians, we
wonder how closely your list w'ould match
that of Professor Thomas II. English.
ON what books and authors
does the literary fame of
North Carolina rest?
A while back R. C. Lawrence
wrote on "Some of Our Leading
Authors” (The State. July 21,
1945). He listed only these nine:
Hinton Rowan Helper. 0. Henry.
Albion W. Tourgee, Bill Nye,
Thomas Wolfe. Thomas Dixon.
John Charles McNeill, James Boyd,
and Gerald Johnson. Now comes
Professor Thomas H. English of
Emory University. Atlanta, writing
in a recent issue of the South At¬
lantic Bulletin on "One Hundred
Famous Southern Books" and giv¬
ing North Carolina a reasonable
share of his hundred. Professor
English comments that perhaps
they are not the hundred best
books, but that he considers that
they are those which "have had
a wide influence in transmitting
the history, traditions, ideas and
ideals, the landscape, human char¬
acter, and local color of the South,
in all its regions and all its eras,
to the rest of the world and to
succeeding generations.”
In his list Professor English does
not confine himself to native writ¬
ers. There are 3 foreign authors
and 9 from states not strictly
Southern. Virginia comes first
with 21 titles by 14 writers; Geor¬
gia, the compiler's home state, is
next with 13 books by 12 authors.
It may surprise us Tar Heels that
North Carolina is third with 10
books by as many different writers.
Professor English gives no reas¬
ons for his individual selections;
but here, in chronological order,
are the North Carolina books, with
some comments on their fame:
The Impending Crisis of the
South (1857) by Hinton Rowan
Helper was probably the most
notorious book ever written by a
North Carolinian and was second
only to Uncle Tom’s Cabin in
arousing abolitionist sentiment in
. the North. It attempted to show
that under slavery, which was
economically unsound, the South
was declining because the Negro,
whom Helper contemned, was a
poor worker. In North Carolina it
was a penal offense to own or
distribute a copy of the book.
THE STATE. July 12. 1947
By RICIIARII WALKER
A Fool’s Errand (1879) by Judge
Albion Winegar Tourgee. a native
of Ohio who lived in this state
from 1865 to 1878, was a novel
of the Reconstruction days in and
around Greensboro. The book is
semi-autobiographical in the hero’s
fight with both the carpetbaggers
and the Ku Klux Klan. It was
widely read in both America and
Europe and sold some 200,000
copies — a vast number in pre-Book-
of-the-Month Club days. Local re¬
views attested to its literary merit
but said the book would do much
harm.
The Clansman (1905) by Thomas
Dixon was the book from which
The Birth of a Nation (1915),
Hollywood’s first large super¬
spectacle, was taken. The scene
which Dixon had in mind was his
native Cleveland County, though
he purposely stated that the violent
actions took place in South Caro¬
lina. This passionate, bitter novel
of the Reconstruction regime and
of the victory of the Ku Klux Klan
was avidly read everywhere in
America.
The Cotton Kingdom (1919) was
written by William E. Dodd, a
native of Clayton. He was best
known as the American ambassa¬
dor to Germany from 1933 to 1937,
those years of the Nazi ascendancy.
As professor of American history
at the University of Chicago, he
was recognized as a leading author¬
ity on the history of the South.
His book is a picture of the lower
South in 1850 — the social customs,
literature, and politics. One of the
most admired sections is that on
the philosophy of the planter.
Hell-Bent fer Heaven (1924) by
Hatcher Hughes, North Carolina-
born professor of drama at Colum¬
bia University, was the Pulitzer
Prize play for 1924. It is a story
of the North Carolina mountain¬
eers, one of whom is an evangelist
who uses dynamite, feuds, and
religion in his vain attempt to win
his girl.
Drums (1925) was James Boyd’s
first and most widely-read novel.
An honest narrative of pioneering
North Carolina during the Revo¬
lution, it has long since taken its
place in the select group of Ameri¬
can classics. Boyd refused to paint
historic times with the overly
colorful, romantic brush of his
predecessors, but spread his can¬
vas with a group of quite credible
patriots. Most famous are his
scenes of Edenton with John Paul
Jones stalking the streets.
In Abraham’s Bosom and The
Field God (1927) is a volume of two
plays by Paul Green, better known
at the present time as the author
of The Lost Colony. In Abraham's
Bosom won the Pulitzer Prize for
drama in 1927 and was much more
familiar to Broadway theatre¬
goers than to Mr. Green’s fellow
Carolinians. It is the tragedy of
a Negro, seeking education and
wider opportunities for his race.
Look Homeward, Angel (1929)
by Thomas Wolfe is the most monu¬
mental work of fiction ever written
by a North Carolinian. Its domi¬
nant position in contemporary
world literature is unquestioned;
yet it is only the story of a boy
growing up in Altamont (Ashe¬
ville) and going to college at Pulpit
Hill (Chapel Hill). In its over¬
whelming intensity, its story of
longing and hunger for life, its
belief in the greatness of America,
the book is distinguished for its
lyric beauty and strength.
Southern Regions of the United
States (1936) by Howard W. Odum,
authoritative sociologist at the
University of North Carolina, is
a statistical study of the regional
culture of the South — a survey of
its geography, economy, industry,
education, and religion. It has re¬
mained the indispensable guide to
present conditions and future plan¬
ning for all students of the South¬
ern scene.
A Southerner Discovers the
South (1938) by Jonathan Daniels
is the result of a summer spent
driving 3,000 miles throughout the
South. The author saw and talked
with Southerners everywhere,
then wrote a book which is a sort
of travelogue with a delightful
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