Explorations, and: Last One Home (review)

Black studies. The book is essential in the struggle to correct the misconception that "Appalachia is ... a purely white enclave." Now it is incumbent upon other educators to expand upon the effort of Turner and Cabbell and make Black Appalachia a visible, not invisible , minority. —Andrew Baskin»'-? Dykeman, Wilma. Explorations. Newport, Tennessee: Wakestone Books, 1984. EhIe, John. Last One Home. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Few readers need an introduction to Wilma Dykeman, the Tennessee novelist, historian, biographer and essayist whose books have been winning awards for the past 20 years. She's the author of The French Broad, Prophet of Plenty: The First Ninety Years oj W.D. Weatherford and Tennessee, among others. Her newest effort is a collection of short "explorations" of the world and its people, ranging from China's Great Wall to the Harvard campus to a hillside in Greece. But Dykeman always comes home to her East Tennessee mountains for her best writing. These essays—some of which have appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel and the New York Times—reflect a wry humor, intense passion and a strong sense of place. Here are some Dykeman observations: On Elizabeth Taylor, who spoke at Harvard University the same week as Dykeman: "Husbands. Between Elizabeth and me on this score it's strictly quantity versus quality. She has ranged over the matrimonial field like Genghis Khan raiding the camps of the civilized world. ... Having had only one husband disqualifies me from consideration in this chic, contemporary competition. But then if Elizabeth had ever had my husband, she might not have wanted any of the others." On her mother: "My mother's life-long idea of an afternoon of relaxation has been planting 13 azalea bushes or raking bushels of leaves from her wildflower trails. Her idea of an afternoon of hard work is attending a New York literary coektail party as she once did with me. Her reaction? ? crowd of strangers saying things vthey didn't mean to people about whom ihey didn't care.' Back to the wildflowers." On a little stray dog that adopted her family : "He was not of fashionable breed or status. His genealogy was dubious. He was simply the smartest little dog we ever encountered . ... One of the best things about our family, for eight years, was this precocious, loyal little dog. His presence made us more aware of the uniqueness of every living creature on this earth." When you share Dykeman's Explorations, you'll also share her insights into life and its curious foibles. Her writing is, as always, polished and professional, but this book offers a very personal viewpoint not expressed in her previous works. She writes powerfully about James Stokely, "the young stranger from Tennessee" she married. "And we stayed married—to each 73 other—for 37 years. Then, on an afternoon in June, sun-tanned and smiling, suddenly he sank onto the grass beside his garden ... We met in a garden and we parted in a garden ... He left on one of the few journeys we have not taken together." Winner of Berea College's 1985 Weatherford Award for Appalachian literature, Last One Home is the seventh of John EhIe's novels to be set in his native Western North Carolina mountains. Almost too much like Lion On The Hearth, Last One Home is the story of farm people drawn to Asheville by commerce; this, time, Pink Wright discovers life insurance and builds a financial empire. EhIe works in much early 1900s Asheville history—there is a sarcastic look at the city's development as a resort area, and one of Hallie Wright's contemporaries is young Thomas Wolfe. Last One Home is not the spellbinding story EhIe gave us in The Journey OfAugust King and The Road, but Last One Home is must reading for those of us who are longtime fans of John EhIe. —Garry Barker Featherstone, David. Doris Ulmann, American Portraits. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985. Her own motivations were to express "the profounder meanings that lurk in wrinkled brows and bowed shoulders." —Hamlin Garland 1927 Garland's observation as noted in David Featherstone's Doris Ulmann, American Portraits sets the tenor for...