Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains by Georgann Eubanks. University of North Carolina Press, 2007. 440 pages

Without a doubt, this guidebook contains the most comprehensive survey of the literature of Western North Carolina that has ever been published. Lavishly illustrated by Donna Campbell (83 color, 20 black and white, and 22 maps) and published on highly durable stock and touting an endorsement from the North Carolina Arts Council, Literary Trails is destined to become a valuable resource for readers and institutions everywhere. More than 170 writers from the past and present are featured in this volume. In addition, the notables are not restricted to natives since many of this country’s most famous writers (F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marjorie Kennan Rawlings, etc.) visited our mountains and drew inspiration from them.

Designed in a style that is reminiscent of the old travel guides of the 1940s (tours complete with interesting sights, recommended hotels and restaurants), Literary Trails applies this formula to literature. In addition, an appropriate poem or an excerpt from a literary work may be provided in conjunction with traveling directions.

When questioned about the book’s design, Georgann Eubanks notes that when she was a child and traveled extensively with her family, her father always avoided the interstates, major cities and shopping malls. Instead, he wandered down two-lanes and dirt roads where authentic culture and history was much more evident. Eubanks also notes that our present condition (progress and super highways) has rendered our region’s most fascinating aspects virtually invisible. Such aspects as language, dialects and colorful regional history (and characters) are hidden behind the façade of tourism promotion and commercial ballyhoo.

Eubanks’ guidebook is for the “discerning traveler” — the visitor who would like to not merely stand by Horace Kephart’s grave in Bryson City, but who would experience an additional pleasure in reading the noted poet, Michael Chitwood’s poem, which is inspired by a visit to the same graveyard. Eubanks believes that her readers may want to experience the thrill of not only visiting Thomas Wolfe’s birthplace, but also actually seeing his battered typewriter. Perhaps a visit to the Grove Park Inn means more if you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald walked down the same hall and lounged on the porch looking at these same mountains.

Eubanks, who is employed by Minnow Studio in Carrboro as a filmmaker and writer, has acquired an extensive knowledge of North Carolina’s folklore and literary heritage through her documentary work. In a recent interview, Georgann said, “We cannot know who we are today unless we know where we came from.” In the final analysis, this quote defines the purpose of this guidebook. In addition, Eubanks senses that as we move from agriculture to high tech, there is an increasing resistance from people who do not want to “relinquish their identities and histories.” This is especially evident in small towns and settlements throughout North Carolina where people are increasingly interested in their genealogy.

“Literary Trails” is a skillful blend of factual data, anecdotes, poems and literary excerpts. It has all of the delights of a gourmand dish that is filled with pleasant surprises. Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, occupies the same shelf as Robert Strange who wrote North Carolina’s first novel; musicians as diverse as Tryon’s Nina Simone and the Hungarian composer, Bela Bartok (who once gave a hilltop concert in Asheville); the creative explosion at Black Mountain College; and the rich folklore (Frankie Silver, Tom Dooley) that permeates these mountains — all of these diverse artists and/or traditions were inspired by these mountains, rivers and people.

Of course, it isn’t necessary to read Literary Trails prior to visiting the poet Robert Morgan’s birthplace (or Carl Sandburg’s home) near Zirconia. This guidebook can be read with considerable pleasure in an armchair. Yet, there is much to be said for reading Jim Wayne Miller’s poem, “Names,” as you drive through Madison County; or Ron Rash’s “Coke Box” when you visit Pink Plemmons’ store in Luck, N. C. (certainly, there is a bountiful supply of “literary tourists” who have come looking for Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain)

Literary Trails is the first in a series of three volumes. Still to come is a guidebook for the Piedmont and the Coast. I, for one, am looking forward to a complete set.

(Gary Carden is a writer, storyteller and lecturer whose book, Mason Jars in the Flood, was named Book of the Year by the Appalachian Writers Association. He can be reached at gcarden498@aol.com.)