Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
New Readings of Horace Kephart
Session Abstract or Summary
For readers interested in Appalachian culture and history, Horace Kephart has attained a kind of mythical status as the outsider who came to western North Carolina in 1904 to chronicle a world “back of beyond” and never left. In fact, Kephart began writing outdoor literature long before he left his job as head librarian at the St. Louis Mercantile Library. And his writing career continued until his untimely death in a car accident in 1931. Most readers are familiar with his best-known works: Our Southern Highlanders(1913; expanded edition 1922), Kephart’s chronicle of southern Appalachia and its people, and Camping and Woodcraft(1916, 1917), a classic of outdoor literature. Few, however, have read beyond these two texts. This panel introduces new readings of Kephart based on writings that have long languished in archives. Panelists include Janet McCue, co-author of the upcoming Kephart biography, who considers Kephart’s role as engaged citizen; Andrew Denson, who discusses Kephart’s writings about the Cherokees; George Frizzell, who considers Kephart’s quest for a frontier “back of beyond” and the Appalachia that he actually encountered, a region already experiencing changes that would intensify in coming decades. Finally, Mae Miller Claxton will consider Kephart the fiction writer. The publication of Kephart’s novel Smoky Mountain Magic, along with other works of fiction published in magazines throughout his career, provides another perspective on Horace Kephart’s writing career. We believe that this panel’s exploration of Kephart’s entire writing corpus will offer a re-introduction to a complex and prolific writer.
Presentation #1 Title
“Ain’t Politics Grand”
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The highway marker leading into Bryson City, NC, memorializes Kephart as a scholar, author, and outdoorsman. This presentation will provide a brief biographical summary and focus on Kephart's civic engagement in Bryson City and Asheville during the 1920’s.
Kephart’s scholarly career began as a graduate student in History and Political Sciences at Cornell University (1881-1884); the following year he lived in Europe, working for his former professor. At Yale University where he secured his first professional position as an academic librarian, he strengthened his interest in frontier history. Kephart was a polyglot who studied languages throughout his life (Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Finnish, Cherokee). Although his writings on outdoor subjects and on his Appalachian neighbors are generally well known, his personal views on topics from capital punishment to religious beliefs are not--nor are most people familiar with his civic engagement in Bryson City and Asheville in the 1920’s.
For example, during Kephart’s tenure as chair of the Bryson City Alderman, the Board enacted several infrastructure improvements--adding a new power plant, extending the water and sewer lines, and paving streets. The improvements required additional taxes and bond issuance. As Kephart explained to a friend, his progressive record “incurred the hostility of the reactionaries” and angered some of the wealthy who sought “special favors (lower tax rates than other folks).” A smear campaign against Kephart followed. McCue will cover the perspectives Kephart expressed in Asheville newspaper editorials, in his correspondence, and in the types of public engagement he undertook.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Janet McCue co-authored with George Ellison the recently-released biography, Back of Beyond: a biography of Horace Kephart. Prior to this publication, the co-authors wrote an extensive introduction to the Great Smoky Mountains Association’s edition of Kephart’s Camping & Woodcraft. McCue’s career as a librarian focused on digital library services but she began researching Kephart while working at Cornell University, an institution that Kephart attended as a graduate student in History and Political Science in the 1880’s.
Presentation #2 Title
"Another 'Sequestered Folk': Horace Kephart and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians"
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
When Horace Kephart fled to Western North Carolina to find a "free life in the open air," he made his new home in the Cherokee country. For Cherokees, this area was not "the back of beyond," but the center of the world, a landscape rich in cultural and historical meaning. This paper examines the portrayal of Cherokee history and Cherokee people in Kephart's published work, exploring parallels between his well-known accounts of Appalachian whites and his depiction of indigenous people. Kephart identified Cherokees as belonging to a "sequestered folk," much like his celebrated southern highlanders. For Kephart, they were isolated people who had retained elements of a traditional culture otherwise absent from the modern East. Like mountain whites, Cherokees provided a glimpse of the frontier past. In broadcasting this image, Kephart both burnished his public identity as an interpreter of the southern highlands and contributed to an Appalachian tourism culture that promised visitors contact with exotic people, romantic histories, and dramatic landscapes.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Andrew Denson teaches history and Native American studies at Western Carolina University and participates in WCU's interdisciplinary Cherokee Studies Program. He is the author, most recently, of Monuments to Absence: Cherokee Removal and the Contest Over Southern Memory (University of North Carolina Press, 2017). His research examines the public memory of the Native South.
Presentation #3 Title
Kephart Encounters Appalachia: A Complex Legacy
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
Horace Kephart left an indelible mark on Appalachian studies and remans a compelling figure, both through the legacy of his writings and his extensive collection of research materials that are part of WCU’s Special Collections. Kephart had established himself as an authority in librarianship, outdoorsmanship, and firearms in the 1890s, but in the wake of personal and professional crises sought a new life in the Smoky Mountains.
From his arrival in western North Carolina in 1904 until his death in 1931, he achieved a national reputation for his publications featuring Southern Appalachia. In the first half of the twentieth century his version of Appalachian life and culture dominated public perceptions. However, other writers have offered an array of divergent views on the accuracy and objectivity of his observations. Frizzell will discuss the Appalachia that Kephart actually encountered and the one that he desired in his quest for a “back of beyond” that embodied an earlier time, and the endurance of his publications and manuscripts to researchers.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
George Frizzell served as Head of Special Collections at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library (Cullowhee, NC) from 1989–2016. His responsibilities were for a regional depository of manuscript collections and other research materials documenting the cultural and natural history of Southern Appalachia. Frizzell presented community programs designed to highlight the holdings and bring public awareness of the importance to preserve and share the region’s history. Among the most extensively utilized collections were those devoted to Horace Kephart. Consequently, he made regular presentations on Kephart’s career or place in Appalachian studies and was integrally involved in creation of the library’s digital project “Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma.”
Presentation #4 Title
Kephart as Fiction Writer
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Horace Kephart is primarily known as a chronicler of Appalachia’s people and culture(Our Southern Highlanders) and an expert outdoor writer (Camping and Woodcraft). He is not known for his fiction, although he published his first story in the magazine Puckin 1907, shortly after his move to western North Carolina. A look at his entire writing career, however, demonstrates that he published fiction throughout his career and, in fact, was working on a full-length novel at the time of his death. In this paper, I consider Kephart’s contributions as a fiction writer throughout his career, along with his recently published novelSmoky Mountain Magic (2009). Such an examination contributes to a bigger picture of Kephart’s continued efforts across many genres to document the Appalachian culture and people.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Mae Miller Claxton Mae Miller Claxton teaches classes in Southern, Appalachian, and Native American literature. In 2012, she published Conversations with Dorothy Allison, a collection of interviews along with an introduction (University Press of Mississippi). Her scholarship focuses primarily on Eudora Welty, but she has recently expanded her interests to Horace Kephart and the Native South. Articles have appeared in Mississippi Quarterly, South Atlantic Review, and Southern Quarterly, among others.
“Ain’t Politics Grand”
The highway marker leading into Bryson City, NC, memorializes Kephart as a scholar, author, and outdoorsman. This presentation will provide a brief biographical summary and focus on Kephart's civic engagement in Bryson City and Asheville during the 1920’s.
Kephart’s scholarly career began as a graduate student in History and Political Sciences at Cornell University (1881-1884); the following year he lived in Europe, working for his former professor. At Yale University where he secured his first professional position as an academic librarian, he strengthened his interest in frontier history. Kephart was a polyglot who studied languages throughout his life (Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Finnish, Cherokee). Although his writings on outdoor subjects and on his Appalachian neighbors are generally well known, his personal views on topics from capital punishment to religious beliefs are not--nor are most people familiar with his civic engagement in Bryson City and Asheville in the 1920’s.
For example, during Kephart’s tenure as chair of the Bryson City Alderman, the Board enacted several infrastructure improvements--adding a new power plant, extending the water and sewer lines, and paving streets. The improvements required additional taxes and bond issuance. As Kephart explained to a friend, his progressive record “incurred the hostility of the reactionaries” and angered some of the wealthy who sought “special favors (lower tax rates than other folks).” A smear campaign against Kephart followed. McCue will cover the perspectives Kephart expressed in Asheville newspaper editorials, in his correspondence, and in the types of public engagement he undertook.
