A Thousand Country Roads

Asheville has Long Been a Haven for Great Authors

September 9, 2015 in Authors

I must give thanks to another blogger for the idea of this post. She commented on my last post about Stephen King, mentioning some of her favorite authors one of which was F. Scott Fitzgerald. That rang a bell in my head for Fitzgerald has links to my hometown Asheville, as do some other famous authors.

Asheville has Long Been a Haven for Great Authors

Memorial on the street corner where Thomas Wolfe’s father had his stone-cutting shop.

I’ve already shared here some information of two of those authors, Thomas Wolfe and William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the  pseudonym O. Henry. Wolfe was born here in Asheville, and O. Henry, born in Greensboro, NC, spent time here in the Asheville area for health purposes and had an office downtown, eventually being buried here after dying in New York City. Charles Frazier is another author born in Asheville whose works include Cold Mountain, Thirteen Moons and Nightwoods, all set in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Asheville has Long Been a Haven for Great Authors

The “Old Kentucky Home”, where Thomas Wolfe grew up. It was a boarding house which was known as “Dixieland” in Wolfe’s novel “Look Homeward Angel.”

Fitzgerald’s ties to Asheville also relate to health issues. He had been an alcoholic since his college days and was suffering from TB, and felt, as many did, that the clean mountain air would give him an opportunity to regain his writing abilities while getting some much needed rest and respite while recovering from his life style.

But his wife Zelda also had deep problems and demons. From 1930 onward, Zelda was admitted to several psychiatric  institutions, eventually being diagnosed with either schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder; it being the dark ages of mental health care, there were differing views on her illness. But be what it may, Fitzgerald spent the summers of ’35 and ’36 living in the famed Grove Park Inn, battling his demons, while Zelda was place in the Highland Mental Hospital, where she stayed off and on for twelve years. And it was there on March 10, 1948, at the age of 47, that she died along with eight other women patients when fire ravaged the hospital. As with all such incidents, there were tales that the patients were drugged-up, locked in their rooms in strait jackets and that the fire was possibly set by a vengeful nurse. None of that was ever proven and nothing remains of the site other than a grassy field and trees.

Zelda outlived her husband by eight years, him having died of a heart attack at the age of 44. Thus the sad story of the golden couple of the so-called “Lost Generation” that lived in the “Roaring Twenties”, creating the  “Jazz Age”, adding another piece to the fascinating history of my mountain hometown.

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About Harry

There's really nothing special to share about me. I'm a simple man who leads a simple life, still in search of knowledge and the enlightenment it gives to my still-growing mind. And I do believe in magic, for it is out there, waiting to be discovered by those whose hearts and minds are open to the possibility, and whose eyes are willing to look past the obvious and seek the realm of the mystical. As I once read in a description of my traits based on my birthdate, I'm a dreamer of dreams, a teller of tales whose mystic mind knows that truth prevails. And as the great poet Robert Frost said:
"...I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Robin (Masshole Mommy) says

    I am not a reader, but my husband LOVES to read. I am not sure if he’s read anything by either of these authors, but he’d think this was interesting.

    • Harry says

      It is definitely interesting history right here in my own backyard. I discover new facts all the time.

  3. Megan Elford says

    I’m not actually much of a reader, but I love learning about the lives of people that have been successful in the literary world. It always amazes me that their lives are often very different than the stories they write.

    • Harry says

      But in the case of Thomas Wolfe and “Look Homeward Angel, though it was written as fiction, it was truly an autobiographical work. And it was actually banned from the local library for 7 years. It rubbed many of the towns citizens the wrong way because his descriptions of certain fictional individuals in the book and their actions cut too close to the bone of real people.

  9. Michele D says

    That is so awesome to know about! Who would of thought there was so many great authors in that area. Fascinating isn’t it?

  10. lisa says

    How very cool! I love reading and would love to know that well known authors have ties to my city. I like both of those authors.

  12. jo says

    Never knew about Jazz age but it’s so unfortunate the guy died early. So nice to learn about history, wish I could go there personally and check your hometown. 😀

  14. Angela Weight says

    I LOVE Asheville. We spent last Labor Day weekend rafting on the French Broad and wandering around the art district. The heaviest twins in the world are buried in some cemetery near there. So many cool roadside attractions.

  15. CourtneyLynne says

    I majored in history in college, and I’m a total book nerd so I would probably love Asheville. Sounds like my kind of place!