In 1890, Margaret Morley, a well-known biologist, writer, and educator, visited the mountains of North Carolina. She was so enchanted by their pastoral beauty and charm that she spent over a decade exploring the region, recording scenes of everyday life in captivating photographs and delightful prose. Her documentation culminated in her book The Carolina Mountains, originally published in 1913. 
The Carolina Mountains is a combination of travelogue, biological observation, history, and photography. Morley toured widely through areas of upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, traveling by train, horse and buggy, horseback, and on foot. Her skill with a camera, her background in botany, and her ability to befriend the tough, independent mountaineers helped her create one of the most descriptive and poetic accounts of the region. 
 Influenced by her Victorian sensibilities, Margaret Morley presents a unique historical perspective on the region. Her descriptions of the early settlers, early education in the mountains, local speech, the Biltmore Estate, Flat Rock, and the Great Smoky Mountains thoughtfully capture the essence of the area as she experienced it in the early twentieth century. 
 Even today, we can trace Margaret Morley's travels throughout the region, from Caesar's Head to Asheville, Tryon to Cashiers. Her detailed descriptions of Mount Mitchell and Roan Mountain still ring true. With very few exceptions, the detailed and accurate account of her journeys makes The Carolina Mountains a reliable guidebook nearly a century later. 
 Coinciding with a year-long celebration of Margaret Morley's photography ("The Carolina Mountains: Photography of Margaret Morley") at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, Bright Mountain Books' 2006 Historical Images reprinting of The Carolina Mountains is enhanced with over 60 pages of Margaret Morley's photographs.

The Carolina Mountains

History

Margaret W. Morley

Americas

Bright Mountain Books (Historical Images)

Originally published as two separate volumes by the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, James Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees has enduring significance for both Native Americans and non-Indian people. The book contains the full texts of James Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee (1900) and The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees (1891), with an exclusive biographical introduction by George Ellison, James Mooney and the Eastern Cherokees. Mooney's exhaustive research preserved essential Cherokee history, lore, and rituals in a time when such knowledge was dying because younger Cherokees were accepting Western education, commerce, and medicine. The first section of this text covers Cherokee history from the time of DeSoto's search for gold in the 1600s to the late 1800s when the tribal consciousness nearly came to an end. The second section reveals the rich Cherokee mythology, detailing how the earth was made, how all "people" (both two-and four-footed) came about, and how they could all converse with each other. The third section of the book provides 28 sacred formulas from a mass of over 600 prayers, formulas, and songs. These formulas are centered on such things as medicine, hunting, love, finding lost articles, and frightening away storms. Exclusive to this edition, George Ellison's biographical portrait of James Mooney emphasizes the ethnologist's timeliness and his empathy for the Cherokees and their rich heritage. Completing this book are photographs of many of the chiefs and shamans, a glossary of terms, an index, and an immense section on notes and parallels to the Cherokee myths.

James Mooney's History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees

Mooney, James

Ellison, George

Children of the Mountain

Religion & Spirituality

McCall, Eva

Christian Books & Bibles

When Lucy Davenport's father gives her to Holman Carpenter in exchange for a mysterious favor, her life is changed forever. Holman takes 18 year old Lucy away from her isolated Georgia cabin to his farm in the North Carolina mountains. Still mourning the death of her own mother, she suddenly finds herself wife to a virtual stranger and mother to his 13 children. Lucy's initial challenge is to adjust to her new family. Then there are the neighbors to consider: cheerful Bessie and her family, gruff-talking Herby with his menacing friends, and the charming peddler Jake who offers a chance for escape. Though she gradually learns to accept the ways of Holman's people, Lucy never forgets that her Cherokee mother left her a precious legacy, engraved on a gold locket. When will the legacy be realized? Where might she reach the edge of heaven?

Edge of Heaven

McCall, Eva M.

Literature & Fiction

Book by Williams, Ann, Torrance, James

Your Affectionate Daughter, Isabella

Biographies & Memoirs

Torrance, James

Williams,Ann

Regional U.S.

Presumed Dead: A Civil War Mystery

Alley, Howard Eugene

Genre Fiction

Eva McCall told about Lucy Davenport's life in her novels Edge of Heaven and Children of the Mountain. With thirteen children to feed, Lucy used all the foods her family could grow, catch or kill. Like most mountain cooks in the early twentieth century, Lucy's cooking directions do not have exact measurements, nor are they kitchen tested. Instead, her granddaughters Eva McCall and Emma Edsall recall how Lucy would bake a bear, preserve beans as leather britches, or bake a scrumptious blackberry pie. Together, they have put in writing their recollections of Lucy’s daily activities in the kitchen, and Lucy’s Recipes for Mountain Living is a warm and light-hearted look at how Lucy kept her large family fed.

Lucy's Recipes for Mountain Living

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Eva McCall

Emma Edsall

Regional & International

What would possess a grandmother to murder her two-year-old granddaughter? The Legend of Nance Dude presents all the known facts surrounding Roberta Putnam's grizzly murder and the arrest, trial, and subsequent conviction of her grandmother Nancy Ann Kerley, also known as Nance Dude.Maurice Stanley learned the story of Nance Dude from his grandmother, who saw Nance and Roberta Putnam out walking not long before Roberta's death. Stanley has woven a speculative tale, drawing on both historical fact and oral tradition, of Nance Dude's metamorphosis from happy, loving child to convicted murderess.

The Legend of Nance Dude

Maurice Stanley

United States

Remembering Asheville is a richly illustrated narrative of Asheville chronicling the city’s earliest beginnings and continued to the new millennium city that emerged in the last few decades. Its pages evoke memories not only of events, but also of the people who lived here. The book also examines many of the problems that came with the city’s recent prosperity and questions its future direction and vision. Remembering Asheville is a compelling look into one of the nation’s most uncommonly interesting cities.

Remembering Asheville

Milton Ready

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