This moving narrative by John Ehle describes the experiences of a handful of dedicated young students, both black and white, during the 1963-64 civil rights protests in Chapel Hill, NC. The movement began through the efforts of three young men: two white UNC-CHapel Hill students, John Dunne, a gifted Morehead Scholar, and Pat Cusick, the grandson of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama, and one student from the all-black North Carolina College in Durham, Quinton Baker. First published in 1965 by Harper &amp; Row, 'The Free Men' was controversial but won the Mayflower Award for Nonfiction. It is now back in print by Press 53 with a new Afterword by the former UNC-Chapel Hill student, 'Daily Tar Heel' editor, and Pulitzer Prize-Winning journalist Wayne King.

The Free Men

Biographies & Memoirs

EHLE, John

Community & Culture

Press 53 Carolina Classics Editions

When first published in 1957, "Move Over, Mountain" was considered to be the first book written by a white novelist that portrayed African-Americans without stereotype. It received positive reviews from several major publications, but was shunned by segregated bookstores and libraries. There was only one US printing of "Move Over, Mountain." The following year it was published by Hodder and Stoughton of London, England. A story of personal and social struggle, the New York Times said of John Ehle in 1957, "It is quite obvious that he writes from a deep knowledge of his subject, and an understanding of technique rare in a first novelist."

Move Over, Mountain: 50th Anniversary Edition

Literature & Fiction

United States

On April 6, 1970, Vietnam War photojournalists Sean Flynn (son of Errol Flynn) and Dana Stone set off on two rented motorcycles to cover one last story and were captured by Communist forces, never to be seen or heard from again. Their friend and fellow journalist, Perry Deane Young, tells their story here in a remarkable memoir first published in 1975. This new Press 53 Classics edition features photos by Flynn, Stone, their friends Tim Page, Nik Wheeler, and others, including a new chapter with updates on the lives of those involved and the ongoing search for two of the missing.

Two of the Missing: Remembering Sean Flynn and Dana Stone

Arts & Photography

Young, Perry Deane

Photography & Video

Last One Home, the final book in John Ehle's masterful Appalachian series that traces the King family from The Land Breakers in 1779, as the first white settlers in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina, through the Great Depression in Last One Home. Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), says John Ehle "is our foremost writer of historical fiction." John Ehle's sense of place, his ear for language, and his ability to shape characters with love and a gentle sense of humor make Last One Home one of the great novels of all time.

Last One Home

Literary

The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest was the debut poetry collection for North Carolina's first woman Poet Laureate (2005-09), Kathryn Stripling Byer, and was published by Texas Tech Press in 1986 as part of the Associated Writing Programs Award Series, selected by John Frederick Nims, who said, "This is one of those rare books of poetry-earthy, sensuous, brave-spirited-that gives us the feeling of a full human life as vividly as a novel aspires to do." Byer is the author of five other volumes of poems, all with Louisiana State University Press, including her latest, Descent, winner of the 2013 SIBA Book Award for Poetry.

The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest

Byer, Kathryn Stripling

Poetry

Sigodlin

Morgan, Robert

John Ehle's classic civil war novel, Tome of Drums, returns to print as a Press 53 Classic. Book three in his seven-book Appalachian series. Borden Deal said: "There have been many books about the Civil War; none of them, with the exception of The Red Badge of Courage, have comes close to the dusty, bloody, grinding truth that John Ehle writes about. Time of Drums is not only the story of men launched into a war with uncertain loyalties, but more important, it continues the Wright saga that John Ehle began with The Land Breakers and promises to expand into one of the great fictional sagas of American history."

Time of Drums

Contemporary

First published by Wesleyan University Press in 1987, At the Edge of the Orchard Country in back in print as a North Carolina Classic from Press 53. Dave Smith notes: "Readers who know Robert Morgan's previous collections of poetry will be delighted by this most elegiac, most celebratory book. They will find deft and mysterious tales of country life, hymns to all matter and every manner of spirit."

At the Edge of the Orchard Country

Lion on the Hearth is the story of the King family, successful merchants in Great Depression-era Asheville, North Carolina, where trading, competing, and risk taking are necessary for survival, and where greed and lust for love and power tests the limits of a strong, ambitious family. First published by Harper &amp; Row in 1961, Lion on the Hearth is chronologically the sixth book in John Ehle's seven-book Appalachian series that includes The Land Breakers, The Journey of August King, Time of Drums, The Road, The Winter People, and Last One Home.

Lion on the Hearth

Genre Fiction

It is late autumn when Collie Wright sees a man moving through the woods toward her cabin on the edge of the small mountain community where she lives alone with her baby. She gets out her butcher knife, puts Jonathan down, and waits. To her relief, the man turns out to be only a lost traveler with his young daughter.
Recently widowed Wayland Jackson, with twelve-year-old daughter Paula, is on his way to Tennessee to practice his profession as a clockmaker. Strong-willed and independent, Collie takes the Jacksons in, steadfastly refusing to identify her baby’s father. Wayland’s gentleness and humor appeal to her; everything about Collie appeals to him. By mutual consent, he and Paula stay.
The collusion is acknowledged by Collie’s brothers, who take Wayland along on an exhilarating bear hunt, an initiation ceremony of sorts. On his return, Wayland sets up his clock making business, and he and Collie begin to think of marriage.
But peace and contentment come to an end by the sudden appearance late one night at Collie’s cabin of her baby’s father, precipitating a violent showdown and the promise of further bloodshed—until Collie makes the most painful decision of her life.

The Winter People

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Press 53 Carolina Classics Editions publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Press 53 Carolina Classics Editions