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My Mountains, My People
Retrace Western North Carolina's cultural and natural history with one of its most beloved storytellers and folklorists, John Parris. This second collection of Parris' work has been repackaged with an updated cover and is back in print for the first time in decades, and includes the complete original text and illustrations.
For nearly four decades, John Parris' brief yet illuminating non-fiction essays comprised his popular Asheville-Citizen-Times column, "Roaming the Mountains." When Parris' columns were first published as books in 1955, they became instant regional classics.
Parris writes with the crispness of Hemingway and the grace of Thomas Wolfe. Indeed, he was a war correspondent like Hemingway and a decorated hero for his work with the Belgian underground during World War II.
But the enduring legacy of John Parris is his work to document the culture and lives of Appalachian people. He was the last writer to capture many of the first person accounts recorded in this book. With every word, Parris links past to present in loving tribute to his Western North Carolina home, its mountains, and its people.
For nearly four decades, John Parris' brief yet illuminating non-fiction essays comprised his popular Asheville-Citizen-Times column, "Roaming the Mountains." When Parris' columns were first published as books in 1955, they became instant regional classics.
Parris writes with the crispness of Hemingway and the grace of Thomas Wolfe. Indeed, he was a war correspondent like Hemingway and a decorated hero for his work with the Belgian underground during World War II.
But the enduring legacy of John Parris is his work to document the culture and lives of Appalachian people. He was the last writer to capture many of the first person accounts recorded in this book. With every word, Parris links past to present in loving tribute to his Western North Carolina home, its mountains, and its people.
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First published January 1, 1957
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 9, 2025
My bookworm mother grew up in Avery County, North Carolina - high in the Appalachian Mountains. She loved getting the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper and reading John Parris’ columns. Now, she owns the collections of Parris’ columns that were published in five books. My Mountains, My People (1957) is the second book in the series. I borrowed her copy and read it.
Parris was a terrific wordsmith with a fine eye for finding interesting aspects of western North Carolina and its people. His columns were nostalgic for the times from the end of the Civil War to the early years of 20th Century. Parris paid particular attention to the flora and fauna of the region - and how close people once lived to nature. He also devoted several good columns to the Cherokee.
As with all nostalgia, there’s a sad quality to My Mountains, My People. Parris laments the passing of prior generations and their culture. He never directly addresses what he thinks of the present (the 1950s when he wrote these columns), but the reader gets the impression that Parris felt that - at least in some ways - his best days were behind him.
This is an easy book to pick up and put down. You can read the columns in any order. Sometimes, Parris’ columns were a bit too similar to each other. However, when he was hitting on all cylinders, he was a word artist who captured yesterday’s heroes and yesterday’s dreams.
Parris was a terrific wordsmith with a fine eye for finding interesting aspects of western North Carolina and its people. His columns were nostalgic for the times from the end of the Civil War to the early years of 20th Century. Parris paid particular attention to the flora and fauna of the region - and how close people once lived to nature. He also devoted several good columns to the Cherokee.
As with all nostalgia, there’s a sad quality to My Mountains, My People. Parris laments the passing of prior generations and their culture. He never directly addresses what he thinks of the present (the 1950s when he wrote these columns), but the reader gets the impression that Parris felt that - at least in some ways - his best days were behind him.
This is an easy book to pick up and put down. You can read the columns in any order. Sometimes, Parris’ columns were a bit too similar to each other. However, when he was hitting on all cylinders, he was a word artist who captured yesterday’s heroes and yesterday’s dreams.
October 4, 2020
I bought this book at an outdoor store in Clayton, Georgia one week before the pandemic quarantine. It contains a compilation of the author's newspaper editorials written in the 1950s. They focused primarily on the people and customs of the Appalachian mountains around western North Carolina, specifically older generations and their disappearing "ways". Although I was familiar with most of the information, it still was an enjoyable read. My only complaint would be with his writing style of finishing every article by repeating a phrase used to introduce them. Irritating and lazy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews