Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood

by Wilma Dykeman

Discovered as a typewritten manuscript only after her death in 2006, Family of Earth allows us to see into the young mind of author and Appalachian native Wilma Dykeman (1920–2006), who would become one of the American South's most prolific and storied writers. Focusing on her childhood in Buncombe County, Dykeman reveals a perceptive and sophisticated understanding of human nature, the environment, and social justice. And yet, for her words' remarkable polish, her voice still resonates as raw and vital. Against the backdrop of early twentieth-century life in Asheville, she chronicles the touching, at times harrowing, story of her family's fortunes, plotting their rise and fall in uncertain economic times and ending with her father's sudden death in 1934 when she was fourteen years old.

Featuring a new foreword by fellow North Carolinian Robert Morgan, Family of Earth stands as a new major literary work by a groundbreaking author.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Southern, Biography, American

177 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2016

About the author

Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.

Reviews

[Candi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Between the overindulgence of food at Thanksgiving and the flurry of preparations for the winter holidays, I find this time of year to be most overwhelming. I am often guilty of ‘overdoing’ things myself, sometimes out of habit and largely due to expectations. So finding this little treasure of a book was a welcome gift to me and a reminder to slow down and simply enjoy the beauty of the season.

No, this is not a religious novel, or a self-help manual, nor even a holiday-themed read, but a memoir of an early life set in a simpler time and place. This work was penned by Wilma Dykeman in her early to mid-twenties, presumed to be written during the 1940s. Yet, the manuscript remained undiscovered until after her death in 2006. How fortunate that this did not stay hidden forever! Wilma Dykeman, an American writer born in Appalachia, wrote of the people and the region she knew and loved so well; and she does so with finesse and tenderness. I wish I could share all of the beautiful passages that made me stop and reflect, but then this review would be seemingly endless! I will sneak in a few samples for you though – maybe you too will pause and catch your breath for just a moment.

"Who can remember the people of his childhood and write about them truthfully in the light of his adulthood? There is something about childhood that makes it look with motives so different, with vision so much clearer and more imaginative than it will ever be again, after it has passed the invisible margin."

This piece encompasses the first fourteen years of Wilma’s life in the mountains of North Carolina. It is written with a great sense of nostalgia and with a level of perceptiveness I found remarkable for a twenty-something-year-old. She writes with such fondness and admiration for her mother and father. Humble yet enlightened, her parents offered a foundation on which she modeled her own contemplative life. They shared a love for reading, and of course this drew me into their little family immediately. "We brought our reading into our lives and made it a real aspect of our day’s activities. What we found in a book wasn’t something to be stored away and dusted off every few years when the time to display our knowledge came around. Rather it was something to be used in carrying on our own affairs, enlarging our ideas and our imaginations." Her father, in particular, taught Wilma about respect and love for the natural world. Much of this memoir highlights the beauty of their surroundings and the pleasure they felt in spending time on the land. While she doesn’t preach to us, the author was obviously a spiritual person that grasped the concept of something greater than humankind that was evidenced to her by the wonder of the physical world. "We awaken, we look about us—we listen to the musical thrush of life all around, we breathe, we taste, and suddenly we know that life was always within us, here inside and encompassing our every step."

Wilma Dykeman also touches on the idea of imagination, creativity, and writing. She felt childhood held the greatest grasp on imagination, a gift that far too often becomes buried in the chaos of adulthood. This is not a new concept, but I love the way she makes sense of this sad truth. "It is an ironical fact that when we are young and taste the fire, we lack the techniques and the artistic modes for expressing ourselves. And when we are older and know the techniques and modes, then we have lost the leaping flame of that first fire." Luckily, for us readers, this doesn’t hold true for all; and we are blessed with talented writers that shine with their continued creativity!

I could go on and on here, and I fear I am on the verge of overdoing the length of this review, but I will just finish up with a ‘highly recommend’. In order to sample more of Wilma Dykeman’s lovely prose and to take a much-needed break from your ‘normal’, hectic life, grab this one and replenish your spirit, even if for just a short spell.

"It is so, that when we are brought up short for a moment in our circle of activity, when we suddenly lose or find ourselves mistaken in some big plan, we must fall back on what is inside of us. It is the ultimate proof that the only real life we can live is the life which goes on in the tiny space within our skulls. Mind and spirit are what eventually save us from ourselves. They are what we possess without benefit of money or manipulation; they are the links between us and the rest of the universe."

[Brina · Rating 3 out of 5]

My partner’s choice for me to read for our first quarter book swap in the group Retro Chapter Chicks. Wilma Dykeman is a southern treasure and sadly she almost never got published. Her first few attempts were rejected, most likely because she was a young woman in her twenties attempting to be published for the first time during the 1940s. Dykeman grew up with a profound appreciation for reading and writing and for the world around her. When New York publishing houses rejected her fiction, she turned to what she knew, her life growing up in the western Carolina mountainous regions. Family of Earth is the result, a homage to her parents Gerard Dykeman and Bonnie Cole. Her grandson Jim Stokely unearthed this manuscript as the version I read has a 2016 publication date. I laud Dykeman’s descendants for bringing the book to light.

While Family of Earth is marketed as a memoir, it could have easily been fiction as Dykeman’s prose is stellar. This short gem, however, left me conflicted for just that reason. I enjoyed the prose more than reading about Dykeman’s childhood. I have found that as I’ve moved farther away from childhood that coming of age novels appeal less and less to me unless they are just part of a memoir encompassing the author’s entire life. Family of Earth focuses only on the author’s childhood, so I chose to focus on the prose. I felt that with this short of a book that she tried to do too much- marketing her prose with a contract for future novels on her mind while also writing about her childhood during the depression in a mountainous region where few people understood what the national calamity was. Perhaps if this was marketed as straight fiction, which obviously it was not, I would have rated it higher. For me, the prose outshined the story. I am willing to give Dykeman’s novel a chance though because from reading this short work of hers it is clear that she was a stellar writer.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my sweet time reading this book which is totally not my reading style, however, it certainly worked to my advantage with this book. I love Dykeman and my favorite is her fiction book, The Tall Woman. I am ashamed to admit I had put off reading any other books by Dykeman for fear she would let me down. Kind of a "one and done" mentality on my part. I should have known better, Dykeman does not disappoint a reader. This is the book that was found and published posthumously. If there is ever a book that I could hear the author's voice, it would be this one. Her thoughts on imagination, boredom and solitude are noteworthy and I found I wanted to quote them to my family members with small children when we visited around Christmas. However, I didn't think that would be appreciated. Highly recommend whether you've read many of her books or if this will be your first. She makes you love her and her Appalachia heritage even more after you finish.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an autobiography about her childhood in the NC mountains, written when the author was only 23. It was never accepted for publication, and was found in a box of papers after her death in 2006. It shows her love of nature and the wildness surrounding her, also her life as an only child of two parents who left her free to develop her imagination. Beautiful, very poetic. I could see early traces of the more mature author who would write "The Tall Woman" twenty years later.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I relished reading this book by North Carolina author Wilma Dykeman, who's probably more famous regionally as a southern writer than as a national literary figure -- but I think this book should change that.
"Family of Earth" was published posthumously in 2016 (Dykeman passed away a decade earlier), but was written when Dykeman was only in her mid-20s just after World War II, and well before her novels would establish her as a prolific writer of the American South. Because she was unknown at the time and publication was either unlikely or not possible, this manuscript was set aside and unearthed (thankfully preserved) only after she died.
I may have said this in other reviews, I read somewhere, or someone told me, that the highest praise someone can bestow on an author is to wish that they'd thought of the ideas in a book first.
In her meditation on childhood in the mountains of North Carolina, Dykeman captured in almost multi-sensory detail what it was like to be enthralled by nature, to observe people, to be captivated by scenery. She wrote lovingly of her parents -- particularly her father, who died suddenly when she was a young teenager.
She doesn't write only about her family and her childhood home. She also writes about the world events that shaped the period -- the Great Depression chiefly, and how it affected the Appalachian communities and the many types of people who lived in them.
She writes great descriptions of the mountain people who lived in small cabins near her home, kids she grew up with, preachers and their families and relatives. Without going into exhaustive detail, but only using observations from her child's eye point of view, she wrote about the community and the ways that locals dealt with the poverty that became pervasively defining throughout the 1930s.
Dykeman captures the sense of wonder and the thoughts and feelings of early childhood in such a way that I couldn't help but to remember having the same thoughts as a child. I remembered watching insects, animals, plants, trees or getting lost in the fascinating burbling water of a creek. Dykeman reminds readers what early life and those observations were like -- how they changed us, which inspires and invites readers to take note of the beauty around them now.
I thought this was a nice way to start my reading year. It dovetails in nicely with another book I'm reading about the most famous American author of such childhood observations, "Prairie Fires: "The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder."
Memoir can be a testy genre with either hit-or-miss pacing, characterization and the often-present writing pitfalls of self-indulgence, but Dykeman's writing seems much more mature than something written by a 20-something. She knew exactly what she wanted to say and conveyed it so well. This is great for readers who love lush, atmospheric period writing.

[H. Duby · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the academic world, there are scores of “found” manuscripts; everything from newly-discovered poems of Emily Dickinson to letters written between star-crossed literary lovers to mathematical formulae scribbled on the margins of a cocktail napkin. However, the academic world would not exist without such serendipitous discoveries that add to the length and breadth of the knowledge of a particular subject. The literary world is certainly much richer for the discovery of Wilma Dykeman’s long-forgotten manuscript for Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood. Family of Earth was discovered after Dykeman’s death in 2006 by her son, James Stokely III, who edited the manuscript, choosing to keep it as intact as possible.

This modest volume contains within its pages the beautiful juxtaposition of romance and realism wherein Wilma Dykeman (1920-2006) describes the world of her childhood from birth until the sudden death of her father just after she turned fourteen. It is difficult to believe in the age of Snapchat and text messaging that a young woman in her early twenties had such an innate sense of self and of her place in the natural world. And, while I had some difficulty believing that Dykeman could actually remember her infancy with the level of detail with which she writes, her writing is, at turns, poignant and poetic and she leaves her reader with a deeper understanding of what it was like to grow up in the mountains of North Carolina during the Depression era. And, so, my disbelief was easily suspended.

Wilma Dykeman has contributed greatly to the tapestry of Southern literature, both fiction and non-fiction. As Robert Morgan states in the foreword to Family of Earth, Dykeman “served as an ambassador of history and literature to countless communities, and she was an enthusiastic champion of contemporary writers” (p. xvii). Her love of the natural world is obvious throughout Family of Earth and the memoir gives the reader fascinating insight into Dykeman, herself. In many ways, the book is a fine example of American Transcendentalism because Dykeman truly believes in the inherent goodness of people and nature and many of her previously-published works are greatly informed by that belief.

It was, honestly, difficult to write a review that does justice to this book. I feel that any writing that I might do about it pales in comparison to the words that Dykeman has bled out onto the page. Anyone who has interest in the history of North Carolina, of the southern mountains, of how families who knew how to live off the land survived the Depression, or in Wilma Dykeman’s life will appreciate this book and it would make a worthy addition to the local history collection in any public library in the Appalachian region.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet memoir by a regional writer that offers a glimpse of life in the mountains of western North Carolina in the early twentieth century. I learned of Wilma Dykeman from a display of her novels in the Knoxville airport then found this memoir in our local library. She went to Northwestern University here and wrote this recollection not long after, in 1943. The manuscript was put away for years, until her family resurrected it after her death. The book offers a loving portrait of her parents and the plants and wild creatures and mountain people that made up their world. In her reflective closing pages, she writes of the greed that had pushed out native people and stripped the mountains of forests. "Where were the tall trees now?," she writes. "Where was the shade, and the roots and the falling leaves? Instead were the barren hills and eroded fields; instead remained the dust and the heat and the flooding waters. Where he had cut greed now reaped his harvest; where he had grown rich he now knew poverty. The tale was old, yet wondrously new to me. There was a patterned cycle at work somewhere; there was a Penalty for greed and curious justice coming to pass."

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked Wilma Dykeman’s description of the first fourteen years of her life, spent in the Appalachian mountains around Asheville, NC. Her voice and style and appreciation of nature and people remind me very much of Wendell Berry.

[Wyndy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilma Dykeman penned this gem in her 20's, but the manuscript was not discovered until after her death in 2006. It is the story of the first fourteen years of her life growing up an only child in the Appalachian Mountains just outside Asheville, North Carolina in the 1920's and '30's, and she begins and ends it with the death of her father (he was 60 years old when she was born). In between are poetic, thoughtful reflections on people and nature and milestones as seen and remembered through her eyes as a child. She proves in this early work that her later accolades as a talented Southern writer among the likes of Welty, Wolfe and Mitchell were well deserved. Recommended to those who enjoy graceful, quiet, contemplative reads.

"I wonder if a man has ever lived who realizes the confusions and paradoxes struggling in another man's life. I wonder if any person has ever understood any other person with all the tolerance he deserved." This, from a twentysomething.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, but I guess it's just not my cup of tea. It's flowery, romantic-poet prose about nature combined with lots of looking down her nose at people who are more mundane: "...the triteness of their own little platitudes which permitted them to believe that they had thought about the problems of life and solved those problems for themselves." And I didn't really learn anything about growing up on Beaverdam Creek, which is why I picked it up to begin with. But it was written when Dykeman was young and presumably she got better.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This small book is amazing in many ways. First, a most lyrical memoir written by a 23 year old, who has so much figured out about human relationships to the environment. I cannot do it justice. I have read many books about and of Appalachia, but almost none as eloquent as this description. This book deserves a much wider audience. No one who loves language could be unmoved. If you have never read Dykeman, start here and it will inform all her other work.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The late Wilma Dykeman's "found" memoir about her childhood growing up in southern Appalachia.

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilma Dykeman for me is another new story, new discovery, brilliant ray of light and humanity. Thankful for her social poetry and insight into the world.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful prose. Dykeman is a wonderful writer.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always had a keen interest in this area of the country. I have spent time in this area of our country helping with the Appalachian Service Project. A project that helps people who are poor and disadvantaged. It is one of the most rewarding structured service opportunities in the nation — bringing thousands of volunteers from around the country to Central Appalachia to repair and replace homes for low-income families. I came upon this book while on one of my trips. Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American Appalachian writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.

Born in North Carolina, Dykeman's memoir is unique in the perspective it takes of her as a young child as she grows up but beautiful in the way she is able to successfully write from this perspective and make it almost poetic. Her word pictures are beautiful. She captures the essence and beauty of the mountains. This modest volume contains within its pages the beautiful juxtaposition of romance and realism wherein describes the world of her childhood from birth until the sudden death of her father just after she turned fourteen. Wilma Dykeman's prose reads like divine revelation every sentence in this memoir is an absolute joy to experience. About 10 pages in, I realized that if I kept marking every beautiful paragraph, I would end up marking the entire book.

When I read her thoughts about the description of growing up in Appalachia, I think of John Steinbecks "East of Eden" where he writes entire chapter on Salinas Valley in detail so that there can be a real feeling for it. The sights and sounds, smells and colors are put down on paper with simplicity. Dykeman does the same thing in her book, (only it's the entire book) offering the reader her experiences growing up in land she cherished. Truly one of the best books I have had a pleasure to read.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author was reccomended to me. I was surprised by the writing style. At first and at times throughout the book, I thought the writing was stilted. However, I realized the writing style was part of what made the book. The book is the story of the author's childhood growing up in Southern Appalachia. She had a great appreciation for everything, from the smallest rock in nature, the wilderness around her, and the world of reading. This was a welcomed read after the books I have been reading.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a surprising delight. Based on author’s own childhood, she poetically captures the beauty of childhood of Appalachia. Even as a child she had a keen sense of the interrelationship of humans, animals, plants and nature. She expresses the need for care of environment, tolerance of all people and living things and overall joy in everyday experiences such as wakening to sunrise. Refreshing and astonishing writing. I will read more of her works!

[Vickiecarykuli · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable reflection on life "off the grid" when so many of our forefathers lived life simply to survive. My own childhood was remembered in the author's description of life without store bought toys, although richly enjoyed in observation of nature. Family interaction evokes longing for the comfort and contentment of home and loved ones.

[Dusty Counts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful, descriptive writing. Her love of the setting and people of western NC just shines but almost too beautiful for me. Very slow. It’s like watching a beautiful performance where you can see the beauty but you don’t really have what it takes to appreciate it.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story of a great Appalachian writer.

[Julia Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable memoir of a seemingly exquisite childhood of someone of my mother's generation who grew up in the mountains near Asheville, N.C.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir not as good as fiction. From her childhood only.

[Mary F · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting view into life in the Asheville hills, early 1900s. I wasn't familiar with this author and found her to be a good writer.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to read because I loved Tall Woman so much. Fascinating to read about the author's unusual childhood.

[Adeline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pick up the pace, Wilma. At only 177 pages, this should've been a breeze.

[emmi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for school... meh. Good enough to make some arguments about for an essay, but wouldn't recommend or revisit this.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed reading this memoir, I found it to be very limited in scope. Dykeman focuses on her early childhood and her relationship with the land on which she was raised. I loved her dream-like and child-eye reveries on nature, but I wanted more about the people of the mountains where she grew up. The few times she delves into these descriptions were the strongest points of the book. I was highly skeptical of her alleged memories from when she was an infant.