Wilma Dykeman - 1920
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I. Life and Education Wilma Dykeman was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1920. She grew up listening to her parents reading aloud to her. Dykeman loved a vast variety of different
pieces of literature, including nature books, poems, and mysteries. When Dykeman reached elementary school, she was writing her own stories, plays, and poems. Junior College is where she attended
high school, and then the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Later, she graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois with a bachelor's degree in speech. The summer
after she graduated from Northwestern, Dykeman returned home, eventually met and married James Stokely. The couple collaborated and wrote many books together. They had two sons, Dykeman Cole and James R. III. II. Literary Works Summarized Because Dykeman grew up in the Appalachian Mountains during a time of segregation, her
works centered on nature and racial equality. Dykeman's works include essays, non-fiction novels, poems, histories, and biographies. Her first work was The French Broad
, which shows life during the Civil War and religion in Appalachia. Dykeman and James went on to publish Neither Black Nor White, a novel on integration in the South. Seeds of Southern Change
is another book Dykeman and James collaborated on; it is also about race relations. Dykeman's novels are not only about racial equality, but she has also focused on women's rights. The Tall Woman
portrays functions of mountain women performed during the Civil War. The Appalachian writer not only wrote novels, but also produced histories and biographies. One famous biography is
Seeds of Southern Change, a book on the life of Will W. Alexander, a Southern leader that fought for racial equality. Her second biography was Prophet of Plenty
, about W.D. Weatherford, an Appalachian man who contributed to fundraising at Berea College. Too Many People, Too Little Love was Dykeman's third
biography, which was based on Edna Rankin McKinnon, an activist for birth control. The Border States and Tennessee: a Bicentennial History are two histories that show
Tennessee's rich geographical regions and how it has remained a frontier state. III. List of Literary Works Appalachian Mountains (1980) This essay was submitted by a student of Rita Achenbach, a teacher at Fuquay-Varina High School in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.
The Border States (1968)
Explorations (1984)
The Far Family (1966)
The French Broad (1955)
Highland Homeland: The People of the Great Smokies (1978)
Look to This Day (1968)
Neither Black Nor White (1957)
Prophet of Plenty (1966)
Return to the Innocent Earth (1973)
Seeds of Southern Change (1962)
Tennessee, a Bicentennial History (1975)
Tennessee Woman: An Infinite Variety (1993)
Tennessee Women, Past and Present (1977)
Too Many People, Too Little Love (1974)