Sharyn McCrumb - 1948
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Chilhowie High School, Virginia
I. Biography
Sharyn McCrumb was born Sharyn Elaine Arwood in Wilmington, North Carolina on February 26, 1948. She grew up in North Carolina close to Chapel Hill. She once commented, "I grew up seeing the world as a wild and exciting place…" (McCrumb Bio.Essay 2) From her father she gained her Scots Irish heritage, her mother being from the "flatlands" of the South. Her father's family settled in the Smoky Mountains in the 1790's. Her great grandfathers were circuit preachers in the North Carolina mountains a hundred years ago. They rode on horseback to each community, preaching at a different church each week. McCrumb believes that she has inherited her storytelling and public speaking abilities, as well as her love for the mountains from these ancestors.
McCrumb has always known that she would be a writer. She said, "I've always wanted to be a writer. I was 7 when I knew. I was
asking my parents haw to spell every third word." (Jester 1) She began to gain knowledge about writing, reading a book a day. When she began college, she wanted to be an English major, but
her father felt that there was no future in that, so she attended the University of North Carolina and received a BA in Communications and Spanish "…and therefore could have been a
Cuban disk jockey…" (Lit. Resource Center 3) She then tried journalism for a while and attended Wake Forrest University to study speech and theater in
1977, but she still wasn't satisfied. Finally, after ten years, she went to Virginia Tech and earned a MA in English in 1985.
After college, McCrumb tried her hand at several different jobs. She was a reporter for the Smoky Mountain Times in Bryson City, North Carolina for many years until 1988. She was a teacher and assistant director in the Adult Education Department at the Forsythe Technical Institute. Later she became the assistant film librarian at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute from 1981 to 1982. In 1982, she became the film librarian for the Institute and remained at that position until 1988. She also taught Journalism and Appalachian Studies at Virginia Tech and has been a member of the Appalachian Studies faculty since 1983. In 1988, she decided to devote all of her time to writing novels and lecturing. Since then, she has written fifteen novels, including two science fiction novels, her Elizabeth MacPherson Series, and her most widely known Ballad Series. She has spoken at universities around the world including the University of Bonn, the American Library in Berlin, Oxford University, and the Smithsonian Institute.
Now Sharyn McCrumb is forty-eight years old. She lives in a farmhouse with her husband, David, and her two children, Laura and Spencer in Shawsville, Virginia near Christiansburg. She writes novels that show the connections between the cultures of the British Isles and the Appalachian Mountains, and include such elements as historical fiction, mystery and fantasy. Her books' settings never stray far from her Appalachian home. Her Ballad novels take place in the small town of Hamelin, located in Tennessee. Her Elizabeth MacPherson novels are usually set in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, or Georgia. McCrumb is often considered a mystery writer, but she calls herself an Appalachian or Southern writer, saying, "…my books are not a whodunit…" (Jester 2) By writing about the Appalachian Mountains and surrounding areas, McCrumb hoped to change how people perceive Appalachia since it is often stereotyped as "culturally backward." "I think if people know more about the culture of the mountains, perhaps, I could do something to change that stereotype. I want to show them how much history we have and what real connections there are within the culture." (Lit. Resource Center 7)
Apparently, McCrumb is doing something right. Her works have twice received the Best Appalachian Novel Award. Many of her books are studied in literature courses in universities throughout the world. Not only have her books been national bestsellers in the United States, but they have also been translated into many different languages including German, Dutch, Japanese, French, Greek, Czech, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian. Beyond this, her awards are bountiful. Her first award was winner of the Sherwood Anderson Short Story Contest. From then she has received the Best Appalachian Novel Award in 1992 for The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, the New York Times Notable Book Award in 1992 for the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, and also the Los Angeles Times Notable Book Award for the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter . In 1994, she was the Agatha Award winner for best novel for She Walks These Hills, and the Los Angeles Times Notable Book winner for She Walks These Hills. In 1995, She Walks These Hills was on the New York Times bestseller list, and in 1997, The Rosewood Casket was also on the New York Times bestseller list. The same year, she received the Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature Award. She was awarded the 1998 Chaffin Award for Achievement in Southern Literature from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, the 1998 Plattner Award for Best Appalachian Short Story from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Also in 1998 she received the New York Times Notable Book Award for the Ballad of Frankie Silver. In 1999, she was awarded the Flora MacDonald Award for Achievement in Arts by a woman of Scots Heritage from St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, North Carolina. Governor Paul E. Patton later gave her the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel. Her novel, The Ballad of Frankie Silver was nominated for the Southeast Booksellers Association Best novel in 1999. She has also received awards such as the Anthony Award for best novel and the Macavity Award Best Novel for She Walks These Hills , and the Macavity Award for best novel and New York Times Notable Book for If I Ever Return, Pretty Peggy-O.
II. Location
Sharyn McCrumb lives and writes in Shawsville, Virginia near Christiansburg, Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two larger nearby cities are Salem and Roanoke. Shawsville is a small town in Montgomery County, Virginia. The population is about 1,260 people with approximately 422 families. The town covers about 5.991 square kilometers.(Shawsville Resource Guide 2)
McCrumb lives in and writes about the Appalachia. Appalachia is the name given to the area covered by the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachian Mountains is a mountain range that extends from Quebec, Canada to Georgia. The ranges of the Appalachians average 3,000 feet, but some points, such as Mt. Mitchell extend to 6,584 feet. There are many remote areas in this area, but many people visit the area for just that reason. Every year, hikers travel to Appalachia to venture onto the Appalachian Trail, a 2,100 mile trail that winds from Springer Mountain in Georgia to as far north as Mount Katahdin in Maine. The trail crosses sections of fourteen states and normally takes five to six months to walk in its entirety.(Peakware 1)
The Appalachian National Parks in the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains are also visited frequently. The chance to view nature as undisturbed as possible is what brings visitors to these parks from all over the United States.
For more information on Shawsville, visit the Shawsville homepage at:
or the Shawsville Virginia Resource guide at:
http://www.pe.net/~rksnow/vacountyshawsville.htm
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The Appalachian Trail |
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The Blue Ridge Mountains |
III. Works Jay Omega Series Elizabeth MacPherson Novels The Ballad Series IV. Novel Summaries The Rosewood Casket She Walks These Hills The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter V. Interviews From: Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad of the Beautiful Appalachian Death Sun Published in Now and Then Magazine, Fall 1993. Now and Then: How did you get started writing? McCrumb: Since childhood, I've always known that I wanted to be a writer. Nothing else
really appealed to me. When I was very young, I would write stories. Most of the writers I know are like this. Being an English lit major, I know that the mythical islands in which you
can see glimmers of their later characters. Nobody's juvenilia is publishable, not even theirs, but writing it does give one a chance to practice the mechanics of writing – how to
conjugate a verb and where to put the commas. It's only after I was older that I really had something to say… Now and Then:
After publishing the first four books in the Elizabeth MacPherson series, you started two different series. What caused you to do this? McCrumb: With Bimbos
, it started out as a joke. There was a science fiction paper contest at the university, and as a joke I entered a piece with the title, Bimbos of the Death Sun.
Needless to say, I didn't win, but the people in charge of the competition told me that the title was simply too good to waste. So I started to think of a way to use it. I thought it
would be funny to have someone write a serious science fiction novel and have the publisher rename it Bimbos. So I did some research at small science fiction conventions
and wrote the book. When I won the Edgar for it, I realized the joke was on me because for as long as I write, my books will carry the banner, "Author of Bimbos of the Death Sun."
With the Ballad series (Peggy-O, Hangman's), it was a little different. I'm involved with Appalachian Studies at the university. I was tired of hearing the stereotypes of
Appalachia, and so I decided to set a series in East Tennessee so that people could see the culture there and realize that it's not Bo Duke.
Unfortunately, Southern mountain culture is one of the few cultures that it is still okay to ridicule. With the first book, I wanted to show the town from a man's perspective. With Hangman's
, I decided to show the same town from a woman's point of view… Now and Then: How did you become interested in Appalachian Studies? McCrumb:
My father's people are from East Tennessee, and I found that all the tales and memories of substance came from that side of the family. There is so much to be said – to
be clarified – about that beautiful, but much misunderstood region. Poets like Jim Wayne Miller and James Stiller reawaken my love for that place. Now and Then:
Do you have any advice to writers trying to break into the market today? McCrumb: I spend several weeks a year lecturing to people about writing and [also about]
writing mysteries at workshops and in classrooms. Probably the best piece of advice I can give someone is to just write the book they want to tell me about…
Beyond that, read what is currently being published in that genre today… For More Interviews with Sharyn McCrumb Visit: Sharyn McCrumb: A Novelist Looks at the Southern Mountains:
A four part phone interview with Rebecca Laine.
Zombies of the Gene Pool (1992)
Sick of Shadows (1984)
Lovely In Her Bones (1985)
Highland Laddie Gone (1986)
Paying the Piper (1988)
The Windsor Knot (1990)
Missing Susan (1991)
MacPherson's Lament (1992)
If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him . . . (1995)
If I ever Return, Pretty Peggy-O (1990)
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1992)
She Walks These Hills (1994)
The Rosewood Casket (1996)
Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories (1997)
The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1998)
The Rosewood Casket was the first Sharyn McCrumb novel I read and my favorite. It is a story of a dying man, Randall Stargill, who's dying wish is for his four to build his casket
together from planks of rosewood that he has kept in his barn. The four Stargill boys, however, now have very different lives and aren't exactly excited about coming home.
However, they are forced to work together to make the casket, fulfill their father's last wishes, and decide what to do with the home and land that has been in the family for
hundreds of years. Just when they think that they have everything squared away for the death of their father, Nora Bonesteel, a childhood friend of Randall locally known for her
gift of the Sight, brings by a box that she insists should be buried with Randall. The box, they find, contains the bones of a small child. The story that the boys learn about the
bones and their father's childhood is unexpected, but very touching.
She Walks These Hills is a story of a professor from Virginia Tech who teaches about a
woman named Katie Wyler, who was kidnapped by the Shawnee Indians, escaped, and somehow made her way home following the river, with little clothing, no shoes, and only
the food and water that she found on her way. The professor, Jeremy Cobb, decides that he wants to retrace the trail that Katie had taken to get home, and he wants to do it alone,
just as she did. There is only a slight problem. Jeremy isn't very familiar with the outdoors and doesn't expect the obstacles that will soon confront him on his trek through the
wilderness. Also, unbeknownst to him, there is an escaped convict on the loose in the same mountains. The man, Hiram "Harm" Sorley, is now an old man with a rare mind
disease that prevents him from remembering many things. At many points he doesn't even remember that he was in jail and thinks that he's returning home from a hunting trip to a
wife and daughter that had left him while he was imprisoned. As the search for Harm continues, the local police in Hamelin learn many things about Harm's past from his
ex-wife, and Jeremy Cobb, on his journey, learns the heart wrenching story Katie Wyler's fate hundreds of years ago.
In
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, three members of the Underhill family, father, mother, and youngest son, Simon are murdered and the killer, the oldest son, Josh, has
committed suicide, leaving his two siblings, Mark and Maggie alone with no one to care for them. The preacher's wife, Laura Bruce, agrees to be their guardian until Mark is eighteen.
However, Laura has many problems of her own. Her husband, Will, is away, counseling soldiers fighting for their country in Dessert Storm. She also learns that her unborn child
will be stillborn, and must cope with the depression of her own situation. Later there is a tragic fire in a home that causes the death of a young mother, leaving her three-year-old
son orphaned. The young woman's dying wish is that her son live a better life than she could afford to give him. Again, Laura Bruce is called to look after the boy until a suitable
home is found. The town of Hamelin suffers yet another tragedy, this time a flood. Laura, worried that the flood will consume the lives of Mark and Maggie Underhill, goes to their
rescue. She finds a distraught Maggie alone, and learns the much-anticipated explanation of why her brother Josh killed his family. The ending to this novel is too surprising to write
in the summary, so if you want to know, read the novel.
Interview by: Jeffery Marks
A Conversation With Sharyn McCrumb: An interview in which McCrumb gives her own
personal insight into her books.
http://www.josephbeth.com/html/mccrumbarchive.html
VI. Quotes
– " I think the land is always a character. In Appalachia, there's a very great sense of kinship with the land. It's a spiritual thing. It has nothing to do with making money or
growing crops. There's a sense of serenity in a land of trees and hills." (Jester 2) – " Tradition has been a woman's province. Women have kept the family strong through
the value of tradition in the family, community and region." (Jester 3) – " My Books are like Appalachian Quilts. I take brightly colored scraps of legends,
ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy and I piece them together into a complex whole that tells not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South." (Bio: Appalachian Novelist 1) – "…I could not figure out how to write a book in which nothing much happens to people you don't care much about anyway." (McCrumb Bio. Essay 1-2) VII. Links
The Celts and the Appalachians: A lecture by Sharyn McCrumb comparing the culture of the Appalachian people to that of the Celts.
The Appalachian Trail Home Page. A page full of information about the Appalachian Trail.
http://www.fred.net/kathy/at.html
The Appalachian Mountains from the Peakware World Mountain Encyclopedia. A website
containing information about the Appalachian Mountains including information about the Appalachian Trail and major mountain ranges in the Appalachians and their locations.
http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/ranges/appalachian.htm
The Blue Ridge Parkway. A cite with information about the Blue Ridge Parkway, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
http://www.nps.gov/blri
VIII. Contact Information To contact Sharyn McCrumb, email her at: mccrumb@netscope.net Or write her at: Agent: c/o Dutton IX. Bibliography "A Conversation With Sharyn McCrumb." Author Interviews.nd. "Appalachian Mountains." Encyclopedia.com.nd. "Appalachian Mountains." Peakware World Mountain Encyclopedia. nd. "Awards."
Sharyn McCrumb: The Ballad Novels.nd. "Biography:Sharyn McCrumb, Appalachian Novelist." Sharyn McCrumb: The Ballad Novels.nd. "Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia." nd. "Blue Ridge Parkway." National Park Service
. 16 March 2001. "The Celts and the Appalachians." nd.
Cletheroe, John. "Appalachia and the Appalachian Mountains." 13
"Contact Information." Sharyn McCrumb: The Ballad Novels.nd. Hodges, Jimmy. "Sharyn McCrumb." nd. Jester, Art. "McCrumb to Share Her Secrets if Good Writing." 1997. Marks, Jeffery. "Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad of the Beautiful Appalachian Death Sun." Now & Then Fall 1993:p31-34. McCrumb, Sharyn.
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1992. McCrumb, Sharyn. The Rosewood Casket. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1997. McCrumb, Sharyn.
She Walks These Hills. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1994. "Sharyn McCrumb: A Novelist Looks at the Southern Mountains." Sharyn McCrumb: The Ballad Novels. nd. "Sharyn McCrumb." Literature Resource Center: Gale Group. 15 Feb. 1999 "Sharyn McCrumb." Notes in the Margin. nd. "Shawsville Home Page." nd.
"Shawsville Virginia Resource Guide." nd. This essay was written by Kayla, a student in Jean Hamm's
Dual Credit English class at Chilhowie High School, Chilhowie, Virginia.
357 Hudson St
New York, NY 10014
http://sites.netscape.net/bluebirdbluebird/>(25 March 2001).
Oct. 1999.