Scribblers: Stalking the Authors of Appalachia

In the small mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina, Thomas Wolfe lies at eternal rest just a few steps from William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry. Those graves are a short hop from the great inn where F. Scott Fitzgerald tried to dictate his writing from a body cast, and a half-hour's drive from the estate where the aged Carl Sandburg wrote deep into the night.

The city's ties to the world of letters are equally strong today. Gail Godwin and Charles Frazier were schooled in A...