The Life and Work of John C. Campbell

by Olive Dame Campbell, Elizabeth M. Williams (Editor)

Overview

John C. Campbell (1867—1919) is widely considered to be a pioneer in the objective study of the complex world of Appalachian mountaineers. Thanks to a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation, Campbell traveled throughout the region with his wife — noted social reformer and "songcatcher" Olive Dame Campbell — interviewing and profiling its people. His landmark work, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland, is cited by nearly every scholar writing about the region, yet little has been published about the Campbells and their role in the sociological, educational, and cultural history of Appalachia.

Elizabeth McCutchen Williams has prepared the first critical edition of Olive Dame Campbell's comprehensive overview of her husband's life and work — a project left unfinished at the time of Olive's death. Never before published, this unique volume draws extensively on diary entries and personal letters to illuminate the significance and lasting impact of John C. Campbell's contributions. The result is a dynamic blend of biography and collected correspondence that presents an insightful portrait of the influential educator and reformer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813168548
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	02/17/2017
Pages:	720
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

American folklorist Olive Dame Campbell (1882—1954) was the author or coauthor of numerous books, including English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians and Appalachian Travels: The Diary of Olive Dame Campbell. In 1925, she founded the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina.

Elizabeth McCutchen Williams, research librarian and associate professor at Appalachian State University, is the author of Appalachian Travels: The Diary of Olive Dame Campbell.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Note on Editorial Method xi

Introduction 1

1 Family Background and Early Life, 1868-1895 9

Appendix 1 Lumber Rafting in the Mid-Nineteenth Century 49

2 First Mountain Teaching: Joppa, Alabama, 1895-1898 53

Appendix 2 Letters from Joppa Pupils 83

3 Teaching Years: Pleasant Hill and Demorest: Grant for Study of Mountain Region, 1898-1908 91

4 Travel in the Mountains: The Study, 1908-1909 123

5 Report and First Conference, 1909-1913 195

6 The Southern Highland Division: Beginnings, 1913-1914 269

7 The Southern Highland Divisions Widening Field, 1914-1915 355

8 Ballads Added: Part 1, 1915-1916 427

9 Ballads Added: Part 2, 1916 489

10 Fifth Conference and Ballads, 1916-1917 523

11 War Work, 1918 573

12 The Last Year, 1918-1919 629

Notes 679

Index 695

Editorial Reviews

"This biography of John C. Campbell will be very important to any Appalachian scholar." — Philis Alvic, author of Weavers of the Southern Highlands

"It is very good to see this classic manuscript finally making its way into print. It's a treasure trove of information and documentation not only on the careers of John and Olive Campbell but also on socioeconomic and educational conditions of southern Appalachia writ large during this crucial, latter phase of the region's 'discovery' by outsiders in the 1910s." — John C. Inscoe, author of  Race, War, and Remembrance in the Appalachian South

From the Publisher