Appalachian Journal publishes 50th volume, with looks at Helen Lewis, Rebecca Boone, Harriette Arnow and others

The latest issue of Appalachian Journal (Volume 50, Nos. 1-2) has been published by Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., marking the 50th anniversary of the peer-reviewed journal that began publishing in 1972. The issue includes a memorial for Helen Matthews Lewis, "the grandmother of Appalachian studies," who died last year; the conclusion of an unpublished memoir by Harriette Simpson Arnow, an exploration of Rebecca Boone’s life, and research on a 20th-century artist who "found a muse in the Southern Appalachians," ASU reports.

Patricia D. Beaver reflects on the life of her colleague and friend, Helen Lewis, focusing on the trips they made to Wales, Zimbabwe, and France, among other places, as well as their creative collaborations and Lewis’s passion for social justice and community building and Lewis’s poem “Loose Threads.”

Patricia L. Hudson presents the facts of frontierswoman Rebecca Boone’s life, including provocative biographical details, including rumors of a child conceived while Daniel was away on a hunting expedition. Hudson’s research led to her first historical novel, Traces, reviewed in this issue.

The previous issue of the journal featured the first sections of a four-part autobiographical piece by writer Harriette Simpson Arnow, about her life with chronic illness and depression, caused by a pituitary tumor. The latest issue has the final two parts, detailing Arnow’s recovery from her first brain surgery and the recurrence of symptoms such as pain and vision loss, which prompted a second surgery in 1967.

The journal includes the work of four poets and several book reviewers, including Lana Whited’s essay, “Coming of Age in the Opioid Era,” reviewing Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Demon Copperhead, and Erin M. Presley’s review essay of of Horace Kephart: Writings, edited by George Frizzell and Mae Miller Claxton. Kephart brought national attention to the Great Smoky Mountains.

To subscribe to Appalachian Journal or order a copy, go to appjournal.appstate.edu.