John Ehle
(December 13, 1925 – March 24, 2018)
“The great thing about being a writer is you never have to take a day off.” —John Ehle
John Ehle (Ee-lee) was the author of seventeen books—eleven fiction and six nonfiction—including Trail of Tears: The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee Nation. His novel, The Land Breakers, first published in 1964 by Harper & Row, was chronologically the first in a seven-book series that begins with the settling in 1779 of the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina.
Mr. Ehle is a member of the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, and received the North Carolina Award for Literature, the Thomas Wolfe Prize, and the Lillian Smith Award for Southern Fiction. He was also a five-time winner of the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction. He has been recipient of the Mayflower Award for Nonfiction, the Governor's Award for Meritorious Service, and the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities. Mr. Ehle held honorary doctorates from UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Asheville, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Berea College.
The titles of Ehle's seven "mountain books" in chronological order: The Land Breakers (now with New York Review of Books Classics); The Journey of August King (reprinted by Press 53); Time of Drums (reprinted by Press 53); The Road (reprinted by University of Tennessee Press); The Winter People (reprinted by Press 53); Lion on the Hearth (reprinted by Press 53); and Last One Home (reprinted by Press 53).
A Rare Opportunity
Own a 1967 First Edition Hardcover of The Road from John Ehle’s personal library. Sales help support the North Carolina Literary Review’s John Ehle Prize. Regular S&H applies, but book ships via USPS Priority Mail.
The Road is epic historical fiction at its best. Weatherby Wright manages the post-Civil War construction of a railroad to link the highlands of western North Carolina to the East.
Carolina Classics Editions
Carolina Classics Editions
Book two of the seven “mountain books”
ISBN 978-1-941209-83-7
9 x 6 softcover, 218 pages
Originally published 1971 by Harper & Row, New York, NY
August King makes a trip from the original mountain settlement in The Land Breakers to sell and trade for goods. On his return home he is faced with a moral decision that could cost him everything he has worked for, and maybe his life.
Carolina Classics Editions
Book three of the seven "mountain books"
ISBN 978-1-941209-06-6
9 x 6 softcover, 338 pages
Originally published 1970 by Harper & Row, New York, NY
“There have been many books about the Civil War; none of them, with the exception of The Red Badge of Courage, have comes close to the dusty, bloody, grinding truth that John Ehle writes about.” —Borden Deal
Carolina Classics Editions
Book five of the seven "mountain books"
ISBN 978-1-941209-69-1
9 x 6 softcover, 272 pages
Originally published 1981 by Harper & Row, New York, NY
The Wrights, at the turn of the twentieth century, deal with tensions between two families and a murder in their small mountain community. Made into a movie starring Lloyd Bridges, Kurt Russell, and Kelly McGillis. The movie is very good, but the book is so much better.
Carolina Classics Editions
Book six of the seven "mountain books"
ISBN 978-1-941209-30-1
9 x 6 softcover, 406 pages
Originally published 1961 by Harper & Row, New York, NY
The King’s are successful merchants in Asheville and the King boys position themselves to take over the family business, but the tables get turned in a brilliant plot-twist.
Carolina Classics Editions
Book seven of the seven "mountain books"
ISBN 978-0-9824416-8-8
9 x 6 softcover, 345 pages
Originally published 1984 by Harper & Row, New York, NY
Pinkney “Pink” Wright branches off into selling insurance to mountain whites and town blacks during the early 1920s in Asheville that ends with another moving plot-twist.
Other Books by John Ehle
Carolina Classics Editions
Ehle's first novel
50th Anniversary Edition
ISBN 978-0-9793049-8-9
9 x 6 softcover, 276 pages
Originally published 1957 by William Morrow & Company, New York, NY
When first published in 1957, Move Over, Mountain was considered to be the first book written by a white novelist that portrayed African-Americans without stereotype. It received positive reviews from several major publications, but was shunned by Southern bookstores and libraries.
Carolina Classics Editions
ISBN 978-0-9793049-1-0
9 x 6 softcover, 376 pages
Originally published 1965 by Harper & Row, New York, NY
This moving narrative describes the experiences of a handful of dedicated young students, both black and white, during the 1963-64 civil rights protests in Chapel Hill, NC. The movement began through the efforts of three young men: two white UNC-Chapel Hill students, John Dunne, a gifted Morehead Scholar, and Pat Cusick, the grandson of the founder of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and Quinton Baker, a student from the all-black North Carolina College in Durham. First published in 1965 by Harper & Row, The Free Men was written while history was happening at John Ehle’s doorstep and was controversial but won the 1965 Mayflower Award for Nonfiction.