Earl Hamner

University of North Carolina at Asheville D. Hiden Ramsey Library Special Collections Earl Hamner (b. 1923) Southern Appalachian Writers Collection M2005.05.02-08

Title	Earl Hamner
Creator	Southern Highlands Research Center
Alt. Creator	D. H. Ramsey Library
Identifier	http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/southern_appalachian_writers/hamner_earl/hamner_earl.htm
Subject Keyword	Earl Hamner ; Southern Appalachian Writers ; Appalachia
Subject LCSH	Hamner, Earl, 1923 - American literature -- Appalachian Region, Southern -- History and criticism American literature -- Appalachian Mountains -- History and criticism Appalachians (People) in literature Appalachian Region, Southern -- Description and travel
Description	The collection contains letters of correspondence, ephemera, a photograph, book jackets, an audio recording, and anecdotal information on the writer. These materials were gathered as part of an exhibition of Southern Appalachian Writers held at UNCA in the early 1980's and sponsored by D. H. Ramsey Library and the Southern Highlands Research Center.
Publisher	D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Contributor	Annette Hatley
Date	2005-08-23
Type	Collection ; text ; photograph ; audio recording
Format	1 folder ; text ; image
Source	M2005.05.04-8
Language	English
Relation	The Heritage of Western North Carolina, D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville
Coverage	1900's - present ; North Carolina ;
Rights	Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. Some materials in collections are electronic rights only. Please ask for assistance from Special Collections staff.
Donor	240
Acquisition	2004-03-
Citation	Earl Hamner in Southern Appalachian Writers Collection, D. H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Processed by	Special Collections staff, 2005
Last update	2008-09-17
Statement on writing	"I write because writing has become as much a part of my being as eating or sleeping. When I was young I yearned to be a writer. Later, after I became published, I realized that I had been a writer all along. I had been storing away concepts, experiences, wounds, rapture, faces, moments, sunrises, landscapes, voyages, sins (mostly of though rather than deed), disappointments, attainments, and relationships that were to become the reservoir from which the writing would eventually flow. "Writing is a skill which can be learned, but I believe that great writing is produced by a combination of insight, experience, talent and some mysterious other ingredient which is ineffable, and which may be divine. Mr. Faulkner had it, and Eudora Welty has it. Those of us who are not in that distinguished company can still aim for greatness, and the degree of our success or failure may depend upon the passion we feel for our characters and the compassion with which we view them."
Biography	Earl Hamner, born in Schuyler, Virginia in 1923, boasts an impressive resume. After publishing Spencer's Mountain and The Homecoming about life in the Appalachians (both of which he also adapted for the screen), he developed the characters into the television series The Waltons. With numerous other screenplays (including both E.B. White's Charlotte's Web and Vera and Bill Cleaver's Where the Lillies Bloom), teleplays, and novels under his belt, he wrote his first stage play, The Driftwood Arrangements and produced it in 2000. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Bibliography	*BOOKS BY*
1953	Fifty Roads to Town: A Novel. New York: Random House, 1953.
1961	Spencer's Mountain. New York: Dial Press, 1961.
1965	You Can't Get There From Here. New York: Random House, 1965.
1970	The Homecoming: A Novel About Spencer's Mountain. New York: Random House, 1970.
1997	The Hollywood Zoo: My Life with Animals. Blue Ridge Publications, 1997.
1999	The Avocado Drive Zoo. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 1999.
2002	Goodnight John-Boy: A Celebration of an American Family and the Values that have Sustained Us Through Good Times and Bad. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2002.
2006	Generous Women: An Appreciation. Nashville, TN: Cumberland House, 2006.