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A Young Wilma Dykeman Explores Nature, Family, Social Justice

A few years ago, Jim Stokely was looking through some boxes in the Newport, Tennessee house where he was raised with his brother Dykeman, his father James and his mother, the late author and historian Wilma Dykeman.  In the bottom of a flimsy shirt box, he found a typewritten manuscript, held together by decaying rubber bands.  

He began to read it.  And within seconds, he realized it was the memoir Wilma Dykeman always said she wanted to write.

The book, being published now under the title Family of Earth, documents her early life in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.  Throughout, her young mind explores the sanctity of nature, the importance of family and the struggle for social justice, all themes that characterized her later work, included in novels like The French Broad, The Tall Woman, The Far Family and Return the Innocent Earth.

Stokely says his mother wrote the manuscript in her 20's near the end of World War II.  He suspects she tried to get it published and when that didn't work, she put it away it away, forgot about it and moved on to establish herself as a successful journalist, a popular speaker and one of Southern Appalachia's most beloved authors.  

Wilma Dykeman died in 2005 at the age of 86.

Jim Stokely believes the book is emblematic of her approach to the disappointments she experienced in her life.  "She was the kind of person that, if something didn't go quite right, she'd just put it aside and forge ahead," he said.  "I think that's what she did here.  Over the years, it made it to the bottom of this box and got lost.  I think she lost it."  

Dykeman Stokely says he knows his mother would be happy if she knew Family of Earth was being published.  "It's as well written as the rest of her work.  And it's the seeds of so much of her work as well," he said.  "To see the overall thrust of the book which centers quite a bit on the home, but also makes reference to the outside world, you can see the interaction of both things in this the way you can in her later work."

The Stokely brothers will attend a celebration of the book's release on Sunday, September 11 at the East Tennessee History Center.