FREE Shipping!

Crafts

The foundational book on Southern Appalachian handicrafts is The Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands (1937) by Allen Eaton (1878-1962), published by the Russell Sage Foundation.  However, it was preceded by Mountain Homespun (1931, Yale University Press) by Frances L. Goodrich (1856-1944) which was reprinted in 1989 by the University of Tennessee Press. The first really beautiful coffee-table book on the subject is Artisans of the Appalachians (1967) by Edward L. Dupuy and Emma Weaver. Another beautiful coffee-table book – this one featuring folk artists -  is O Appalachia: Artists of the Southern Mountains (1989) by Ramona and Millard Lampell.  The folk artist who has had the most books written about him is clearly Howard Finster (1926-2001) of Pennville, Georgia.  See, for example, Howard Finster: Man of Visions (1989) by John F. Turner.  Minnie Adkins of Laurel County, Kentucky, is another outstanding folk artist. She has illustrated attractive childrens’ books in collaboration with Mike Norris. Creators of traditional Appalachian crafts have also been the subjects of biographies. It is difficult to argue that any have surpassed Craftsman of the Cumberlands (2003) by Michael Owen Jones, a professor at Cal-Berkeley, on Chester Cornett (1913-1981) an Eastern Kentucky chairmaker. Philis Alvic has established herself as the leading contemporary expert on Appalachian weaving. See Weavers of the Southern Highlands (2003) and Anna Fariello has published three recent books on the crafts of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees. Hands in Harmony: Traditional Crafts and Music in Appalachia (2009) is a beautiful coffee table book by one of finest contemporary Western North Carolina photographers.

-- George Brosi