John Ehle (1925-2018) was one of the greatest Appalachian writers of the generation that came of age with World War II. He served in that war, as a young man from Asheville, and then went to the University of North Carolina where he got involved in supporting the Civil Rights Movement as a white student and professor. He worked on the campaign of Terry Sanford for Governor and then joined his staff where he established three of the first Governor's Schools for high school rising seniors in the country and so many other innovative programs that the Ford Foundation hired him. Meanwhile he was publishing books which became so successful that he was able to become a full-time writer. He published eleven novels, several of which together cover Western North Carolina history from its first settlement by non-indigenous people to his contemporary times. He also published six non-fiction books. This novel, The Road, is one of his most loved and significant books. It portrays the coming of the railroad to Asheville.
New York, Harper & Row,1967. 401 pages. Hardback in dust jacket.