The French Broad
In the highly acclaimed, classic volume, originally published in the Rivers of America series, Wilma Dykeman first describes the nation's oldest mountains and the richly varied people: the Cherokee and the pioneer settlers who depended on the river in different ways. She vividly portrays dramatic events - the Civil War (in this watershed the idea of a brother's war was "bloodily, tragically true"), the great corn-fed hog drives to Charleston, the railroad and timber entrepreneurs - and continues into modern times, with the contrasting imaginations expressed by Thomas Wolfe's boardinghouse and George Vanderbilt's mansion; the high sheriff of Madison County, Jesse James Bailey; the poet Carl Sandburg; and much more.
