author
James Stokely
1913–1977
A writer of the southern mountains, he explored the character of Appalachia and tackled race and regional identity with honesty and warmth. His collaborations with Wilma Dykeman helped bring East Tennessee life to a wide national audience.
1 Audiobook
At home in the Smokies : a history handbook for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee
by United States. National Park Service, Wilma Dykeman, James Stokely
About the author
Born in Newport, Tennessee, in 1913, James R. Stokely Jr. came from the family behind Stokely Brothers Canning Company. He attended both Princeton University and the University of Tennessee, where he earned a degree in commerce, but he chose a literary life instead of the family business.
Stokely became known as part of a husband-and-wife writing team with Wilma Dykeman. Together they wrote about the people and landscape of the southern mountains, and their best-known collaboration, Neither Black Nor White (1954), reflected their willingness to address difficult questions about race in the South. Archival records also show that both writers contributed to national publications and worked across forms including essays, stories, reviews, plays, and columns.
He lived much of his life in Newport and, according to biographical records, managed an apple orchard there for thirteen years beginning in 1940. He died in 1977, but his work remains closely tied to Appalachian literature and to a plainspoken, deeply rooted view of regional life.