Down the Wild Cape Fear A River Journey through the Heart of North Carolina
Literary Trails of Eastern North Carolina A Guidebook
philip gerard
georgann eubanks
Adventures on North Carolina’s most important river system
North Carolina, through the eyes of its writers
In Down the Wild Cape Fear, novelist and nonfiction writer Philip Gerard invites readers onto the fabled waters of the Cape Fear River and guides them on the 200-mile voyage from the confluence of the Deep and Haw Rivers at Mermaid Point all the way to the Cape of Fear on Bald Head Island. Accompanying the author by canoe and powerboat are a cadre of people passionate about the river, among them a river guide, a photographer, a biologist, a river keeper, and a boat captain. Historical voices also lend their wisdom to our understanding of this river, which has been a main artery of commerce, culture, settlement, and war for the entire region since it was first discovered by Verrazzano in 1524. Gerard explores the myriad environmental and political issues being played out along the waters of the Cape Fear. These include commerce and environmental stewardship, wilderness and development, suburban sprawl and the decline and renaissance of inner cities, and private rights versus the public good. philip gerard is author of three novels and five books of nonfiction including The Patron Saint of Dreams and is professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He lives on Whiskey Creek near the Intracoastal Waterway and sails his sloop Suspense on the Atlantic Ocean.
“Engaging, informative, winsome, and lyrical. The stories are rich and the character endearing.” —David Cecelski, historian and author of The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves’ Civil War March 2013 978-1-4696-0207-3, $30.00t Cloth 978-1-4696-0812-9, $30.00 BOOK Approx. 304 pp., 61⁄8 x 91⁄4, 40 illus., 5 maps, bibl.
http://go.unc.edu/Ai3n9
uncpress.unc.edu
nature | north carolina
This concluding volume of the Literary Trails of North Carolina takes readers into an ancient land of pale sand, dense forests, and expansive bays, through towns older than our country and rich in cultural traditions. Here, writers reveal lives long tied to the land and regularly troubled by storms and tell tales of hardship, hard work, and freedom. Eighteen tours lead readers from Raleigh to the Dismal Swamp, the Outer Banks, and across the Sandhills as they explore the region’s connections to over 250 writers of fiction, poetry, plays, and creative nonfiction. Along the way, Georgann Eubanks highlights the role of place in their work and explores the region’s vibrant local culture. Featured authors include A. R. Ammons, Gerald Barrax, Charles Chesnutt, Clyde Edgerton, Philip Gerard, Kaye Gibbons, Harriet Jacobs, Jill McCorkle, Michael Parker, and Bland Simpson. georgann eubanks is a writer, teacher, and consultant to nonprofit groups across the country. She is director of the Table Rock Writers Workshop and lives in Carrboro, N.C. Published in association with the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources
April 2013 978-1-4696-0701-6, $39.95s Cloth 978-1-4696-0702-3, $22.00t Paper 978-1-4696-0703-0, $39.95 BOOK Approx. 440 pp., 61⁄8 x 91⁄4, 92 color and 17 b&w illus., 21 maps, index
complete the set For more information on the Literary Trails books, scan this code or visit our website.
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guidebooks | north carolina | literary studies 11