Louise McNeill
Paradox Hill: From Appalachia to Lunar Shore, Revised Edition
Louise McNeill (1911-1993) is a former poet laurete of West Virginia. A.E Stringer, the editor of this new edition, answers questions about the poet and her work.
Why you believe that Paradox Hill is such an important work in McNeill’s career?
Paradox Hill not only spans several decades in McNeill’s long career, containing the poems of her younger years along with those of her maturity, it also insists on diversity of subject matter as well. Because the work of many Appalachian writers continues to be stereotyped as uniformly nature- and family-oriented, Paradox Hill’s apocalyptic vision and its exploration of the scientific universe escape such narrow categories.
Modern day poetry seems to have slipped a bit away from relying on rhyme: how do you think this sets McNeill’s work apart?
McNeill’s rhymes are rarely easy: Chord and sword, move on and cyclotron, for example. Her schemes are not always rigid, either, as she prefers the ABAB or the xBxB, where x is any unrhymed word. While a number of contemporary poets have returned to off-rhyme and especially to the use of repetition, of which McNeill is a master, her stricter formality retains its power. Unlike the typical free verse of our day, which can seem less traditionally musical, her poems approach the music of folk songs.
How do you think a modern audience may take her poems placing science, religion and nature set against one another, as opposed to her audience when the book was first published.
Modern audiences have long known that the frontiers of science (which is to say, the study of nature) and religion are merging. If religion is a more intuitive understanding of nature, including human nature, the poems in Paradox Hill seem to acknowledge that this faith-based understanding is shaped by scientific knowledge.
How did you go about choosing some poems to include and discarding others?
Of course my own taste influenced my choices, particularly my interest in how poetry can render scientific marvels. I also sought out poems that I felt were as lyrically rich as they were narratively driven. By that, I mean that I wanted the book to represent the widest possible range of McNeill’s subjects and styles.
What was it that drew you to reprinting McNeill’s work?
The more years I’ve spent in West Virginia, the more I’ve understood how beloved and influential Louise McNeill has been. This book had been out of print for decades when WVU Press offered me the opportunity to explore and to re-emphasize McNeill’s major contribution to Appalachian literature.
How has McNeill’s work affected you personally?
My own writing continues to become more musically and rhythmically aware, thanks to her influence.
What do you think the people of Appalachia will take away from reading Paradox Hill?
Certainly, they will enjoy being in the presence of a master poet; one who knows their history, loves their land, and can tell their story in a voice both tough and sensitive.
What do you think people not from Appalachia may take away?
Perhaps non-Appalachian readers will re-appreciate the cultural richness of this region through one of its most appealing voices.
How do you think McNeill’s poetry is able to resonate overtime?
Her insights into human need and human value are various. She has a vision of how we interact with the spiritual and material sources of our existence, the soul and the earth, and she sings that vision in these poems.
Jerry B. Thomas
Jerry B. Thomas is the author of An Appalachian New Deal: West Virginia in the Great Depression
Your background is in political sciences and history - what brought a period of economic decline to your interest?
As an undergraduate at West Virginis University in political science and history classes, I became very much interested in American history and pursued the interest in classes with professors Festus Summers, William Barns, and Wesley Bagby. Dr. Summers taught West Virginia History. In Dr. Barns' Recent American History class I especially enjoyed studying the Depression and New Deal era. Dr. Bagby's course in American Diplomatic History addressed critical issues of the day. All of these gentlemen knew how to teach, and they inspired me to pursue history further, eventually leading to my decision to seek a doctorate in history at the University of North Carolina.
Was your treatment of the topic informed at all by your Peace Corps service in the Dominican Republic?
My Peace Corps service provided training in community organizing and so it gave me an added perspective when I came to deal with New Deal era organizing by labor unions and government agencies like the Civil Works Administration or the Works Progress Administration. When later (in writing An Appalachian Reawakening: West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972) I came to write about the Appalachian Volunteers and Volunteers in Service to America, the Peace Corps experience became more directly relevant, because the AVs and VISTAs followed Peace Corps training models. The volunteers in those programs probably had training similar to what I had as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and because we were similar in ages, I think I had a good understanding of their motivations and goals. In retrospect, it does seem a little strange to me that I went to the Dominican Republic, and young people from other parts of the US came to my hometown.
Why focus on West Virginia?
For a very practical reason. At Shepherd University my focus was on Recent American History, but one semester my colleague who usually teaches West Virginia History went on leave, and I was assigned the course. When I came to the Depression era in my preparations for the course I found few useful sources. I still had my notes from my undergraduate course with Professor Summers, but little else. So, my original purpose was to put together some material for the course and maybe prepare a journal article. Ten years or so later, it turned out to be a book manuscript.
Another reason that kept me focused on WV was that I grew up on tales of the Great Depression as told me by my parents and others of their generation. That's why I dedicated the book to my parents. In the second book, I am interested in the history of my contemporaries.
What sets An Appalachian New Deal apart from less specific treatments of the topic beside their size?
An Appalachian New Deal really filled a void in the historiography of the state. Remarkably, more than a half century after the events, no history of the Depression and New Deal in WV existed, and this was all the more remarkable, because WV had been something of a poster child of the Depression, attracting the attention of the White House even in the days of Herbert Hoover. Later, Eleanor Roosevelt as first lady spent a lot of time in WV, and the national press gave the state's condition a lot of attention. So I thought it a story deserving of historical attention, and I thought a well-researched book on the period would be helpful to students and teachers of West Virginia history and of interest to general readers. I hope An Appalachian Reawakening will fill similar needs.
Could you describe how you went about researching these titles?
I researched An Appalachian New Deal by attempting to read all the relevant secondary literature about the New Deal and about WV in the period. Accounts of the era in other states especially interested me as they provided a basis for comparison with the West Virginia experience. Most important, I engaged in multi-archival research, reading personal papers of anyone in the period that I could find as well as local, state, and federal government records of the period. There were a few oral history records of the period available. I also read a lot of newspapers and journals of the era, a very rich source for finding out what people were thinking at the time. I went about the research for An Appalachian Reawakening in a similar fashion, but more oral histories are available for the later period. I was also able to do more through personal contacts, largely through email.
What constituent issues still merit particular attention at this point?
The issues of the 1930s are still very topical. Now as then, the fate of the coal industry looms over questions about the future and the nature of life and labor in much of the region, though the coal industry employs many fewer than then. Now, as then, we debate taxation, and the depression era tax limitation amendment still impacts public policy. Now, as then, the main topics of public policy are the appropriate roles of counties, municipalities, and the state in governance. Now, as then the other big issues of public policy are schools, state institutions, and roads. And, now, as then, issues of health and social welfare require much attention.
What satisfaction have you derived from the topic?
It was very satisfying to fill a historical vacuum, to make a contribution as a historian, and to have it well-received by professional colleagues and students. Researching and writing An Appalachian New Deal also fed my interest in the general period and helped me to create a course that I called "An Age of Crises, 1917-1945." Similarly, I think An Appalachian Reawakening will fill a gap in state and regional historiography.
How long did it take for you research and write An Appalachian New Deal?
An Appalachian New Deal took about ten years. An Appalachian Reawakening has taken a bit longer, nearly twelve years.
What difficulties did you encounter during the writing process?
Because of the heavy teaching and committee load I carried, during long periods of the academic year I had to put research and writing aside and concentrate on class preps, blue books, and meetings. Most of the research and writing for both books were done during summer months. Also, I tend to be a slow writer, going through extensive rewrites and agonizing a lot over the task. I enjoyed most the research and always took delight in finding new, interesting, and revealing information. Reading other people's mail, which is part of what historians do, can be lots of fun. It's also interesting to meet other people along the way engaged in researching other topics and to share ideas.
Do you have any other projects in the works?
An Appalachian Reawakening: West Virginia and the Perils of the New Machine Age, 1945-1972 nears completion and will be published by West Virginia University Press later this year.
I am also retracing my steps a bit, going back to the New Deal era West Virginia Writers Project, to research material for some talks I plan on the topic.
Irvin D.S. Winsboro
Irvin Winsboro is the editor of Old South, New South, or Down South? Florida and the Modern Civil Rights Movement and a professor of history, African-American Studies, and Florida Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University.
What do you hope your audience will take away from a reading of Old South, New South or Down South?
That Florida was not and is not an “exception” to the rabid and violent racism of the Old South and of the Gulf South States. Moreover, Florida has not been as “progressive” a state as the literature would have us believe. The much-vaunted northern in-migration of liberal attitudes in Florida is a fallacy, once one examines the record closely, rather than anecdotally.
What was the reason behind having multiple authors contribute to this book?
Edited works like this are essential for addressing complex and cutting- edge issues—topics that are better served by multiple approaches and authors and diverse perspectives. Also, having multiple authors argue for new ways of viewing and interpreting the past (in this case, Florida’s presumed exceptionalism and progressivism regarding race relations) present readers with more credibility than a sole author’s work might.
Describe the extent of research that went into this book.
For me, the research for this book has monopolized the lion’s share of my professional career and my years as an academic in Florida. This is not the result of a year’s worth of trips to archives and so forth; it is the result of decades of research and publishing on Florida, during which I began to envision the state in manners contrary to the traditional histories. As for my contributors, most of them have spent careers exploring their own subjects in their respective chapters.
How was the collection of nine essays chosen?
Primarily by me based on scholarship, originality, use of new material, original studies of situational protest and violence, challenges to convention, readability, and force of argument. I also selected the chapters based, in part, on the “big names” in the field I wanted in the book and the use of rising, promising scholars.
Was there an essay you favor over the others?
Yes, I favor Marvin Dunn’s opening chapter, because it directly challenges convention, and I favor Paul Ortiz’s closing chapter, because it “drives home” the purpose of the book, and also casts it in a new light regarding Florida’s past and future. No hubris meant, but I favor my chapter, as well. It is a well-researched piece and speaks powerfully to the fallacy of a “progressive” Florida in the face of court-ordered desegregation. As my chapter points out, Florida had not desegregated many of its school districts as late as 1969—a decade and a half after Brown.
Was it difficult to maintain a collective voice?
No, this is the task of a book’s editor, and I always kept this in mind as I progressed through the multiple stages of this work. As I tell my graduate students as they complete their research papers: stay focused like a laser beam!
Did you come upon anything surprising while writing the book, a conclusion you didn’t expect?
As I read the chapter drafts and completed my own, long introduction, I discovered a number of new concepts and conclusions. This was, indeed, a growth process, especially regarding the troubling and violent nature of Florida’s racial past.
While writing the book, did you ever fear repercussions from Floridians preferring to maintain the more pleasant outlook on Florida’s civil rights history?
Yes, and I still do. This book will result in new paradigms of Florida history and will, by its nature, challenge convention and comfort zones. This is not a conventional approach to Florida history; it is a fresh and challenging approach. If accepted by the “establishment” scholars for what it’s worth, this book should rewrite Florida history and much of the history of the national civil rights movement.
What are your future plans/projects?
To publish other books on Florida’s freedom struggle, articles, and to deliver papers at conferences.