Charles Frazier and the Books of Cold
Mountain
ARCHIVED ONLINE EXHIBIT
Originally displayed at the Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina (August 1997)
Archived October 18, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Archived Online Exhibit ................................................................................................................................. 1
introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Island 1 .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Island 2 .......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Island 3 .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Island 4 .......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Island 5 ........................................................................................................................................................ 11
INTRODUCTION
This exhibit was originally mounted in August 1997 for a reception welcoming back to the
University Charles Frazier, a Carolina alumnus (Ph.D. in English, 1986) and author of the
bestselling novel Cold Mountain. In November 1997, it won the National Book Award, and
by May of 1998, the book had spent 45 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
The first three islands of the exhibit feature a range of the many literary works and other
contemporary sources referred to in Dr. Frazier's novel, which is set largely in his native
North Carolina during the Civil War. Quotations in the exhibit notes come from the novel
itself.
The fourth and fifth islands illustrate Dr. Frazier's writing career, including his earlier books,
along with proofs, variant editions, publicity, and reviews of Cold Mountain.
PGS
ISLAND 1
The aftermath of Fredericksburg
From Harper's Weekly, 27 December 1862.
"Where to begin? . . . Malvern Hill. Sharpsburg. Petersburg. Any would do admirably as
example of unwelcome visions. But Fredericksburg was a day particularly lodged in his
mind" (p. 6).
Winter conditions
From Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion, New York: Harper, 1868.
William Bartram
Travels through North and South Carolina . . .
Philadelphia: James and Johnson, 1791.
"He had pulled it from a box of books donated by ladies of the capital
eager for the intellectual as well as the physical improvement of the patients. . . . It was not
a book that required following from front to back . . . The doings of that kind lone wanderer .
. . never failed to ease his thoughts" (p. 10).
"Bartram was only a traveler, . . . but to Inman's mind the land stood not as he'd seen it and
known it for all his life, but as Bartram had summed it up" (p. 276).
From the Winyah Indigo Society Library, Georgetown, S.C.
Homer in the 19th century
"It made him sad to think that Balis had spent his last days studying on
the words of a fool. Then he came upon a line that seemed to have more
sense to it. It was this: 'The comeliest order on earth is but a heap of
random sweepings.' That, Inman decided, he could consent to" (p. 18).
Shown are an early American edition of Homer's Odyssey(Pope's translation), published in
Georgetown, D.C., in 1814, and Sotheby's translation, published in 4 volumes in London in
1834, from the antebellum South Carolina College library.
Daniel Ellis
Thrilling Adventures of Daniel Ellis Written by Himself
New York: Harper, 1867.
An account of the Home Guard's reign of terror against suspected Union
sympathizers and deserters in the Appalachian mountain areas of western
North Carolina and east Tennessee.
From the Francis Lord Civil War Collection.
Hiding out from the Home Guard
From Harper's Weekly, 19 September 1863.
ISLAND 2
G. A. Lawrence
Sword and Gown
London: Tinsley (Tinsley's Cheap Novels), 1871.
"The books she had drawn from the shelves that summer had been
varied and haphazard, little but recent novels . . . Trifles like Sword and
Gown by Lawrence and others of its type" (p. 26).
The British writer Lawrence, an old Rugbean, was a Southern sympathizer in Baltimore and
Richmond during the War.Sword and Gown was first published in 1859.
From the Barnwell-Singleton Collection donated by Mr. and Mrs. David Phillips.
George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss
First edition, 3 volumes. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1860.
"For a time every book she plucked from the shelves frightened her, their
contents all concerning mistakes made by wretched dark-haired women so
that they ended their days punished, exiled, alien. . . . The Mill on the Floss"
(p. 26).
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter, a Romance
First edition. Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1850.
"A slim and troubling tale by Hawthorne. . . . She guessed Monroe would
have found the book unnecessarily grim, but to Ada it seemed good practice
for her coming world. No matter what the book, though, the characters all
seemed to lead fuller lives than she did" (p. 26).
Rebound, but shown with a copy of the second edition, in original binding.
Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit
In parts. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1855-57.
"They drank cup after cup and stayed up most of the night . . . at one point Ada retold the
entire thrilling plot of Little Dorrit, one of the books she had read during the summer" (p. 79).
George Eliot
Adam Bede
First edition, 3 vols. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1859.
"At the stationer's, Ada paid more than she could afford for Adam Bede in
three volumes" (p. 139).
"The book did not go well. She could not keep her mond on it" (p. 258).
Was it the War that forced Ada to choose this expensive British three-decker, rather than
the cheap one-volume American counterpart bought by Mrs. C. D. Melton of Columbia (New
York: Harper, 1859, also displayed)?
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer-Night's Dream
London: John Cumberland, 1828.
"Out from under the shade of the porch she could see that there was yet
light enough to read a few pages from Midsummer Night's Dream, . . . when
she got to a line of Robin's--where he says, 'Like horse, hound, hog, bear,
fire, at every turn'--Ruby was immensely amused" (p. 193).
Shown with an 1856 edition of the same play, which drastically cut this scene with the rude
mechanicals.
ISLAND 3
R. W. Emerson
The Conduct of Life
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860.
"Ada and Monroe sat by the fire, . . . Ada reading to him from a new
book, The Conduct of Life. . . . He thought Emerson was always, even in
old age, perhaps one degree more extreme in his spiritual views than
was called for" (p. 153).
The portraits of 1861
"Such little mechanical portraits were not rare . . . In sixty-one, any soldier
with a dollar and seventy-five cents in his pocket could have his aspect
recorded in the form of ambrotype, tintype, calotype, or daguerreotype" (p.
194).
From Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina
in the Great War (1901).
The Southern Literary Messenger
"She read from the latest number of the North American Review, and
when that failed to engage her she rifled through Monroe's old issues of
the Dial and the Southern Literary Messenger" (p. 200).
Fair Margaret and Sweet William
"The words to the song, though, were no lullaby. They linked up to make
a horrible story, a murder ballad called Fair Margaret and Sweet
William. It was an old song" (p. 253).
The ballad has been known from at least the early sixteenth century and was printed in the
later eighteenth century by such collectors as Joseph Ritson and Thomas Percy. Shown
here are versions from David Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (Edinburgh, 1769,
from the G. Ross Roy Collection), and from Joseph Ritson's Ancient Songs and
Ballads (London, 1829, from the antebellum South Carolina College library).
Baucis and Philemon
"The children begged for a story. Ada took a book from her apron and
tipped it towards the firelight and read. Baucis and Philemon" (p. 356).
In classical legend, an elderly couple, Baucis and Philemon, entertained
visiting gods in their cottage and were rewarded with a long and happy old age. On their
near simultaneous death, they were transformed into intertwined trees, the oak and the
linden. The story occurs in Ovid's Metamorphoses, book 8, and in La Fontaine's Fables, but
is shown here from Swift's poetic version, in The Beauties of Swift (Dublin, 1783).
ISLAND 4
Robert W. Ingram and Charles R. Frazier
Developing Communications Skills for the Accounting Profession
Accounting education series, no. 5
Sarasota, Fla. : American Accounting Association, c1980.
Original wrappers.
Frazier's first book was this practical manual co-written with a professor in
USC's College of Business Administration.
Charles Frazier, with Donald Secreast
Adventuring in the Andes : The Sierra Club Travel Guide to Ecuador,
Peru, Bolivia, the Amazon Basin, and the Galapagos Islands
San Francisco : Sierra Club Books, c1985.
Fourth printing. Original pictorial wrappers.
Following coursework at USC, Frazier and his wife moved to Colorado. Among
the travel writing he undertook there was this second book, also co-authored.
Charles R. Frazier
The Geography of Possibility: Man in the Landscape in Recent
Western Fiction
Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 1986.
Original red library buckram. Signed by the author.
Following an introductory essay, this 257-page dissertation devotes chapters to the writings
of Edward Abbey, Thomas McGuane, James Crumley, Barry Holsten Lopez, Elizabeth
Tallent and Douglas Unger.
Charles Frazier
"Licit Pursuits"
The Best of the West 2: New Short Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri,
ed. James & Denise Thomas (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith [Peregrine Smith],
1989), 213-22.
This story, told from the viewpoint of a lone nineteenth-century lawman, tells of
his ride across country to capture a murderer, his struggle in the woods to escape on foot
from his armed and mounted quarry, his dramatic arrest of the murderer at the man's
wedding in a small country church, and the technique with which he hanged his captive
from a tree-branch in the road outside. The story was originally published in Kansas
Quarterly19.3 (Winter/Spring 1987).
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, [1997].
Uncorrected advance proof of 368 pages, rather strangely labelled on the front
cover and title-page "Uncorrected manuscript." Original glazed pictorial
wrappers. At the head of the title is "ver 97.1.14." The title announces "to be
published in Spring 1997," while the back cover (with a blurb and bio note not
used for the first edition dustjacket) indicates a probable publication date of June.
Cold Mountain
Publisher's promotional card for first edition. Signed by the author.
The front of the card reproduces the front dustjacket, while the reverse carries a short quote
from John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
ISLAND 5
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.
First edition, first printing, signed. Map of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains on endpapers.
Original black quarter cloth, dark blue boards.
On the pictorial dust jacket, the back cover presents pre-publication praise by Kaye
Gibbons, Rick Bass, Ann Beattie, and Willie Morris. The front flap quotes Larry Brown and
substantially revises the original blurb from the advance review copies. The author-note on
the back flap is similarly revised, while a silver sticker on the front cover prints praise from
John Berendt.
Gift of Dr. Ronald Bridwell, Immediate Past President, Thomas Cooper Society.
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
N.p.: Twenty-third Avenue Books & First Choice Books, 1997.
This broadside was produced to commemorate one of the author's early readings from his
novel. A total of 126 copies were printed, 26 lettered A-Z and 100 numbered 1-100; this is
number 27.
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
London: Sceptre, 1997.
First British edition, fourth printing. Wrappered issue. Original pictorial
wrappers.
Frazier flew to London in July 1997 for the British launch of the book, which
was first issued there in large-format paperback, before hardback.
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.
Printings differ in a reading that occurs on page 25 of the published novel. The
word "manwoman" in the advance proofs acquired a hyphen in the first printing,
and this was altered further to "madwoman" in subsequent printings. The
illustrations are from the advance proofs, the first printing, and the thirteenth printing.
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
Hampton Falls, N.H. : Beeler Large Print, c1997. Not shown.
The original exhibit included a large print edition, primarily sold to libraries for older readers,
with the text of first printing.
Charles Frazier
Cold Mountain
New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997. 21st printing.
Following the National Book Award announcement, the gold award seal shown
here was substituted for the earlier silver seal with the Berendt quote. This
copy also shows a typical chain store sticker, this one advertising Books-aMillion's 40% discount to club members. While the initial sales impetus for Cold
Mountain came from the enthusiasm of smaller, independent booksellers, especially in the
South, mass discount sales came through the larger chains (Barnes & Noble, Crown,
Books-a-Million, etc.) and even general discount stores (Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, etc.). By
1998, the market-share of independent booksellers had reportedly fallen to 17%.
The Vintage Contemporaries trade paperback, delayed in publication till August 18 1998
because of continuing sales of the hardback, uses the same front jacket design, with the
National Book Award seal, with the addition of "#1 National Bestseller" at the head and a
quote from Newsweek at the foot. The endpaper maps are included after the titlepage and
epigraphs. A final ad leaf draws attention to the two audio versions of the book, both
published by Random House: an unabridged version (14 1/2 hours) read by Frazier himself,
and an abridge 3 hour one, read by Dylan Baker.
Reviews of Cold Mountain
The image includes Newsweek's article on Frazier from the 28 July 1997
issue, Polly Paddock Gossett's article on Frazier from the Raleigh News
and Observer, George Will's Washington Postarticle on America's literary
marketplace (with substantial reference to Frazier), and the bestsellers list
from the 31 August 1997 issue of the New York Times Book
Reviewshowing Cold Mountain at the top of the fiction list.