Suggested Activities 

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Books by Reece

Poetry:

Ballad of the Bones, and other Poems

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1945; Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1985

 

Bow Down in Jericho

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1950; Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1985

 

A Song of Joy

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1952; Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1985

 

The Season of Flesh

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1955; Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1985

Novels:

Better a Dinner of Herbs

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1950; Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1992

 

The Hawk and the Sun

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1955; Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1994

Books About Reece

Byron Herbert Reece: 1917-1958 and the Southern Poetry Tradition

by Alan Jackson; Edwin Mellen Press, 2001

 

Fable in the Blood.  The Selected Poems on Byron Herbert Reece

Edited by Jim Clark: Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2002

 

Faithfully Yours: The Letters of Byron Herbert Reece

Edited by Raymond A. Cook and Alan Jackson; Mercer University Press

 

Mountain Singer:  The Life and the Legacy of Byron Herbert Reece

by Raymond A. Cook; Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1980

 

The Bitter Berry:  The Life of Byron Herbert Reece

by Bettie M. Sellers; Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993

Books About Southern Appalachian Culture

K-5

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. Gloria Houston; Pictures by Barbara Cooney. New York, New York: A Division of Penguin USA.

 

When I  Was Young in the Mountains.  Cynthia Rylant; Illustrator Diane Goode, New York: E.P.Dutton

 

Silver Packages: an Appalachian Christmas Story.  Cynthia Rylant; Illustrator Chris K. Soentpiet, New York: Orchard Books, 1997.

 

The Relatives Came.  Cynthia Rylant; Illustrator Stephen Gammell, First Aladdin Paperbacks edition, 1993.

6-8

Littlejim’s Dreams.  Gloria Houston; Pictures by Thomas B. Allen. Harcourt. 1997.

 

Littlejim’s Gift:  An Appalachian Christmas Story.  Gloria Houston; Pictures by Thomas B. Allen. Penguin Young Readers Group. 1998.

 

Ghost Girl:  A Blue Ridge Mountain Story.  Delia Ray. Houghton Mifflin. 2003.

 

It’s Nothing to a Mountain.  Sid Hite.  Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers. 1995

Websites of Interest

Young Harris Digital Library:

www.yhc.edu/external/dwlib/Web/Reece/index.html

 

New Georgia Encyclopedia:

www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2464

 

Georgia Writers’ Hall of Fame:

www.libs.uga.edu/gawriters/reece.html

 

Visit Northeast Georgia:

www.visitnortheastgeorgia.com/byronherbertreece.htm

 

House Resolution 297:

www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2005_06/fulltext/hr297.htm

 

Gainesville Times article:

www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/stories/20050619/localnews/114195.shtml

 

Southern Scribe:

www.southernscribe.com/zine/poetry/Reece.htm

Appalachian Studies Web Sites

Appalachian Studies Association

www.appalachianstudies.org/

 

Appalshop:

www.appalshop.org/

Videos

PBS “The Appalachians” and “Appalachian Journey” are recommended:

www.shoppbs.org/home/index.jsp

 

The Bitter Berry and Friends: The Life of Byron Herbert Reece

by Bettie M. Sellers; Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993

Guest Speakers

The following individuals have offered to be available to be classroom guest speakers concerning Reece.  Use the given contact information to reach a potential speaker to make arrangements.

Dr. John Kay - Chairman of the Byron Herbert Reece Society and retired Professor of Religion at Young Harris College

E-mail:              jkay@yhc.edu

 

Mr. Keith Jones - Vice Chairman of Reece Society

Telephone:      706-492-3309 or 404-314-6992

E-mail:             kjonz@etcmail.com

 

Mr. Matthew Jones - Student at North GA Technical College, History Major from State University of West GA.

Telephone:      706-492-3309 or 404-630-9173

E-mail:             mattdawguwg@yahoo.com

 

Mrs. Ethelene Dyer Jones - Byron Herbert Reece Society Steering Committee member

Telephone:        478-453-8751

E-mail:              edj0513@alltel.net

 

Places to Go

Atlanta History Center

The Atlanta History Center on West Paces Ferry Road includes exhibits, gardens, a model farm, and the Swan House.  Of particular interest is the farm, which is very similar to what the Reece family farm would have been like in his childhood and the exhibit of folk art.  In it you will find a display of homemade coverlets and a suit made by the Collins sisters of Union County, a family that Reece would have known and occasionally attended church with.  School groups are welcome but reservations must be made one month in advance.  Contact the Atlanta History Center at 404-814-4062 or on the web at www.atlantahistorycenter.com/

 

Union County Local History Museum

The Union County Local History Museum is located in the historic 1899 “Old Courthouse” in Blairsville, Georgia.  Included among the exhibits is a display on Reece.  Also included are the Margarita Morgan Miniature Collection, the original clock and bell mechanism, Native American artifacts, and exhibits honoring local education, religion, military service, and occupations.  A short walk away is the Union County Heritage Center in the historic and recently restored Grapelle Butt Mock House.  Both are administered by the Union County Historical Society, which can be reached at 706-745-5493 or www.unioncountyhistory.org

 

Byron Herbert Reece Farm & Heritage Center

Scheduled to open in September of 2007, the Byron Herbert Reece Interpretive Center will be located at the Reece family farm site.  The Center will be available for school groups and will help students to better understand both Reece and the agriculture economy of the Southern Appalachians of the early 1900s.

Short Local Histories 

Union County:

Occupied mainly be Cherokees until gold was discovered in the mountains in 1828, Union County was created in 1832 and divided up in the final Georgia Land Lottery.  Rugged and inaccessible even by the standards of the day, the area was settled primarily by the Scots-Irish mountain people of the Appalachians, many of whom were poor.

 

Pioneer life was difficult so early settlers had to be hardy and self-sufficient.  Most were farmers or the tradesmen necessary to support agriculture; some were millers, gold miners, and moonshiners.  Indian conflicts and personal hardships were not uncommon.

 

Few mountain people held slaves and most were opposed to slavery.  At the state legislative convention in 1861, both Union County delegates voted against secession.  The county eventually followed the state in supporting the Confederacy, though residents of the county fought and died on both sides.  The impressive Veterans War Memorial in Union County honors both the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the conflict.

 

Union County was not named in sympathy for the North, however, as the county was named nearly 30 years prior to the Civil War.  One explanation is that “Union” came from the Union Party, a political group that had urged opening Indian land to white settlement after the discovery of gold.

A Brief History of Union County -- Union County Historical Society

 

Towns County:

Created on March 6, 1856 from portions of Rabun and Union Counties, it was named for George W. Towns, an early governor of the State.  The two incorporated towns, Hiawassee (the county seat) and Young Harris, (home of Young Harris College), are located where ancient Cherokee trails cross.  Sturdy immigrants who could endure both the isolation and extreme hardships of mountain life and weather settled the county. 

 

Many natives of Towns County today are descendants of those early settlers.  The isolation preserved both a culture and language that disappeared far more slowly than in lowland settlements.  Remnants of Old English remain today in the colorful phrases and pronunciation of mountain folk. 

 

The influence of the Cherokee Indians is reflected in the names in the county:  Enotah, Hiawassee, Chatuge.  Other colorful names abound on road signs like Tater Ridge, Bugscuffle, Frog Pond, Bear Meat, Shake Rag, Scataway, Fodder Creek, Soapstone, and Owl Creek

 

Of the 106,240 acres of land in Towns County, the Chattahoochee National Forest Covers over 57,000 and another 7,000 is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built Lake Chatuge in 1941.  The natural beauty of the County is enhanced and preserved by both these attractions, which afford the recreational opportunities and economic benefit.

Writer’s Club ~ Union County High School

The UCHS Writer’s Club is composed of students who are interested in writing or art and in participating in the publication of the Pathways Literary Magazine.  The club usually meets on Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m., but meets after school as necessary when it is time to put together the magazine. 

 

For the first semester, club meetings serveas times for the members to get to know each other and to discuss issues related to writing.  Sometimes students talk about things they are writing and ask other students to comment.  Other times they engage in brief writing exercises. 

 

A favorite one is this:  Everyone writes something that could be the first line of a poem, and then they exchange first lines.  This can be done randomly, with a draw, or students can “bid” on a line, argue their case and let members vote.  The next week, everyone is supposed to come back with a poem that they wrote, using the first line they were given.  The before-school meetings are short, interrupted by bells and announcements, and frequently chaotic, because students come early and late, depend on buses, and often carry breakfast with them; but this is a club, not an English class, and some chaos is acceptable. 

 

During the first semester the Writer’s Club also sponsors a contest for the whole student body, offering first, second and third prizes in three categories:  poetry, prose and art work.  This is a way of encouraging student writing and art, and of generating materials for publication in the magazine.  The club sponsor enlists support from teachers and local arts groups to judge the submissions so that club members may participate in the contest.

 

During the second semester, the Writer’s Club students read submissions and examine artwork to decide which ones will be accepted for publication, and proceed to assemble the magazine.  This is a teaching opportunity in many ways.  Not only are the students expected to choose wisely and ignore their prejudices, they are also supposed to argue their viewpoints without ridiculing anyone’s work, while remaining sensitive to the feelings of others.  It gets very complicated!  We rely on sticky-notes and allow students to vote “yes, no, or maybe” on each submission, sometimes as a group, and sometimes anonymously.  

 

The sponsor sets clear limits from the beginning:  Pathways Literary Magazine is a family publication, and, although the students are given a great deal of freedom, the sponsor maintains the right to veto any submission she finds unacceptable.  “No suicide notes allowed!”   Students type, edit, lay out and proof-read the pages, design covers, indexes and tables of contents, and are involved in all aspects of the publication until it is sent to the printer.  This involves the use of several computer programs, including Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Pagemaker, and MS Word.

 

The club membership varies greatly from one year to the next. There are currently twenty-three members of the Writer’s Club, mostly ninth and tenth-graders. At other times as few as five or six members attend.  The current group is so chatty and hyperactive that it is sometimes hard to have a meeting.  Others have been so quiet that it was hard to have a meeting.  It helps greatly to have enthusiastic support from teachers in the classroom who spot good writers and encourage them to join.  One of our most successful years was due, in large part, to a long-term substitute English teacher, whose enthusiasm made a world of difference in student response.

 

In addition to producing the magazine and sponsoring the writing and art contest in the fall, the Writer’s Club sometimes invites authors as guest speakers for school events.  In addition, five club members attended the Blue Ridge Writer’s Conference this spring. 

 

The Writer’s Club is sponsored by Mrs. Doris Durbin, media specialist, UCHS, and is backed, financially, by the United Community Bank of Blairsville, which pays for printing the magazine and provides a reception for the participants upon the first day of publication.  This happy partnership has been in effect now for seven years, and seven volumes of Pathways.