Category Archives: 1915

1915

Elia W. Peattie. Azalea’s Silver Web. Chicago: Reilly & Britton, 1915.

Azalea, now 18, finds that she is the missing granddaughter of a wealthy South Carolina family, and she must make a choice between plantation life and the mountain people who have nurtured her. Told in letters from Azalea; heavy on dialect.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1915, Children & Young Adults, Mountains, Novels in Series, Novels to Read Online, Peattie, Elia W.

Payne Erskine. A Girl of the Blue Ridge. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1915.

Lurry Bab’s future is bleak, almost Dickensian. When Lurry’s mother dies from her husband’s violence and neglect, Lurry takes her infant brother and runs away from home. Daniel McEwen, an old hermit who rescues Lurry, had a history with Lurry’s late mother. There are many connections among the mountaineers–those on the side of the law and those who make moonshine–and these connections come out during the course of the novel. Lurry is torn between what is left of her family–violent and drunken though they are–and a better life at a settlement school. Dave Turpin, a sometime assistant to the moonshiners, also moves back and forth between the moonshiners and the villagers. Lurry and Dave are attracted to each other, but when Dave is accused of murdering Lurry’s father, a happy life together looks unlikely.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 1910-1919, 1915, Coast, Erskine, Payne, Mountains, Novels to Read Online

Waldron Baily. Heart of the Blue Ridge. New York: W. J. Watt & Co., 1915.

Making moonshine is part of the mountain culture in this novel set in Wilkes County. Zeke Higgins made the mistake of helping a revenue agent, earning the wrath of many people, including Dick Siddon, the guardian of Zeke’s sweetheart, Plutina. Zeke leaves the mountains to make his fortune, a journey that takes him to Greensboro, the Dismal Swamp, Norfolk, and New York. Back in the mountains, old Dick Siddon has a change of heart, but not before Plutina is kidnapped by a dangerous criminal. Zeke, and his dog, return to save the day.

Check this title’s availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Comments Off on Waldron Baily. Heart of the Blue Ridge. New York: W. J. Watt & Co., 1915.

Filed under 1910-1919, 1915, Baily, Waldron, Mountains, Novels to Read Online, Wilkes