Noah Adams followed a river to look for the heart of Appalachia. His journey, which took him through the history of the region and into the lives of its residents, is the subject of "Far Appalachia: Following the New River North," which will be published in April by Delacorte Press.
Public radio listeners know Adams as a host of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." His radio career started in 1962 as a rock 'n' roll DJ in Ironton, Ohio. In 1971, after working at stations in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Georgia, he joined public radio station WBKY-FM at the University of Kentucky, where he hosted rock and bluegrass shows. In 1975, he joined NPR, and since 1978 has been with "All Things Considered."
Adams has published three other books: a collection of essays from Minnesota Public Radio's "Good Evening," which he hosted in 1988; "Noah Adams on 'All Things Considered': A Radio Journal"; and "Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventures," a book about learning to play the piano as an adult.
The author's own roots are planted in Appalachia. He's a native of Ashland, Ky., a mill town in the northeastern part of the state. His work at NPR often brought him back to the area to research stories.
Adams had wanted to write a book about Appalachia, but the subject was just too big. "It's like saying I want to write a book about Africa or America. I knew there were a lot of great stories there, but I couldn't find the structure for it."
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Joining Adams for the April 18 dinner will be Pittsburgh novelists Kathleen Cambor and Stewart O'Nan, Carnegie Mellon historian Kiron Skinner and journalist Julie Salamon.
 Tickets for the event at the Westin Convention Center are $35 and can be ordered by calling 412-263-1421.
Proceeds benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council. | | |
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One day, he was looking at a map and saw the New River, which travels about 350 miles, from its headwaters in North Carolina to its confluence with the Gauley River in West Virginia; they become the Kanawha, which feeds into the Ohio. In 1998, the New River was designated an American Heritage River.
"I started looking at the map and thought, 'That's it.' That's the way into this country. That would be the narrative, and would limit the scope to a manageable length. Plus, rivers are inherently romantic. You never know what's around the next turn."
"Far Appalachia" was written "as a sort of guide book, not only to the region, but to the literature and history of the region," Adams says. As he describes it, it's "a little bit of travel, a little of history and a little bit of natural history." The book is a collection of short chapters, dealing with the people, places, history, nature and the impact of industry on the region. Each reads like a self-contained sketch, which was Adams' intention.
"I wanted it to be, in a way, like a river -- slow parts and fast parts and tributaries coming in, and stories which sort of swirled around. And so the river itself is a metaphor for the structure of the book."
Adams, who will be in Pittsburgh April 18 for the next Post-Gazette Book and Author Dinner, took an 11-month leave from NPR for the project. In 1997, he traveled the length of the New River -- not in one Huck Finn-style journey from A to B, but in segments, sometimes returning to check on details. He did some portions of the trip alone and some with guides.
The guides were invaluable for local information, he says. He told one: "Anything you say in the next three or four days may wind up in a book. He said, 'Hell, I don't care.' And he didn't shut up."
Adams traveled by canoe and raft, Jeep, bicycle and on foot. Although he encountered some moderate whitewater while rafting, it wasn't a challenging trip physically, he says. "I'm not an outdoor jock at all."
The historical research involved a different kind of journey -- through a rich collection of historical works on Appalachia. "Sometimes you're working on a paragraph and you just have to stop and read three books," he says.
In the course of his reading, he discovered a reference to Daniel Boone's habit of carrying a copy of "Gulliver's Travels" around with him. That led to a meditation on Boone, sitting around his campfire and reading Swift. "That section relates to the strangeness of new people coming to a new country and encountering new customs. In 'Gulliver's Travels,' they fought a war over which end of the egg should be broken." He follows this with an account of the Cherokee being forced westward by the U.S. Army in the 1800s. "The Cherokee lost a lot of land because they couldn't figure out that what the whites wanted to do is own the land. It's an alien concept, as strange as anything you read in 'Gulliver.' "
The book debunks some stereotypes of Appalachia and its people. He describes network news crews coming to West Virginia and nailing coonskin caps to the sides of shacks for effect, and explores how the movie "Deliverance" has adversely affected the image of the area.
Adams says he encountered many memorable and fine people in his travels, many of whom didn't make it into the book. "Mostly books wind up being about what you chose not to put in. Which is true of radio, too."
Although the book is done, Adams' travels in Appalachia will continue.
"So many stories have come from there. Just to be with those people, it kind of keeps me focused here, and what's going on that's important in the country."
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