Charles Frazier

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Charles Frazier
Born (1950-11-04) November 4, 1950 (age 72)
Asheville, North Carolina, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Genre Historical fiction
Notable awards National Book Award
1997 Cold Mountain
Website
charlesfrazier.com

Charles Frazier (born November 4, 1950) is an American novelist. He won the 1997 National Book Award for Fiction for Cold Mountain . [1]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, grew up in Andrews and Franklin, North Carolina, [2] and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1986. A 1985 published work by Frazier was a trail guide to the Andes and environs for the Sierra Club.

Frazier taught English, first at University of Colorado Boulder, then English at North Carolina State University. His wife convinced him to quit in order to work full-time on his novel. His friend and fellow North Carolina novelist, Kaye Gibbons, presented his unfinished novel to her literary agency, which led to the publication of Cold Mountain. [3]

Career

Cold Mountain was his first novel, published in 1997 by Atlantic Monthly Press. It traces the journey of Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War. It follows his harrowing journey from deserting the army to finding his way back to the woman he left behind, Ada, who waits for him, dealing with all kinds of hardships herself. The power of Ada and Inman's love, and their dedication to reuniting, is the driving force of the novel, along with Frazier's incorporation of historical context. The work is rich in the culture and sensibilities of the North Carolina mountains, and is based on local history and stories handed down by Frazier's father about Frazier's great-great-uncle, William Pinkney "Pink" Inman (1839- 6 February 1865). [4] Inman, who was from Haywood County, the area around Cold Mountain in western North Carolina, served in the Confederate Army, from which he deserted after being wounded twice, and is buried in the Bethel Community Cemetery, Bethel, Haywood County, North Carolina. [5] "Pink" Inman served as a private in Company F of the 25th North Carolina Infantry, and his regiment did participate in the fighting in the Siege of Petersburg, including the Battle of the Crater. [6]

Cold Mountain won the 1997 U.S. National Book Award [1] and was adapted as a 2003 film of the same name by Anthony Minghella.

Frazier's second novel, Thirteen Moons , published in 2006, traces the story of one man across a century of change in America. Also set in western North Carolina, the novel traces one white man's involvement with the Cherokee Indians just before, during and after their removal to Oklahoma. It is a story of struggle and triumph against the emerging U.S. government's plan to remove native Cherokee people to Oklahoma. Based on the success of Cold Mountain, Frazier was offered an $8 million advance for Thirteen Moons. [7]

Frazier's 2011 book, Nightwoods, takes place in the 20th century, although the setting is still the Appalachian Mountains. [8] [9] [10]

Frazier's fourth novel, Varina, is based on the life of Varina Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States of America. It was published in 2018. [11]

Frazier's fifth novel, The Trackers, follows a painter during the Great Depression who tracks down a woman with a valuable painting. [12]

Works

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Cold Mountain is a 2003 epic period war film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling 1997 novel of the same name by Charles Frazier. It stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger with Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Kathy Baker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jack White, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, and Ray Winstone in supporting roles. The film tells the story of a wounded deserter from the Confederate army close to the end of the American Civil War, who journeys home to reunite with the woman he loves. The film was a co-production of companies in Italy, Romania, and the United States.

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<i>Cold Mountain</i> (novel) 1997 novel by Charles Frazier

Cold Mountain is a 1997 historical novel by Charles Frazier which won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with Homer's Odyssey. The narrative alternates back and forth every chapter between the stories of Inman and Ada, a minister's daughter recently relocated from Charleston to a farm in a rural mountain community near Cold Mountain, North Carolina, from which Inman hails. Though they only knew each other for a brief time before Inman departed for the war, it is largely the hope of seeing Ada again that drives Inman to desert the army and make the dangerous journey back to Cold Mountain. Details of their brief history together are told at intervals in flashback over the course of the novel.

Cold Mountain may refer to:

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Thirteen Moons is a 2006 historical novel by American author Charles Frazier, his second book after the award-winning Cold Mountain. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, the novel is loosely based on the life of William Holland Thomas, a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War and Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—the only white man to ever hold that position. Thirteen Moons depicts the social and political climate preceding and following the Cherokee Removal from the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee Nation in what is today Western North Carolina.

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Cold Mountain is an American opera in two acts and an epilogue, with music by Jennifer Higdon and the libretto by Gene Scheer, based on Charles Frazier's 1997 novel of the same name. The opera is a co-commission between Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia and the Minnesota Opera, in collaboration with North Carolina Opera. The opera received its world premiere at Santa Fe Opera on 1 August 2015. This production coincided with the 150th anniversary of the ending of the American Civil War. Opera Philadelphia gave its first performance of the opera, in a slightly revised form, on 5 February 2016. North Carolina Opera gave the opera its home state premiere on 28 September 2017. The Minnesota Opera staged the opera in 2018 as part of its New Works Initiative. The Virginia Opera also featured performances of the opera during February 2021 as part of its themed "Love is a Battlefield" 2020–2021 season.

Myrtle Driver Johnson is a native speaker of the Cherokee language. As of July 2019 she was one of 211 remaining Cherokee speakers in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).

References

  1. 1 2 "National Book Awards – 1997". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
    (With acceptance speech by Frazier and essay by Harold Schechter from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
  2. ↑ Vale of Humility: Plain Folk in Contemporary North Carolina Fiction - George Hovis - Google Books Retrieved 2018-07-21.
  3. ↑ Childs, T. Mike (2012). "Frazier, Charles | NCpedia". NCpedia North Carolina Government & Heritage Library at the State Library of North Carolina. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Cold Mountain" diary Archived May 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine , by Charles Frazier, July 9, 1997.
  5. ↑ PBS interview with Charles Frazier, November 20, 1997
  6. ↑ Peuser, Richard; Trevor Plante (2004). "Cold Mountain's Inman: Fact Versus Fiction". National Archives. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
  7. ↑ Hot News for 'Cold Mountain' Fans Entertainment Weekly, Apr 18, 2006.
  8. ↑ Marshall, John (December 12, 2006). "Life after 'Cold Mountain'". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Retrieved November 23, 2009.
  9. ↑ Burnside, John (October 14, 2011). "Nightwoods by Charles Frazier – review". John Burnside. The Guardian .
  10. ↑ Boyagoda, Randy (October 21, 2011)."Charles Frazier’s North Carolina Gothic The New York Times .
  11. ↑ Wineapple, Brenda (April 30, 2018). "The First Lady of the Confederacy Considers Her Painful Past". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  12. ↑ "New Novel Available April 11, 2023!". charlesfrazier.com. October 6, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
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