Canton – Fred Chappell, the Canton native and celebrated man of letters, showed an early interest in things literary. Chappell, who died at age 87 on January 4, once hitchhiked from Canton to Durham just to hear the legendary poet Dylan Thomas read at Duke University.
After high school, Chappell traveled east again to attend Duke, where he studied under William Blackburn and became friends with the novelist Reynolds Price. Then it was back west, to a job at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where Chappell taught English for the next four decades.
Chappell began publishing in his twenties, releasing It Is Time, Lord in 1963 and a second novel, The Inkling two years later. Two more novels, Dagon and The Gaudy Place followed, as did several volumes of poetry, the genre where he made his greatest mark. Chappell won the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry on no less than eight occasions. In 1985, he was awarded the prestigious Bollingen Prize, solidifying his standing as a major poet.
Midquest, his long 1981 poem, has been hailed as one of the significant poetic achievements of the past half century. Chappell wrote light verse too, much of it collected in such volumes as C, Spring Garden, and Backsass. Some celebrate the agrarian life he knew while growing up on his family farm in Canton. Others recognize its hardships, with the narrator of one poem vowing to escape the farming life through scholarship.
Chappell’s subject matters included the perils of the literary life, warmongering politicians, the material excesses of modern America and the fulfillment that comes from love and marriage.
The 1960s Asheville received the full treatment in another novel, the before-mentioned The Gaudy Place. The fast-paced novel represented another cultural clash. The gaudy place is a downtown area inhabited by streetwise young people – con men, bookies, bondsmen – all caught on the short end of the new economic order. Such characters fail in their various schemes to make it out of their little world. Three of them – Arkie, Clemmie, and Oxie -have no real family to fall back on. In Chappell’s other creative works, families have stayed on the same land for generations. There is no security blanket for this trio. Clemmie, a lost young woman, and Oxie were both born in the city and raised in poverty. Arkie, the equally wayward youngster, who has a crush on Clemmie, is a public school dropout. None of them knows the whereabouts of any immediate family members. Instead, they end up living outside the law with all the predictable results.
My favorite book of verse is a 2000 collection, Family Gathering. It presents a more pleasing vision to life on the street. Family life can break your heart, but a large, extended family provides a protective coating from a hostile world.
Fred Chappell’s career reached a peak from 1997 to 2002 when he served as Poet Laurate of North Carolina. According to friends, he loved the honor – and the duties that came with it. He criss-crossed the state, giving readings at numerous institutions. He also composed poems for certain events, including one for the 2000 Thomas Wolfe centennial held that year in Asheville.
Novelist, short story writer, poet, essayist, teacher. Fred Chappell was Poet Laurate of the Tar Heel state. Anyone who knows his work knows also he could have been Poet Laurate for the entire country.
Author’s Note: Joe Scotchie’s latest book is The Asheville Connection (Shotwell Publishing).