Friday from the Archives: “State Highway Historic Markers: Public Commemoration and Literary History” by Michael Hill from NCLR 2 (1993)
Looking for your next literary research subject? May we suggest riding around your town til you find a local literary highway historical marker? There are over a hundred around the state, in many unexpected places. Hill wrote, “With the highway historical marker program now in its seventh decade and many of its signs in place for over half a century, the familiar memorials are an integral part of the Tar Heel landscape. Found in practically every city and town, as well as at many rural crossroads across the state, these commemorative markers constitute an important part of the public memory of all North Carolinians. Literary critics refer to a “sense of place” as a characteristic of Southern life and letters. Similarly, these sentinels by the highway lend a permanence to North Carolina’s past and culture.”
For example: “In its inaugural year, the Marker Advisory Committee marked sites such as the birthplaces of Governor Zebulon B. Vance and Virginia Dare. It also began recognizing the importance of literary history by authorizing plaques commemorating the Guilford County birthplace and Asheville gravesite of short-story writer William Sydney Porter “O. Henry”, the Scotland County grave of poet John Charles McNeil, the approximate site in Greene County where explorer and historian John Lawson was killed by the Tuscarora (the marker has since been moved to Grifton in Pitt County), and the Polk County house in which writer and musician Sidney Lanier died in 1881. Before 1940, two sites associated with editor and ambassador Walter Hines Page were marked: his birthplace in Cary and his tomb in Aberdeen. Markers were also placed in
honor of playwright Augustin Daly of Plymouth, Progressive Farmer founder Leonidas L. Polk of Polkton and Raleigh, novelist Frances Fisher Tieman (“Christian Reid”) of Salisbury, and humorist Edgar W. “Bill” Nye of Fletcher.”
“The Marker Advisory Committee now strictly observes the rule, devised to ensure objective detachment, that 25 years elapse after an individual’s death before commemoration can be considered. Most recently recognized with markers are two writers who died in the 1960s: columnist and novelist Robert Ruark of Wilmington and Southport, who died in 1965; and poet and biographer Carl Sandburg of Flat Rock, who died in 1967. Ruark’s marker was placed in 1991; Sandburg’s,1992.” You can find a long list of all the literary related markers standing at the time this was published with the article. Then road trip and get inspired! Pieces submitted about forgotten authors are eligible for the John Ehle Prize, sponsored by Press 53.
Read the entire article on Gale Cengage or purchase a copy of the 1993 issue.
