Fine Tribute
I cannot imagine a greater tribute to the extraordinary Jonathan Williams than that by Gary Carden.
Williams enjoyed international renown as a literary man, visual artist, and small press publisher, but his friends and neighbors in Western North Carolina will always remember him as a person true to his humanistic vision and as one who fully understood and appreciated his Southern Appalachian roots. For those aspiring to communicate with and reach out to fellow human beings, one need look no further than the life and work of Jonathan Williams to see the artistic and literary trails one visionary person can break.
Carden's story of his birthday meeting with Williams is quite wonderful, and his "magpie" analogy for Williams is absolutely inspired. In fact, Carden himself is cut from the same cloth as Williams: creative in a wide range of media, resignedly irreverent about the changing world, and finely and lovingly attuned to the cultural vernacular of the Southern Appalachians. Like Williams, Carden has a pitch-perfect ear for mountain utterance, with the uncanny ability to pick out the real thing from amongst the fakes. Williams himself was known for writing creative obituaries (a lost art he lamented), and he would be absolutely delighted with Carden's tribute.
Betty Cloer Wallace
Franklin, NC
Dear Betty,
ReplyDeleteThank you! I guess this gives me the opportunity to return the favor since I doubt that many members of WNW know that you have an impressive work that is currently "in media res." For those of you who do not know, Betty has an awesome work called "Tuckaseegee" (or is it "Tuckaseigee"? that needs to be read and discussed by WNW at some point.
Gary Carden