he bestselling novel, Cold Mountain (1997), was written by the author Charles Frazier, a native of Asheville. Coming from the city that boasts names like Wolfe, Fitzgerald, and O. Henry, Frazier joins a host of contemporary Asheville authors carrying forward the city’s rich literary history— authors such as Sarah Addison Allen, Sara Gruen, Gail Godwin, John Ehle, Wiley Cash, Denise Kiernan, Wilma Dykeman and the list goes on.
The question is why has Asheville given rise to so many successful authors and Frazier had an answer in a 2017 interview. It is “Asheville itself…the literary history of this small city is amazing.” He explains the strong oral history tradition of the mountain people. “That old Celtic kind of thing is certainly a big part of it. The Cherokee oral tradition is still alive. A lot of us here grew up hearing stories—hearing hunting tales and ghost stories—told by older folks…When I go to family reunions, there’s a sharing of the history, the stories about those in our family, walking through the cemeteries and learning about our ancestors.” Asheville is the place where this bestselling author found the inspiration for his craft in the area’s local history and unique culture. It is in the mountains where his novels take their voice.
“Whenever I’m back in those mountains, I feel like that’s home, no matter how long I’ve been away, That’s the place I know the best, and the place that in my imagination sums up all those things about being rooted and knowing a place and having a place.”
The Frazier family has lived in the mountains around Asheville for over 200 years and he draws on that history in telling his Cold Mountain story based on the experiences of a real life great-grand-uncle. In the novel W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army, walks for months to return to his mountain home and Ada Monroe, the love of his life.
Few people realize that Cold Mountain is a real place—a high spot within the Pisgah National Forest just 35 scenic miles southwest of the “Land of Sky” as Asheville was once called. There is not an actual town of Cold Mountain, however. The mountain itself (elevation 6,030 feet) is part of the Shining Rock Wilderness area in Pisgah National Forest. It is still in its natural state much as it was during the Civil War. You can enjoy beautiful views of the mountain from the Blue Ridge Parkway, but to reach the summit requires a strenuous 10-mile roundtrip hike.