Appalachian Heritage : The Life of a Magazine

Abstract

FEATURED AUTHOR—ALBERT STEWART Appalachian Heritage: The Life of a Magazine ____________ Bill Weinberg Many people know that Al Stewart was the heart and soul of the Appalachian Heritage magazine. Only a few people know the events surrounding the birth and continued existence of the magazine over time in its earlier years before landing at Berea College. * * * InJuIy1971,1arrivedinPippaPasses, Kentucky, freshfromtwoyears atJohns Hopkins School ofAdvanced International Studies, comparing the problems of economic development in Central Appalachia to those of other lesser developed areas of industrialized countries such as the Massif Central in France. I had been hired by President Will Hayes to teach political science and be Director of the Appalachian Oral History Project at Alice Lloyd College. The College was in the midst of a financial crunch and shortly after my arrival, it was decided that I would write a grant for the National Endowment for the Humanities aimed at both supplementing the College's ongoing programs and at the same time establishing a new Appalachian emphasis for the College, building on the oral history program. The result was a three year grant from NEH that created an Appalachian emphasis program called the Appalachian Learning Laboratory. The grant provided funding for theAppalachianOral History Project, an extensive Appalachian collection in the College's library, Appalachian summer theatre and the Appalachian Heritage magazine. Appalachian Heritage had been a long-time dream of Al Stewart's, and he was happy to be its editor, althoughhe was far less enamored with the idea of a young whippersnapper like me being his supervisor. Of course, as all who knew him can attest, supervision was for Al an oxymoron. It was no coincidence that Al's initial editorial comments in the magazine appear under the heading: "From the Kingdom at Yellow Mountain." The first issue of Appalachian Heritage was published in 1973 and it has been published on a quarterly basis ever since. Al's Advisory and Contributing Editors would have made any editor proud: Harriet Arnow, 37 Dean Cadle, Billy C. Clark, David Madden, Jane Mayhall, Edward Morris, Jean Ritchie, Kiffin Rockwell, Bennie Lee Sinclair, James Still, Hollis Summers and Eliot Wigginton. (Al later persuaded Fred Chappell and Jim Wayne Miller to serve on his Advisory Board.) Soon after the magazine's publication, the Library Journal reviewed it: While concerned with the Appalachian region in terms of history, folklore, crafts, music, etc, [Appalachian Heritage] has broad appeal to be almost a general magazine in the category of Yankee or in the same area as Foxfire. It has an intrinsic honesty, unusual for regional magazines, which are understandably concerned with advertising the area rather than pointing up its defects....It is particularly valuable, entertaining, and highly informative, though, for recollections and local history, e.g., death and burial customs and sketches of the mountain people. This aspect makes it a worthy addition for any library. Al edited Appalachian Heritage faithfully for Alice Lloyd College for more than ten years, even after retiring from the Alice Lloyd faculty. He seldom departed from the magazine's quarterly schedule, and then only to publish a double or special issue. But the College had a new President, Jerry Davis, and, in Spring 1982, Davis decided to withdraw the College's financial support of the magazine. The last issue published by the College was a double issue—Winter/Spring 1982—printed in May 1982 and, if the College thought it would contain any mention of the changes ahead, it hadn't learned Al Stewart after all those years. In March 1982, Davis told reporter Lee Mueller that economics dictated his decision. "It was costing us several thousand dollars a year, and that was even with Al donating his time."(Al worked on the magazine for six years without being paid by the College.) Mueller's article, entitled "Deathwaits forAlice Lloyd magazine: Money shortage means the death of noted magazine," stirred up a groundswell of support for the continuation of Appalachian Heritage. A new corporation, Appalachian Heritage, Inc., was formed in May 1982, with a Board of concerned citizens including Al Perrin, Will Hayes, Ron Daley, Paul Allen, Gary Conley, Kathy Sloane, G.B. Johnson, Jr., Mayor Bill Gorman, Al, myself...