In honor of Black History Month, the CVA is showcasing some of the region’s most important and influential African-American citizens. In this installment, we take a look at Affrilachian poet Nikky Finney.
Read MoreWilliam Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, one of four sons. His great grandfather was a Civil War Colonel and best selling author.
He moved with his parents as a child to Oxford, Mississippi, a town that …
Read MoreRachel Carson was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania in 1907. She attended the Pennsylvania College for Women, studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and received her MA in zoology at Johns Hopkins.
She had a 15 year career at …
Read MoreRoger Tory Peterson was born in Jamestown, New York in 1908. He is known well known for his field guides to wildlife. He published his first guide to birds in 1934 and invented a system of field identification.
His guides …
Read MoreLarry Flynt was born in 1942 in Magoffin County, Kentucky, at one time the poorest county in the United States. He dropped out of school in the ninth grade and lied about his age to enlist in the army at …
Read MoreMary Cassatt was born in 1844 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She traveled to Europe with her family and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
She moved to Paris in 1874 and became famous as an impressionist. She worked in both …
Read MoreRuth Fulton Benedict was born in 1887, some say in New York City, and others in Chenango County, New York. Her father died when she was less than two years old and she lived at her grandparents farm near Norwich.…
Read MoreThomas Wolfe was born in 1900 in Asheville, North Carolina the youngest of 8 children. His mother ran a 29 room boarding house called My Old Kentucky Home. His father ran a tombstone shop.
He enrolled at the University of …
Read MoreLouisa May Alcott is known as the author of Little Women and is not usually associated with the Appalachian Region. She was born in 1832 in Germantown Pennsylvania, the second of four daughters.
Her childhood was extremely poor but apparently …
Read MorePearl Buck was born in 1892, the fourth of seven children, in Hillsboro, West Virginia to Southern Presbyterian Missionaries who were home on furlough.
At three months, she was taken to China by her parents. She grew up speaking both …
Read More