Far
Seems no longer
they are-
Yet the desires are not
far-
Still known
Still understood
Still felt
Still there
Close yet far-
By Ray Johnson
Forgotten Innocence
Into it he fell. Without warning he was set into timeless motion. He
fought to escape long before he slept within his mother s womb; even
now he almost became the endless flow and returned through the eternal
river, the cold, shadowed features of an orange, harvest moon gazed
across the sleeping valley, a long light stayed lit. Six strings sang sadly
with the shivering leaves. Alone he sat beneath flourescent light,
reflecting off green walls; ink swerved in whirling, drifting cycles across
blank pages. Street lights shone upon black asphalt strewn with broken
pieces of green glass; he recalled some forgotten fragrance so sweet,
supple, but submerged somewhere within an early morning s deep pray
blanket of fog. The first rays of sunrise had pierced the canopy of an
elder oak — the dream raged on and on ...
He had sensed the essence of the life to come as he lay suspended
evolving in his world of darkness. Impulses of things to come rushed
through his head, pushed gently onward with each beat of his mother s
heart. He drempt of light silhouetting blue velvet mountains and of
noments past. Here was the only peace he would know, along his
unfolding experience; his life wandered in and out of the shaded chasms
warn into an aged earth. Mesmerized he stood, while rushing wUters sent
sparkling prisms of light through his mind. Here his soul could be free-
uninhibited, like the lone hawk ascending in the flapless glide to
seemingly unattainable heights above him.He envied the great bird as it
faded from sight into an endless blue. He heard the bird s lonely cry as it
reverberated off unseen cliffs and fell soundless-into shadowed valleys.
He contemplated death, knowing that to conquer it he had only to die.
But somehow wandering restlessly through the blossoming wilderness in
springtime, he felt he was home. But as he climbed the aged mountains,
he knew — at least for now — he was bound to the flesh, locked inside
his skull.
By Alan Joyner
A Photographers Portrait
By Jana L. Miller
Students Involved In Original Research
This semester some students at
Brevard College have had the
opportupity to enhance their
regular coursework in English
with original historical research
into the life of R. Henry Scadin, a
photographer known in the South
at the turn of the century. The
project was initiated by Mark
Walters of the English Depart
ment, who upon discovering the
photographer’s diaries and glass
negatives in an attic in a cabin in
the mountains of western North
Carolina last summer, began a
biography, coordinating the work
with R. Henry Scadin’s only
surviving son, Dewey.
The surviving material con
sists of some 1500 extremely rare
glass photographic negatives and
personal diaries covering about
fifty years of the photographer’s
life.
These diaries form the back
bone of the biography. According
to Walters they will require
“meticulous, consciencious, and
painstaking work in order to be
condensed and rendered into a
manageable form. ’ ’
The students come in the
picture mostly in the con
densation of these diaries. On the
average, each students involved
will write essays on five diaries.
Each student will also write a
research paper on either
photography, medicine, or
transportation at the turn of the
century. These three topics
provide an historical context for
the diaries.
It is unusual for un
dergraduates. in college to be
involved in original research. It
will be terrific plus on ap
plications to four year schools.
According to Walters, “These are
excellent students who are
willing to do extra work. They
will have the benefit of ex
perience as well as their name in
print.”
Walters has tied this research
in with his English 101 and 102
courses. Instead of writing
essays on general topics, these
students have been given the
opportunity to write on the life of
R. Henry Scadin. They will be
writing the same number of
essays as any other student in the
course. But he continued: “It
requires a lot more work than the
average student in the class is
doing. But, then, they stand to
gain a great deal more.” The
students involved in the research
are Richie Haymaker, Sandy
Knosher, Sue Hyatt, Allen
Joyner, Allison Cooperman,
Kristen McIntyre, and Jana
Miller.
At the turn of the century, R.
Henry Scadin was well known for
his picturesque photographs,
particularly of the mountains in
western North Carolina. He billed
himself as a landscape
photographer, but in fact was a
documentary photographer in
that his pictures document the
technology and the life of the
times. His prints will be even
more valuable 3S the time and
place he captured vanishes under
modernization. For example, his
photograph of steam engines
conquering the famous Saluda
grade stands as permanent
record of a vanished era.
Walters seems to have a great
deal of confidence in the eventual
publishing of a biography — as it
were, to “bring a dead
photographer back to life.” He
feels R. Henry Scadin deserves to
be recognized as a regional
documentary photographer.
“Not only are Henry’s pictures
technically competent, they are
astoundingly beautiful,” he
continued: “He will be ap
preciated after I publish this
biography — not nationally, but
he will be recognized. People will
realize a debt to him for im
mortalizing an era in the
Southern Appalachians.”
Several reasons motivated
Walters to undertake this project.
According to Walters, one reason
was, “Seeing history in crumbles
and knowing it could be put
together again. To re-weave a
man’s life, not only in the context
of his own times but right through
the times in which we live — it’s
gratifying. It gives a continuity to
the history of our culture,
especially in the south, par
ticularly in the mountains. It’s
knowing you have prolonged the
reputation of a man who was
prematurely forgotten.”