When Lynn Coffey moved to the tiny mountain hamlet of Love, in 1980, she immediately realized the Appalachian culture was slowly slipping away and needed to be preserved.
Without any formal journalistic training, Coffey, who will sign copies of her book at Bookworks in Downtown Staunton on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 2-4 p.m., began talking to her elderly neighbors – asking about their early lifestyles, and take photographs of them and their mountain crafts. What began as a natural interest suddenly turned into a monthly newspaper called “Backroads,” and for 25 years Coffey roamed the hills and hollers interviewing the mountain people about every facet of their lives, chronicling the lifestyles of these sturdy Scots-Irish folk who made their homes in the mountains of Virginia.
Following the success of her first two Backroads books, Plain Folk & Simple Livin’ and The Road to Chicken Holler, this final collection of stories, photographs, recipes and interviews from the archives of that newspaper stretching from 1981 through 2006 continues to make its mark as a ‘Virginia version’ of Georgia’s still-famous “Foxfire” book series.
Earl Hamner, creator of “The Waltons” TV series continues to be a fan, like so many from Virginia and beyond. Tommy & Yvette Stafford of Nelson County Life magazine commented “There are stories in these old mountains, and Coffey knows how to tell them … And like tunes from a fiddle or banjo, Lynn’s words echo and resonate through Appalachia.”
Bookworks is located at 101 W. Beverley Street in Downtown Staunton.
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