The Foxfire Book

The Foxfire Series #1

by Eliot Wigginton (editor/introduction)

In the late 1960's, Eliot Wigginton and his students created the magazine "Foxfire" in an effort to record and preserve the traditional folk culture of the Southern Appalachians. This is the original book compilation of Foxfire material which introduces Aunt Arie and her contemporaries and includes log cabin building, hog dressing, snake lore, mountain crafts and food, and "other affairs of plain living."

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Survival, Folklore, Nature, How To

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Eliot Wigginton (born Brooks Eliot Wigginton) is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He was most widely known for developing the Foxfire Project, a writing project that led to a magazine and the series of best-selling Foxfire books, twelve volumes in all. These were based on articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia. In 1986 he was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year" and in 1989 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Wigginton was born in West Virginia on November 9, 1942. His mother, Lucy Freelove Smith Wiggington, died eleven days later of "pneunomia due to acute pulmary edema," according to her death certificate. His maternal grandmother, Margaret Pollard Smith, was an associate professor of English at Vassar College and his father was a famous landscape architect, also named Brooks Eliot Wiggington. His family called him Eliot. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English from Cornell University and a second Master's from Johns Hopkins University. In 1966, he began teaching English in the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, located in the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Georgia.
Wigginton began a writing project based on his students' collecting oral histories from local residents and writing them up. They published the histories and articles in a small magazine format beginning in 1967. Topics included all manner of folklife practices and customs associated with farming and the rural life of southern Appalachia, as well as the folklore and oral history of local residents. The magazine began to reach a national audience and became quite popular.
The first anthology of collected Foxfire articles was published in book form in 1972, and achieved best-seller status. Over the years, the schools published eleven other volumes. (The project transferred to the local public school in 1977.)
In addition, special collections were published, including The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, Foxfire: 25 Years, A Foxfire Christmas, and The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games. Several collections of recorded music from the local area were released.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The moonshining chapter is the best.

[Nick Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone from Appalachia who's into DIY stuff, I'm surprised it took me this long to read this book. (Especially since my dad has all of them sitting on his bookshelves.) I loved it, of course. It is in significant part a practical book covering topics ranging from building a log cabin to pickling vegetables, and initially, I felt most excited about learning those things. But although that was cool, it wasn't what really got me about the book. What really got me was being re-connected to an Appalachian culture that I was lucky enough to have a little connection to when I was a kid, through friends of the family, Ellison and Mary Linda Smyth. The difference extends beyond the crafts and activities. Nature looms large, money plays a different role, people are more tied to places. I think one can get something of value from Foxfire without needing to embrace a back-to-the-land-ism or a romanticized notion of country life (indeed, Foxfire would definitely disabuse you of the latter, though it might kindle the former).

Another thing I enjoyed was the strong "high school" voice that came through in the writing--an exuberance, a teetering balance of confidence and self-consciousness.

Loved the chapter on moonshining, which made me want to build a still. It's really not that complicated, especially if you're already brewing beer...

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultimate in unschooling/homeschooling inspiration, the Foxfire series began in the 1960’s as Cornell M.A. graduate B. Eliot Wigginton, then a young Appalachian school English teacher, made a groundbreaking decision to reach out to his unruly, disrespectful, students in a personal, and meaningful, way by throwing out his entire curriculum. He started fresh engaging his students in a vast creative project that ultimately became Foxfire, named for a phosphorescent flower that grows in the mountains there. The Foxfire books are really a collection of articles written by the students as they investigated the Appalachian way of life and documented the vanishing arts and (survival) skills of the mountain people. Reminding us all that school can (should) be so much more than a desk, workbook, and lecture, Foxfire encourages us to embrace learning as a way of life and to explore our world in both new and timeless ways.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in my twenties and used to own but somewhere along the way it has become lost. Craving to read it again I got it from my local library and once again it did not fail. I read and reread tales from those who lived the life of living in the mountains, raising their own food, quilting bees, planting by signs - moon, weather, animal behavior and so much more. In my twenties I read this book because I craved a simpler but definitely not easier life and now in my 50's I am living it as a homesteader ... and in some part, I credit this book.

[Richard Sarkisian · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5
Quite charming. While the moonshining chapter is rightfully a highlight due to its incredibly detailed breakdown and inclusion of funny stories, the several carpentry chapters, quilting, and log cabin chapters are my favorites. And I'm going to make Brunswick Stew as soon as I can.

This project must've been such a point of pride for these students and for Mr. Wigginton. Anthropology will always be one of my first loves.

[Luke Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Foxfire book is one of my favorite books. I picked it up on vacation in West Virginia and couldn't put it down! This is a compilation of a bunch of magazine articles done by a creative high school teacher in the mountains of Georgia in the 60's, who saw that the older generation of folks who had grown up around the turn of the century had an awful lot of knowledge that was about to die with them, and also saw that their television-watching grandkids felt almost no connection with their log-cabin dwelling, moonshine-making grandparents.

Essentially what we've got is a number of articles written by high school students (edited by their Ivy-educated teacher) using their own grandparents and older members of their communities as the source. Topics range from making moonshine to building log cabins, but my favorite part of the book was the guide to universal superstition of the phases of the Moon, revealing how the moon's cycle affects planting, painting, building, etc.

Endlessly interesting, everyone should read this book (and its dozen-or-so successors in the Foxfire series)!

[polly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have all of the Foxfire books and they are wonderful for dipping-in and perusing. I feel that this will be a good book to share with my son as he gets older so that he can see how 'folks used to live' in these Appalachian mountains of ours. Educational...and I love the 'oral history' aspect of this series.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply magical. Such a nice respite from a currently tumultuous global climate. The stories are so endearing and genuine; I enjoyed reading about every single person that was interviewed for this book. The hunting chapters weren't for me, but I got a lot out of the faith healing, cooking, moonshining, and crafting sections. A beautiful testament to a bygone era that I will recommend to my friends!

[Arinn Dembo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started reading this series as part of my research for an Appalachian SFF novel, and absolutely fell in love with it. Everything about the Foxfire phenomenon makes me happy. I love the concept of an oral history project that sends teenagers out into the field to interview the elders of their community. I love the lovingly detailed technical essays on the traditional technology of the Southern Appalachian mountains: the building of log cabins and moonshine stills, animal husbandry and planting, recipes for favorite dishes, techniques for making your own soap, autobiographies of people who grew up before World War II, and rich veins of folk lore and folk beliefs.

I will keep reading the series over the course of the year, but even in the first volume I am amazed and impressed by the quality of the material for research purposes--richly illustrated with good photographs and technical drawings. My only complaint was that my library copy was missing several pages of how to build a still! So...looks like I won't be making my own whiskey any time soon.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Way too many diagrams about how to build a log cabin; perfect number of diagrams about how to build a still for moonshine

[Eli Poteet · Rating 5 out of 5]

EPIC. wow. a lot of this was beyond me. there is so much to learn. my dads family is from the appalician mountains, so this book reunited me with a lot of heritage and i am blown over.

[Carl Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The original Foxfire book, destined to become a classic, spurring off a dozen sequels. Beloved by the Hippie generation, I read this book when I was 17 or so. I found a copy in my dad's estate, and felt it was high time to begin reading it again.

The Foxfire magazine was a school project. A teacher in North Carolina, Eliot Wiggington, wanted to discover a way to teach his students that would rather not learn. The result was a magazine written by the students on the folklore and forgotten way of life of the people of the mountains of North Carolina. Little did he know that the magazine would become a cult phenomenon.

The first book is a cross between a how-to (build log cabins, weave baskets)and folklore. Reading it a generation after it was initially published, and more than 30-years after I was introduced to it, it still has the same impact as my first time!

[KennyO · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most refreshing and satisfying books I've ever read. It began as a high school class visiting and taking down stories by and about people who are content and comfortable with their ordinary lots in life. Folks who are happy "puttin' up 'maters." I read several volumes of the series and I always return gladly to this first one, the touchstone volume.

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Arthritis: Drink a mixture of honey, vinegar, and moonshine." That'll definitely do the trick!

These are always really interesting to read, although I just skimmed some parts like how to kill a hog :( and cabin building really isn't on my to-do list. The essays and interviews are probably the best to see how different it is from today.

[Cristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy the Foxfire series books. They are full of old time wisdom and enjoyable stories. Many good, illustrated, how-to articles are included.

[Crickett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this one is my favorite out of all the foxfire books. It teaches so many different things that are all most forgotten because they do not teach stuff like this any more.

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all I have to ask myself what took me so long to read Foxfire? My mom has several of these books but I never really paid much attention to them, but the other day as I was browsing around our local library I picked this one up. I was in the mood for something different than my normal fiction read. I loved it. I finished the whole book in a little over a day. I've always been interested in the "days gone by" and this book was like sitting down with a grandparent and hearing the stories of how they did things "back in the day". So much valuable information.

Oh, how times have changed, but these old ways should not be forgotten. My favorite part would have to be the home remedies. Oh my! Some of them were just plain crazy and it's a wonder anyone survived.

I loved the pictures and how much of the writing was in the dialect of the old timers who were telling the stories. If you are someone who is interested in homesteading this would be a great book for you. So much valuable info on everything from soap making to log cabin building. Or if you're like me and enjoy learning about the old ways you'll love it too. I can't wait to read the next one in the series!

[Sarah TheAromaofBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Generally, nonfiction is a bit of a chore for me, but I found myself reading beyond the chapters I had "assigned" myself each day. A fascinating blend of practical information, anecdotes, recipes, and lore. I especially enjoyed the chapters on using different types of wood for building different things. The chapter on planting by the signs was also quite interesting - our current culture seems to look at the Zodiac as a personality quiz, so reading about how it was used back in the day as a critical part of planning planting and harvest times was really intriguing. There are a lot of details on some subjects, but it was easy to skim through the parts that were less interesting to me (like while I enjoyed learning about moonshining, I'm not actually going to build a still any time soon lol). There is a fun combination of practical application and first-hand stories that really kept me hooked. I'll definitely be exploring some of the other volumes as well.

[Donna Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books were very popular in the 60's and 70's and we came across them while living in North Carolina. We were going to Bluegrass festivals and buying crafts and learning to clog. These books took us right into the middle of Appalachian culture, a place we knew very little about. What a fantastic writing project for high school students! What a way to bring family generations together and learn by doing instead of just listening and watching.

Everyone loves the moonshine chapter while I loved learning about quilting and soap-making. Being from Montana, foods like okra, muscadine grapes, and quince were new and delicious. Looking back on these skills could be important again. One never knows.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of us kids bought my dad this book one year for Christmas back in the '70s, and he really liked it, so successive entries in the series became go-to gifts for him. Now they've been passed down to me. I'm just now getting around to reading this first one. The instruction sections for cabin-building and still-building were just a little too technical for me, a person who plans to build neither. Still, I'm glad those sections are there, preserving as they do a way of life. But for me, it's in the sections where these folks are allowed to just tell their stories in their own words, that the book really shines. Loved the sections on faith healing and snake stories!

[Lgordo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can forgive this book for dark photos and complicated descriptions. But the amount of untranslated jargon is a terrible oversight.

Took me long enough to detangle what a "sleeper" and a "sill" were. Then I had to figure out what "clabbered cream" is. The text actually translated it. Clabbered cream is cream that has "turned." Thanks, that helped a lot.

If you are actually reading this book hoping to learn something, it's a slow, difficult slog, ironically assisted by google. It's probably superceded by prepper vlogs, to be honest. But I was looking for a bedtime book and this certainly delivered.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foxfire has always been a fixture in my life. My folks keep the first editions on display, original copies purchased by my grandpa. I never read them until now though, and I’m kicking myself for missing out this for long!

This is just such a lovely piece of history and journalism. Each chapter covers a specific topic or method, from transcribed hunting stories to a step-by-step guide on how to cook a hog’s head. It’s a time capsule of information and local folklore, bittersweet in how you can tell that the culture of hardy self-sufficient Appalachia was starting to fade even at the time of publication.

[Kaesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, although I admit I only skimmed a lot of the how-to sections and mostly looked at the photos, because I'm never going to build my own log cabin or moonshine still; the process is interesting but I don't need all the technical details. That said, the "Moonshining as a Fine Art" section was the most interesting, in my opinion, not because of the how-to but for the stories and anecdotes. Some of the anecdotes in other sections of the book are meandering and don't really go anywhere, but the moonshine stories always go somewhere fun.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, which was written by a high school class in Georgia in the mid-60’s for a magazine started called Foxfire. These magazines were later compiled into a book series.
A virtual how- to of mountain living by the Scotch-Irish descendants of the area, it is fascinating as well as insightful in our rich Southern history. I really appreciated how respectful the teenagers were of the elders they interviewed.
And, I agree with my Goodreads friend, Jamie Cannon, the section on moonshine was the best.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

While on vacation in Georgia, we made time to go to the Foxfire Museum site. What an experience! Growing up in rural Kentucky, I had read the first Foxfire book as a child. Reading it again at 40 was a delight! This series is a testament to so many worthwhile things - from a teacher figuring out how to really connect with students to exploring true self-reliance and preserving history. I can't wait to read the whole set!

[Noel Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t read the entire thing: I don’t eat pork, etc., but I read the parts I found personally relevant and they were fascinating, well written, charming, and crucial: a view into not only a time when people did things for themselves, but also a detailed instruction manual. I sent my uncle a copy because he built his family’s a-frame house, so I thought he might enjoy the part on building a log cabin.

[Colin Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. A pretty easy read but an excellent connection to a way of living long since passed. This series would probably be best for modern homesteaders, outdoorsmen, and those interested in self-sufficiency. TBH I just skimmed some of the details about building log cabins, specific home remedies, and a few others.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been intrigued by this Rabun Gap school and their Foxfire publications but this is the first time I actually sat down and read one from cover to cover. The language of the old timers is a bit challenging to read sometimes but I would not have wanted the students to modernize it. I will read the rest of these books.

[Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book definitely earns its place in the canon of Southern Appalachian classics, alongside titles like "Our Southern Highlanders" and "Strangers in High Places." Some chapters are instructional, some are just insightful. But this work is a valuable preservation of mountain living that just could not be replicated 50 years (or more) later.

[Rick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this...although I had read parts of it before, it was great to see the scope of archiving that this group did. It is a little dated, and that time is long gone. But it is amazing to contemplate how differently we used to live before everything was 'storebought.' I wonder if for a younger reader....would it be far too alien?