Clemson anthropology professor John M. Coggeshall has been collecting stories from the South Carolina mountains for decades. He is presenting many of these stories together in a new book titled “A Slow Life but A Good Life: Stories from the South Carolina Mountains,” which is being published by Clemson University Press.
Coggeshall will speak about his work on Wednesday, December 3, at 4 p.m. in the Cooper Library Byrnes Room (401). The event will also be available online via Zoom.
Coggeshall will give a preview of his forthcoming book and will also speak on his two previous books — “Something in These Hills: The Culture of Family Land in Southern Appalachia” (University of North Carolina Press, 2022), which was a finalist for the Weatherford Award from the Appalachian Studies Association, and “Liberia, South Carolina: An African American Appalachian Community” (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
Attendees will receive a discount code to use when “A Slow Life but A Good Life” is published in February. 
“A Slow Life but A Good Life” describes a time when good stories served as a primary source of entertainment and information. The book presents stories told by long-term residents in the South Carolina mountain counties, along with a discussion of the social context of storytelling and an overview of the dialect in which the stories are told.
The book’s contributors range in age from their 20s into their 90s, so the stories document nearly a century of life in this part of the state. Stories are arranged by topics and describe rural life, food procurement and preparation, traditional cures and curing, social life and activities, schools, couples, local characters, and practical jokes. The book also includes information on the physical and social background of the area, as well as brief biographies of the contributors and a list of unusual words used in the stories.
Coggeshall has been teaching at Clemson University since 1988. His research interests include American regional and folk groups and the cultural history of the South Carolina mountains. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville.
The event is free and open to the public. Click here to register to attend or click here to join on Zoom.