Welcome to Up Close and Personal. Once a week, on a Sunday, a favorite author, journalist will be featured as ‘Favorite of the Week”. The article will give them more exposure and publicity about their work.
This week we choose Charles Frazier. He is the author of the highly acclaimed novel, Cold Mountain, which was an international bestseller, and won the National Book Award in 1997, as well as the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
The book was sold millions and became a publishing phenomenon. Cold Mountain is an intensely cinematic story; it spans four seasons in the bucolic, visually ravishing Carolinas, and it is all about yearning, fiercely determined love. The story traces the journey of Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army - the story is based in part on Frazier's great-great-uncle, W. P. Inman.
Cold Mountain became the an Academy award winning motion picture starring Oscar winning-actress, Nicole Kidman, two-time Oscar nominee, Jude Law, Oscar winning actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Academy award-winning best supporting actress, Renée Zellweger. Award winning British director and screenwriter, Anthony Minghella directed the film. Cold Mountain was one of the top grossing films of 2003.
His second novel, "Thirteen Moons," which Mr. Frazier returns his readers to Western North Carolina, telling the story. The book was published in 2006, with an $8 million advance from his USA publisher. Thirteen Moons introduces readers to another embattled hero on an unforgettable journey of the Cherokee Nation through the extraordinary life of Will Cooper.
Will, sold as a 'bound boy' to run a trading post on the edge of the Cherokee Nation, is adopted by the Cherokee and ultimately becomes the tribe's voice during the tragic days leading to the Cherokee Removal. Mr. Frazier’s novel tells us a story in which a rootless and restless protagonist Will Cooper, becomes a classic American soul as a result of his pursuits: a man devoted to a place and its people, to a woman, and his way of life, all of which are forever just beyond his reach.
“In the book, Will Cooper, through his life; and at 90-something-years-old, in an a age of telephones and automobiles, he is still waits for the phone to ring—hoping that it will be Claire on the other end of the line.” Thirteen Moons is steeped in history, rich in insight, and filled with moments of sudden beauty. This book is an unforgettable work of fiction
Charles Frazier born in 1950 in Asheville, North Carolina and grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973, received an M.A. from Appalachian State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1986.
Mr. Frazier did an undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After earning a B.A. there in 1973, Mr. Frazier completed an M.A. program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
His favorite authors were Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, and Edgar Allan Poe.
He currently raises horses on a farm near Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lives with his family.
Photo of Charles Frazier by Phil Bray
To purchase Charles Frazier’s books please visit AMAZON and Barnes & Noble
