Abstract:
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This collection contains correspondence and images related to John Charles McNeill.
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John Charles McNeill is one of North Carolina’s most esteemed poets. Though he lived a short life (July 26th, 1874-October 17th, 1907), he was very successful, and he captured the hearts of many people with his poetry. Although he spent several years relocating and practicing law in several different towns after graduating from Wake Forest College, including Macon, GA, and Lumberton, NC, it wasn’t until he finally returned to his hometown of Scotland County, NC in 1902 that his writing career took off. Publishers began to take notice of this small town writer, and subsequently, began to publish his poetry in the Century Magazine and the Youth's Companion. H.E.C. Bryant, editor for the Charlotte Observer, saw potential in the young man’s writing, and in 1904, McNeill was hired as a freelance writer for the newspaper, and his beloved pastime became his full time job.
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In 1905 McNeill was further rewarded for his hard work and dedication when President Theodore Roosevelt presented McNeill with the Patterson Cup, a literary award recognizing a North Carolinian writer for work showing "the greatest excellence and the highest literary skill and genius."
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The letter in this collection was written in 1903, just before John Charles McNeill’s poetry career skyrocketed. It was written by the unidentified mother of John McNeill’s unidentified ex-fiancé. The contents of the letter are scathing in tone and rich in narrative detail and eloquence, and the writer confronts McNeill for his apparent lack of tact and delicacy with his ex-fiancé. Though the letter begins by saying the two year relationship between the poet and the young girl was once strong, and that the mother was once supportive of McNeill and his intentions, the writer claims McNeill’s final letters to her daughter were “cruel”, and that “if Mephistopheles had stood at your shoulder, and guided your pen, you could not have chosen more filthy words for your purpose”. This blistering attack comes after a lengthy account of the irreparable psychological damage McNeill’s words inflicted upon her daughter. This correspondence adds an entirely new dimension to the poet’s otherwise veiled personal life, and though the writer is bias in her portrayal of McNeill, her evident anger towards the man raises a seed of doubt in the reader as to the existence of a darker side of his celebrated writing skills and eloquence.
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