Poet's Progress

The memoirs of James Larkin Pearson (1879-1981), the second Poet Laureate of North Carolina. Born in a crude cabin atop Wilkes County's Berry Mountain, James Larkin Pearson was determined to become a poet. He had little formal education, and spent his early years in farming and carpentry. Pearson said he "Worked on the farm till I was 21 years old. Many of my poems were composed as I went about my work on the farm. I always carried my notebook and pencil to the field with me, and as I trudged between the plow-handles in the hot sunshine, my mind was busy working out a poem." In addition to his poetry, Mr. Pearson published The Fool-Killer a successful newspaper that acquired a circulation of some 5,000 readers. On August 4, 1953, Governor William B. Umstead appointed Pearson as the North Carolina Poet Laureate of the State. He held this post until his death, on August 27, 1981.