Famed Southern writer donating personal archive to USC

Inspiration hit Ron Rash the other day as it often does – while he was driving.

The internationally acclaimed writer pulled over, grabbed one of the notebooks he keeps handy and scrawled down a bit of Appalachian dialogue for his next novella.

“With not a bit of hoping-so involved, which way would you bet on them surviving?”

The line of near-iambic pentameter could fit into a spinoff from Rash’s 2008 New York Times best-selling novel “Serena.” But the notebook itself, after an announcement Thursday, will end up at the University of South Carolina.

Rash, whose novels, short stories and poems have explored themes of the South’s Appalachia region, has pledged his personal archive to USC’s already burgeoning collection of Southern writers.

That archive includes first, second and — in some cases — 14th drafts of Rash’s novels and short stories, and personal journals he kept as a teenager. It also includes Rash’s correspondence with other writers, editors and publishers. And, yes, there are notebooks with lines of prose scribbled frantically before they could escape his head.

Rash and USC say the soon-to-be-public collection will offer an insightful look into his writing process.

“For any young writer, that’s a wonderful thing to see,” Rash said. “But it’s also encouraging. With beginning writers, they think if they don’t get it right the first time, it’s just not going to work. ... First drafts to me are nothing more than a potter getting a glob of ugly clay and starting to mold and shape it.”

Rash, now a professor at Western Carolina University, joins a growing list of notable writers whose works have found a home at USC. The school’s libraries also house archives from Robert Burns, Pat Conroy, James Dickey, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

“Ron Rash is a rising superstar,” said Tom McNally, dean of USC Libraries. “His archive is an excellent addition to the amazing manuscript collections we are building. These are unique primary research materials that draw scholars and students to our university and state, and are the source of books, journal articles and dissertations.”

USC will display parts of Rash’s archive at the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library through July 31.

The entire collection will be available to the public after it is processed by USC archivists.

This story was originally published April 27, 2017 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Famed Southern writer donating personal archive to USC."