Many stories fill the annals of Asheville’s history. Our fair city has seen centuries of electric moments and feats of derring do. There have also been countless moments of passion and quiet repose—including the kinds of moments shared between two young lovers with the rest of their lives ahead.
Too many of those private moments have been lost to the recesses of history and memory. But a few bright stories inspired art that we can all experience and share. Here are just a few stories that prove Asheville is for lovers.
Charles Frazier Hands down a Family Love Story
Asheville author Charles Frazier traces his Western North Carolina roots back several generations. In 1997, he published his iconic book Cold Mountain. The story was based on family stories about Frazier’s great-great-uncle William Pinkney Inman and his odyssey to return to the love of his life, Ada Monroe.
Inman, who was from the area around the eponymous Cold Mountain, was conscripted into the Confederate Army during the War between the States. After being wounded twice, he deserted to make his way back home. Meanwhile, Ada fought battles of her own to maintain her independence and autonomy in the harsh mountain environments of the nineteenth century.
The two young lovers battled the landscape, constant setbacks, and even the Home Guard to find their way back to each other. Only a story so fantastical, and yet grounded in truth, can show so clearly that Asheville is for lovers. It’s no wonder the novel won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
Nina Simone Bewitches Her Crowd
Jazz piano virtuoso Nina Simone was born in nearby Tryon in 1933. She went on to become one of the most famous singers and musicians known throughout the whole world.
In Simone’s book, I Put A Spell On You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone, she writes about studying piano at Highland Hospital in Asheville’s Montford neighborhood. We hope you enjoy her sultry take on the bittersweet love song that inspired its title.
Zelda and F. Scott Create their own Kind of Love
The love story between F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is almost as iconic as it is tragic. During the Roaring 20s, they were known as the celebrity “It” couple making the society pages of the newspapers with their drunken shenanigans.
They had a passionate courtship and embraced the 20’s Jazz Age and era of flappers with open arms. By the 1930s, their marriage had taken a few dark turns with the fading of their famous stars, financial hardships, and hospitalization. Their love evolved over the years, but they remained married and in contact until the sudden death of F. Scott in 1940.
Their time in Asheville and Western North Carolina was definitely a mixed bag. Zelda was here for mental illness treatments, after all, and that added strain to both their finances and their relationship. But there were sunny days and car trips together and picking flowers and visiting friends.
Their love was real, if unconventional. Perhaps the most glowing representation of their devotion was in their letters.
“I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Thanks again for saving me. Someday, I’ll save you too.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald
Roberta Flack Captures Love in a Song
Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain in 1937. During the peak of late 1960s psychedelia, she recorded perhaps one of the greatest love songs of all time. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” was a refreshing break from the clanging electric experimental music of the Woodstock Generation.
We bet Flack’s following soulful rendition will carry your memories back to carefree spring days of falling in love with your sweetheart.