Eliot Wigginton (born Brooks Eliot Wigginton on November 9, 1942) is an American oral historian, folklorist, writer and former educator. He is most widely known for developing with his high school students the Foxfire Project, a writing project consisting of interviews and stories about Appalachia. The project was developed into a magazine and series of best-selling Foxfire books. The series comprised essays and articles by high school students from Rabun County, Georgia focusing on Appalachian culture. In 1987, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year,"[1] and in 1989, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.[2]

In 1992, Wigginton confessed to and was convicted of child molestation.[3]

Early life

Brooks Eliot Wigginton was born in West Virginia on November 9, 1942. His mother, Lucy Freelove Smith Wigginton, died eleven days later of "pneunomia due to acute pulmonary edema," according to her death certificate. His maternal grandmother, Margaret Pollard Smith, was an associate professor of English at Vassar College and his father was a famous landscape architect, named Brooks Edward Wigginton. His family called him Eliot. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Cornell University[4] and a second Master's from Johns Hopkins University. In 1966, he began teaching English in the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, located in the Appalachian Mountains of northeastern Georgia.

Foxfire

In 1966, Wigginton began a writing project with his students at Rabun Gap‐Nacooche High School, who began to compile written oral histories from local residents based on recorded interviews.[4] In 1967, they started publishing the interviews, along with original articles and other student writing, in a quarterly magazine called Foxfire,[5] named after local phosphorescent lichen.[4] Topics included folklife practices, recipes, customs associated with farming, and the rural life of southern Appalachia, as well as the folklore and oral histories of local residents.[6]

In 1972, an anthology of collected Foxfire articles was published as The Foxfire Book (Anchor Press, 1972). The Foxfire Book achieved New York Times best-seller status, selling 298,756 copies by February 1973.[7] By 1975, Foxfire magazine had about 10,000 subscribers, and had earned $250,000 in royalties from sales of Foxfire and Foxfire 2.[6] In 1976, Foxfire 3 appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers list in the Trade Paperbacks section for 5 weeks. In total, the school published twelve volumes. Special collections were also published, including The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery, Foxfire: 25 Years, A Foxfire Christmas, and The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys and Games. Several collections of recorded music from the local area were also released. The project transferred to the local public school in 1977.

Other work

Wigginton had an interest in activists working for social change in association with the Highlander Folk School. After a decade of collecting oral histories of people struggling for social justice in the South, Wigginton edited and published, Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Grass Roots Social Activism in America, 1921-1964 (Doubleday, 1991).[13]

In 2014, Wigginton contributed an oral history interview for a documentary on Mary Crovatt Hambidge,[14] founder of the Hambidge Center for the Arts & Sciences, describing his childhood memories of Hambidge and her weaving operations at the Rabun County property where he also briefly lived in the late 1960s.

Child Molestation

On September 15, 1992, Wigginton was indicted for child molestation.[3] The state charged that Wigginton had sexually fondled a 10-year-old boy during an overnight stay at the Foxfire grounds. Wigginton at first claimed to be innocent; however, local prosecutors announced their intent to release testimony from over 20 people claiming that Wigginton had molested them as children between 1969 and 1982.[3] On November 13, 1992, Wigginton pleaded guilty to one count of non-aggravated child molestation.[3] He received a one-year jail sentence, which he served at the Rabun County Jail, and 19 years of probation.[3] Bill Parrish, then-executive director of Foxfire Fund, announced that the guilty plea would require Wigginton's "total separation" from the organization.[3] After being permanently removed from the Foxfire Project, Wigginton moved to Florida, where he is registered as a sex offender.[15]

Foxfire after Wigginton

After Wigginton's departure, the Foxfire project continued under the auspices of the Foxfire Fund and its educational model of the "Foxfire approach" to experiential education. The students and Fund developed a museum in Mountain City, Georgia, consisting of several cabins. In 1998, the University of Georgia anthropology department started to work with the Foxfire project to archive 30 years worth of materials. The collection is held at the museum and includes "2,000 hours of interviews on audio tape, 30,000 black and white pictures and hundreds of hours of videotape." By improving how the material is archived and establishing a database, the university believes the materials can be made more easily available for scholars.[16] The Foxfire educational philosophy is based on the values of "a learner-centered, community-based expression." By 1998, educational theories from Foxfire was being used by teachers in 37 school systems in the US.[16]

Bibliography

  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1972). The Foxfire Book. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday.
  • Wigginton, Eliot and his students, ed., (1973). Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin's, Wagon Making and More Affairs of Plain Living. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday.
  • Wigginton, Eliot and his students, ed., (1975). Foxfire 3: Animal Care, Banjos and Dulcimers, Hide Tanning, Summer and Fall Wild Plant Foods, Butter Churns, Ginseng, and Still More Affairs of Plain Living. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-02272-7
  • Wigginton, Eliot, (1975). Moments: The Foxfire Experience. Kennebunk, ME: Star Press, Inc. ISBN 99938-1-828-3
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1976). 'I Wish I could Give My Son a Wild Raccoon'. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday.
  • Wigginton, Eliot and his students, ed., (1977). Foxfire 4: Water Systems, Fiddle Making, Logging, Gardening, Sassafras Tea, Wood Carving, and Further Affairs of Plain Living. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-12087-7
  • Wigginton, Eliot and his students, ed., (1979). Foxfire 5: Ironmaking, Blacksmithing, Flintlock Rifles, Bear Hunting, and Other Affairs of Plain Living. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press. ISBN 0-385-14307-9
  • Wigginton, Eliot and his students, ed., (1980). Foxfire 6: Shoe Making, Gourd Banjos and Songbows, One Hundred Toys and Games, Wooden Locks, A Water-Powered Sawmill, and Other Affairs of Just Plain Living. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press. ISBN 0-385-15272-8
  • Page, Linda Garland & Eliot Wigginton, eds., (1983) Aunt Arie: A Foxfire Portrait. New York: E. P. Dutton. ISBN 0-8078-4377-6
  • Wigginton, Eliot, Margie Bennett, and their students, eds., (1984). Foxfire 8. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-17741-0
  • Wigginton, Eliot, (1985). Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-13359-6
  • Wigginton, Eliot, Margie Bennett, and their students, eds., (1986). Foxfire 9. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-17743-7
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1990). A Foxfire Christmas. New York: Doubleday Books.
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed., (1991). Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Grassroots Social Activism in America, 1921-1964. New York: Doubleday.
  • Wigginton, Eliot, ed. (1991). Foxfire: 25 Years. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press / Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-13359-6
  • Page, Linda Garland & Eliot Wigginton, eds., (1992) The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

Awards and honors

  • 1986, Wigginton was named "Georgia Teacher of the Year".[1]
  • 1989, Wigginton was awarded a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 "Former Georgia Teachers of the Year" (PDF). Georgia Department of Education. 2022. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
  2. ↑ Teltsch, Kathleen (July 18, 1989). "MacArthur Foundation Honors Achievement". The New York Times. p. A18. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Smothers, Ronald (November 13, 1992). "'Foxfire Book' Teacher Admits Child Molestation". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 April 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Johnston, Donald (April 9, 1972). "They Learned, And They Loved It". The New York Times. pp. Education Supplement, 13. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  5. ↑ Mendonca, Adrienn. "Foxfire". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  6. 1 2 Ayres, Jr, B. Drummond (October 24, 1975). "Publishing a Journal Ignited Student Interest in English". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  7. ↑ "Big Money". The New York Times Book Review. February 11, 1973. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  8. ↑ Beaufort, John (November 18, 1982). "Heartfelt essay on a disappearing rural America; Foxfire. Starring Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Keith Carradine. Play by Susan Cooper and Hume Cronyn, with songs by Jonathan Holtzman. Directed by David Trainer". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  9. ↑ "Winners". www.tonyawards.com. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  10. ↑ Appelbaum, Judith (November 28, 1982). "PAPERBACK TALK; Sales Through the Mails". The New York Times. p. 31. Retrieved 2023-08-16.
  11. 1 2 Foxfire (TV Movie 1987) - Awards - IMDb, retrieved 2023-08-15
  12. ↑ "Outstanding Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie Nominees / Winners 1988". Television Academy. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  13. ↑ Shireman, Charles (1993). "Review of Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Social Activism in America, 1921-1964". Social Service Review. 67 (2): 299–301. doi:10.1086/603986. ISSN 0037-7961. JSTOR 30012205.
  14. ↑ Mary Crovatt Hambidge: Whistler, Wanderer, Weaver, Utopian (2017, remastered 2021), retrieved 2021-12-29
  15. ↑ "FDLE - Sexual Offender and Predator System". offender.fdle.state.fl.us. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
  16. 1 2 "University of Georgia To Help Archive, Preserve Thirty Years Of Materials From Foxfire Project", University of Georgia Archives, 1998, accessed 12 Nov 2010
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