Scholarship established at UVa-Wise in honor of local author, folklorist James Taylor Adams

Gifted English and journalism students at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise will be eligible for a new scholarship established in honor of James Taylor Adams, a writer, journalist and ardent supporter of higher education.

The James Taylor Adams Scholarship Award in Writing was established through the estate of Joseph Troy and Naomi Adams Mullins by their children, Peggy J. Dean of Wise and James R. Mullins of Lexington, Ky., in honor of James Taylor Adams. The scholarship award will be presented annually to a rising junior or senior majoring in English or communication who exhibits excellence in creative or journalist writing. The first James Taylor Adams Scholarship Award in Writing will be awarded in 2006.

Born in 1892 in Letcher County, Kentucky, Adams was working in a coke yard by the time he was 13. He was married to his wife, Dicy, at 16 and moved to the Big Laurel community near the town of Wise. He and his family, which eventually included eight children, moved to Arkansas, Missouri, and West Virginia before returning to Big Laurel.

Although he had little formal education, Adams became a prolific writer and enterprising entrepreneur. He established the Big Laurel post office and worked as its postmaster, owned a grocery store, and sold insurance and fruit trees. A regular contributor to newspapers from Knoxville, Tenn., to Roanoke, Adams also owned his own printing press from which he published a series of periodicals including The Cumberland Empire and the Vagabond Gazette.

Adams played an important role in the preservation of Appalachian culture. During the Great Depression, Adams worked for the Works Progress Administration collecting folk tales and songs as part of a federal oral history project. He depicted the dangerous life of coal miners in his book, Death in the Dark, an assortment of ballads about mine disasters. Grandpap Told Me Tales, Adam’s appropriately titled collection of jack tales told to him by his grandfather, was published posthumously by his great-grandson.

A champion of education, Adams opened his own library and worked to establish a college in Wise - Big Laurel College - - years before the school now known as The University of Virginia’s College at Wise was founded. Adams died in 1954, the same year the College opened its doors. Before his death, Adams donated the books in his library to help start the College’s library. The John Cook Wyllie Library at UVa-Wise also houses Adams’ extensive collection of materials related to his interests in writing and genealogy.

The only branch campus of the University of Virginia, UVa-Wise is ranked among the nation’s top ten public liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. UVa-Wise is home to 1,800 students and offers under graduate and professional programs in the liberal arts tradition of Thomas Jefferson.

Contributions to James Taylor Adams Scholarship Award in Writing may be made by contacting Winston Ely by phone at 276-328-0132 or mail Office of Development, UVa-Wise, One College Avenue, Wise, VA 24293.

For more information about the James Taylor Adams Scholarship Award in Writing, contact the Office of College Relations at 276-328-0130.