About Margaret Lynn Brown
Margaret Lynn Brown is an author, researcher, writer, and professor of American history at Brevard College in western North Carolina. She’s currently working on a novel, Mermaids in the Basement, a coming of age novel set in the 1970s that explores the origins of identity questions that polarize many women in the present.
Recent Essays
in Book Club Ideas
Everything I Never Told You
Review of Everything I Never Told You. Celeste Ng. New York: Penguin, 2015 (297 pages) The first sentence of this novel is reminiscent of a murder mystery: “Lydia is dead.” However, the second sentence hints that the plot will revolve around something other than whodunit: “But they didn’t know this yet. 1977, May 3, six thirty in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast.” They, in this case, refer ...
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in Hiking the Southern Appalachians
Mount Pisgah to Frying Pan Tower, Blue Ridge Parkway
We were on our way to Mount Pisgah, when we chose the trail less traveled. On Labor Day weekend, traveling uphill on Highway 276 from Brevard, all the trailheads were crowded. At the Blue Ridge Parkway, we took a right and in three miles came to the Pisgah Inn, also showing a full parking lot. A little further on the left is an Overlook, then in less than a mile the Mt. Pisgah Picnic Area ...
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in Nature in My Backyard
A Bird in the Hand
In an early morning hour, I am recording a dream before it slips back into the night-time world. I sit at the dining room table, engrossed in a faint memory of a Caribbean couple who asked if they could design me a magical dress. I can no longer see their faces or remember what magical powers this garment might possess. The dining room table where I write starts to come into focus, as a final ...
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in History Unexpected
Outrage without Fatigue
Lately, I find myself thinking about Ida B. Wells (1862-1931). Wells comes to my mind every time someone mentions having “outrage fatigue” or declaring the latest political crisis, “outrageous.” In her diary, Wells doesn’t appear to get fatigue. A journalist and public speaker, she spent five decades voicing one of the greatest outrages in American history: the epidemic of lynching in the South that began during the 1890s. I think about her because she never ...
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in Sacred Spaces
A Sense of Wonder in Yellowstone 11/5/18
“I never go to national parks,” a young woman dressed in tight capris and climbing shoes said to her bearded friend. It was one of those overheard conversations at an airport. “They aren’t wild enough for me,” she explained and went on to associate our 58 national parks with bumper-to-bumper traffic, long lines for the bathroom, and goggle-eyed tourists with cameras. Thanks to this unknown woman, I’ve started a blog about my adventures in national ...
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in Unsent Letters
Unsent Letters, 1/24/19: Dear Animal Lover
Dear Animal Lover, You know who you are. You’re one of those people who consider the animal you live with “a member of the family.” You sometimes make a fool of yourself telling anecdotes about this animal to people who don’t quite get it. You cringe a little when someone refers to you as a “pet owner,” knowing full well that no one “owns” an animal. If you aren’t an animal lover, there is ...
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