The Foxfire 40th Anniversary Book: Faith, Family, and the Land
edited by Angie Cheek, Lacy Hunter Nix, and Foxfire Students (Anchor Books, $17.95)

" '…Foxfire could be everywhere, and you'd think it was moonlight scattered about. It takes a real pitch-black night to see it,' [says Clyde Hollifield]. Apparently, foxfire is everywhere in the mountains. On a summer night, walk along any stream or creek where it's damp and where roots are hanging over the creek. If you look under the overhang of roots, you have a good chance of seeing foxfire. 'Practically every old rotten poplar log lying on the ground or just the stump has foxfire in it,' Clyde averred.

Glowing objects are the stuff of the fantastical: witches' brews, sorcerers, elfin people, magic. Foxfire is truly a conundrum, a mystery of the magical mountains. Perhaps foxfire's mystical qualities are characteristics that appealed to the students at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in 1966, when they were choosing a name for their proposed publication.…Like foxfire, in the shadowy valleys, the dark woods, and the damp coves and on the sunlit mountains, are the determined people whom we love and respect. Forty years ago, we began our efforts to record and preserve a dying language, culture, and heritage. Foxfire still glows in these hills and mountains, and the spirit of our stalwart elders still lights our paths today."--excerpted from an essay by Angie Cheek