Finding our niche in life is never easy. For some, it is a matter of trial and error, while for others, it is following a well-trodden path. In every state in America, there are unusual, talented, and outstanding people if we look for them. Here in Georgia, one such man was Byron Herbert Reece from near Blairsville. His life was short, lasting only forty years, but his literary impact endures through his poetry.
Humble Beginnings
Many old idioms in the music industry suggest you cannot sing the blues unless you have experienced sadness and sorrow in your life. There is some truth to this if you examine many of the great blues artists. I believe there are parallels to many poets who write to express pain and suffering in a way that often has less structure than prose. I do not know if this was the case with Byron Herbert Reece, but it sounds plausible.
Reece was born in Union County, Georgia, on September 14, 1917. His family was a farming family, and in this area of Georgia, farming was difficult. He lived in the proximity of Blood Mountain, now famous for its association with the Appalachian Trail (AT). His life was shaped by the early death of both of his parents from tuberculosis. I know from my family history that in this era, there was no cure for tuberculosis, only a slow and painful death. There is a good reason for the colloquial name “consumption.” People with tuberculosis suffered from severe breathing disorders, weight loss, and, in general, wasted away.
“I am a farmer first and a writer second.”
His parents’ illness led to his taking on the responsibility of running their farm at an early age. But he had already shown signs of brilliance at a very early age. By the time he entered the first grade, he had already read the Bible and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. As his writing skills developed, he began publishing poems in the local papers during high school. He also attended Young Harris College, which at the time was a small two-year school in the area. But his duties running the family farm constantly interfered with his formal education, and he never graduated.
Early Career and Discovery
Well-known Kentucky writer Jesse Stuart discovered Reece’s work when he published his poem “Lest the Lonesome Bird” in the Prairie Schooner. With Stuart’s help, his first book was published by E. P. Dutton in 1945. This work, Ballad of the Bones and Other Poems, attracted attention and brought praise for his work and skill. Ballad of the Bones marries Reece’s early Biblical education with his writing abilities and is a retelling of the story in Ezekiel 37:1-10.
As I sat a-drowse
At my very meek board,
Why, who should arouse
Me from sleep but the Lord.
He entered my garret
As a wind from the north,
And in the spirit
Carried me forth.
Over tower and town
Of cobbles and stones,
And He set me down
In a valley of bones.
Reece had already made the acquaintance of Ralph Magill of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in late 1939. Magill was impressed with Reece’s work and became an advocate for him, opening many doors to the literary world.
Reece was a keen observer of human nature, captivated by mankind’s moral conflicts. Embracing solitude as a time for deep introspection, he examined the complexities of the human condition. In his poem Two Men in Me, Reece explores the tension between the spiritual and the worldly, particularly through the lens of power struggles. Reflecting on the relationship between the soul and the body, he writes, “Two men in me race forth, and which shall win / I do not know.” His poem delves into a fundamental question: does the soul direct the body’s actions, or do the body’s primal urges shape the soul?
Recognition
Reece was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1951, earned two Guggenheim awards for fiction (1952 and 1957), and served as writer-in-residence at the University of California at Los Angeles, Emory University in Atlanta, and Young Harris College in Towns County, Georgia, where he taught.
He was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2001, joining well-recognized writers Sidney Lanier, Margaret Mitchell, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Dickey.
In 2003, the Byron Herbert Reece Society was formed to preserve his legacy. This association worked to establish a museum and heritage site on his family’s farm in Blairsville, Georgia. The group also successfully had a portion of Highway 129 designated as the “Byron Herbert Reece Memorial Highway.”
Life and Death
However, fame did not bring fortune, likely because he did not actively seek it.
In late 1953, Reece was suffering from fatigue from his commitments to farming, writing, and teaching. His doctor discovered tuberculosis in his left lung. He entered the Battery Hospital near Rome, Georgia, for a stay. But the environment and his deteriorating health led him back to his farm.
“This place is very difficult to take. I’m about as unhappy here as I have ever been in my life.”
To make ends meet, he taught part-time at Young Harris College. On June 3, 1958, after grading and carefully placing student papers, Reece, dying from the same disease that took his parents, ended his own life with a bullet into his diseased lung.
We often see unusually talented artists or musicians live abbreviated lives and must wonder what else they might have produced had they lived longer. Reece joins this list, and we can only surmise his future would have been bright had he lived longer.
Most of Reece’s friends knew little or nothing about his recognition. When he paid a mechanic, a long-time friend with an endorsed check on a New York bank, his friend asked, “What’s this for?” When he responded, it was a royalty check on a book. The mechanic asked, “Did you make a book?” he was the very model of quiet strength and self-deprecation.
Repeat My Name
Egyptians believed that so long as their name was repeated after their death, they would live on, and perhaps they were right. We know that in our families, when we retell stories of our youth, the people we encountered and who influenced us live on through these tales.
And thus it is with Byron Herbert Reece. His name is not widely known outside of his hometown and literary circles. People do not flock to his museum or historical sites. However, those who do come, learn his name, and when they retell their lives, his name lives on. He did not write works like Gone with the Wind or The Grapes of Wrath, so his lack of commercial success conceals his talent.
All across America, there are unsung heroes whose names are not unknown, just not widely recognized. Many of these individuals, like Byron Herbert Reece, make a significant difference within their immediate circle. It is incumbent on each of us to learn their names so that they might live on.
I Go By Ways of Rust and Flame
I go by ways of rust and flame
Beneath the bent and lonely sky
Behind me on the ways I came
I see the hedges lying bare
But neither question nor reply
A solitary thing am I
Upon the roads of rust and flame
That thin at sunset to the air
I call upon no word nor name
And neither question nor reply
But walk alone as all men must
Upon the roads of flame and rust
Byron Herbert Reece
Resources and Further Reading
Byron Herbert Reece – 1917 – 1958, By Alan Jackson, Georgia State University Perimeter Campus, New Georgia Encyclopedia, georgiaencyclopedia.org, January 20, 2004, Edited May 1, 2019.
Byron Herbert Reece, By Editors, Byron Herbert Reece Society, reecesociety.org, Last accessed May 14, 2025.
Byron Herbert Reece, By Editors, Southern Literary Trail, southernliterarytrail.org, Last accessed May 10, 2025.
Byron Herbert Reece, Wikipedia, wikipedia.org, Last accessed May 11, 2025.
Byron Herbert Reece’s Blairsville, By Kathleen Walls, Deep South Magazine, deepsouthmag.com, August 16, 2021.
Marker Monday: Byron Herbert Reece, By Editors, Georgia Historical Society, georgiahistory.com, Last accessed May 8, 2025.
Memory of Appalachian poet Byron Herbert Reece lives on in Blairsville, By Suzanne Van Atten, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ajc.com, September 18, 2017.
Poetry: A Healing Tool for Depression, By Sarah Osman, medically reviewed by Joslyn Jelinek, bezzyDEPRESSION, bezzydepression.com, July 18, 2023.
