Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014423, Sun, 17 Dec 2006 23:13:46 -0500

Subject
New England or Virginia?
From
Date
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Jansy said: "I tried to learn more about Appalachia using the
google ( more than a year ago, though) and one of the sites
insisted that Appalachia included states from Florida up to
Maine, with the exception of New England ( Frost's, I imagine)."

MR: Yes and no. True that the Appalachian range runs the entire
length of the east coast. False that it doesn't include New
England. New England, for those not familiar with U.S. geography,
includes six states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, and Connecticut (whose western half, filled
with NY Yankees fans, should be ashamed of itself). I happen
to live a stone's throw from the Appalachian trail, a hiking
path from Georgia to Maine, so popular with recently matriculated
college students. So yes, it's true that the Appalachian range
spans a very wide area. The term "Appalachia," however, is in
my experience almost always applied to the rural, southern
part of the range often associated with "hillbillies" and
blood feuds. I grew up in New Hampshire (Frost's house is just
up the road from my parents' house) and we never would say
we were in Appalachia.

Matt Roth

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