The Early Years
On March 13, 1922 ten members of the faculty and three members of the Board of Trustees of the University organized the University of North Carolina Press. According to its charter, the Press would publish works in three general areas: scholarly journals produced by faculty at The University of North Carolina; catalogues, bulletins, and other documents pertaining to the University; and "deserving" books promoting the advancement of the arts and sciences and the development of literature.
The Journal of Social Forces (1922 - )
Although the University had published bulletins and monographs
since 1884, the Institute for Research in Social Science's Journal of
Social Forces, which began with the Press' inception, marked a
distinct departure for the University and profoundly influenced the
Press's emerging identity. Social Forces, as it came to be called,
applied its scholarship to contemporary social issues, particularly those
pertaining to the South. Under the directorship of William Terry Couch
(1932-45), the Press soon shared this commitment to social activism,
turning Chapel Hill into the intellectual and social nerve center of
southern liberalism.
Congaree Sketches, by Edward C. L. Adams
The publication of this book in 1927 "forever changed the course
of publishing in the South." This collection of tales told by black
raconteurs living along the Congaree River in South Carolina contained
nothing that challenged the racial stereotypes of the South. Its emotional
introduction by UNC professor and playwright Paul Green, which called for
more humane treatment of southern blacks, was another matter. Alarmed
Board members considered halting publication until a young William Terry
Couch explained that he had already sent over 100 copies of the book to
reviewers across the country. Publication went ahead as scheduled, and to
the Board's surprise, no controversy ensued. Instead, reviewers in the
South praised the tales and ignored the introduction, while reviewers
elsewhere praised the introduction and ignored the tales. Congaree
Sketches established the Press as a liberal force in the South, with
the authority and confidence to speak out on controversial social issues.
Howard W. Odum
An important early influence on the Press was the founding of the
Institute for Research in Social Science under the directorship of Howard
Odum, who also headed UNC's Department of Sociology. One of the ten
original Board members of the Press, Odum helped secure a grant from the
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial which supported the Press (and the
Institute) during its early years. The Institute also helped sponsor many
studies of southern life eventually published by the Press.
Intellectual History
A fine intellectual history of the South, Daniel Joseph Singal's
The War Within: From Victorian to Modernist Thought in the South,
1919-1945 (1982) also discusses the Press's role as a disseminator of
modernist thought in the pre-World War II South. Singal's analysis of the
Press is particularly important because it is based on files that were
subsequently lost in a fire at the Press offices in 1990. The War
Within won three awards, including the 1983 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award
from Phi Beta Kappa and the 1983 Francis Butler Simkins Award from the
Southern Historical Association.
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