On this West Virginia Morning, Education Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with WVU professor and owner of Morgantown art gallery Galactic Panther, Eli Pollard to discuss the exhibit and the impacts of the university’s cuts.
Marshall Students Launch Digital Archive For Forgotten Appalachian Writer
Listen
Share this Article
Tom Kromer was a prolific writer best known for his semi-autobiographical 1935 novel, “Waiting for Nothing.” Kromer’s work is heavily inspired from his experience with homelessness during the Great Depression.
Now, students studying digital humanities at Marshall University have developed an online archive of the forgotten work.
Kromer was born in 1906 in Huntington, where he studied journalism at what was then Marshall College.
“You didn’t know that an author, that papers at the time compared to Hemingway, lived here,” said Stefan Schöberlein, director of digital humanities at Marshall University, “There’s no marker to Kromer at his birthplace, no statue or sign for him anywhere in town, and no street bearing his name.”
Students designed the Tom Kromer Digital Archive in an effort to restore his visibility. Students put four variations of Waiting for Nothing in the archive, including a German translation, an annotated edition, and an audiobook.
kromerarchive.org
Annotated Edition of, “Waiting for Nothing.”
Kristen Clark helped produce the Waiting for Nothing audiobook.
“The way the work is written it’s kind of like Kromer speaking to you about his experience,” she said. “Having somebody read it to you embodies that affect really well.“
The archive also features transcribed book reviews from the time the book was published, a student developed podcast, and virtual tour using the external history website, Clio.
Michael Martin said the Kromer Clio tour focuses on locations of personal significance to Kromer in New Mexico, Virginia, and West Virginia. Students chose locations like the Keith-Albee Theatre (now known as the Keith Albee Performing Arts Center) in Huntington, which relates to his time at Marshall. Martin said, “He had a small experiment for the journalism major that he wrote about, where he panhandled in that little area.”
kromerarchive.org
“Waiting For Nothing,” Newspaper Reviews
During the early 20th century, Kromer was part of a growing American socialist movement. He spent time writing for socialist newspapers in Appalachia and around the rest of the United States.
“It was a great piece of culture to read about to really give the other side of the sentiments at the time, because of course, when you’re learning about the Cold War, you learn about America as being super anti communist, when in reality there was a huge movement,” Krys Smith explained.
Students working on the archive interviewed one of Kromer’s nephews, Steve Barnhill. Although Barnhill was young when he knew his uncle, he recalls that his family suspected Kromer of being a Russian spy.
Stephen Schöberlein
/
Marshall University
Marshall University Students Interviewing Steve Barnhill Over Video Call
Although Kromer’s work has a wider scope than Appalachia, Michael Martin says the influence is present.
“Kromer very specifically writes from a proletariat perspective,” Martin said. “It’s something that you wouldn’t get in a lot of other places that didn’t have the specific economic conditions Huntington had and still has.”
Despite students archiving a great deal of documents, many of Kromer’s writings are lost forever as a consequence of the Red Scare.
As an example, Schöberlein said, “his literary agent was Maxim Lieber, who was then accused of being a Soviet spy, so he fled the country and burned most of his correspondence.”
Despite the loss of historical documents, students are still optimistic about what they can find, as many documents are left to be discovered in the physical archives of newspapers and libraries, and private storage; what scholars refer to as The Great Unread. The students are looking to expand the Tom Kromer Digital Archive with more podcasts and more documents.
“Living history through this single man and his writings throughout the country was probably my favorite part about this whole experience,” Smith said.
Kromer is buried in Springhill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia.
You can find the Tom Kromer Digital Archive at kromerarchive.org.
Modeled after Ascend WV, the two year First Ascent program aims to keep recent graduates in the state. It is a collaboration of both Marshall University and West Virginia University.
Flooding throughout the day Monday caused significant damage to roads, houses and bridges in central and southern West Virginia. There have been no deaths reported so far due to flooding. Officials are still working to assess damage. Many houses were flooded, and some were washed away.
On this West Virginia Morning, a summit at Marshall University will explore critical interventions against xylazine in the opioid crisis. Also, in this show, this week’s Inside Appalachia episode makes a visit to the Flat Five Studio in western Virginia.