Today is the birthday of the writer Charles Frazier. He was born in North Carolina in 1950. He wrote Cold Mountain, one of the most  rich and beautiful books I’ve read. And I have read quite a lot of books, and all of them slowly and carefully. Frazier’s desire to write – generally – was born out his sense of loss of North Carolinian culture and environment. The arc of his story was born in family history. In any case, it’s a fine book, and I have read it – slowly and carefully – three times. He used all the right words, in the right order.