If you attended a Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school in the late 1950s or in the 1960s, you might have heard about a local author named Julia Montgomery Street. In fact, you might have read her books or even met her at a book fair or through your school’s library.
Mrs. Street (photo shown above) wrote books of fiction for children and the books were all set in North Carolina. She also wrote poems, stories, and articles for newspapers and magazines. She received awards for some of her books, such as the American Association of University Women Award for Juvenile Fiction, which she won three times.
Fiddler’s Fancy (1956), Dulcie’s Whale (1963) and North Carolina Parade (1966) were the award-winning books. Some of the books are set in the mountains and some are set on the coast. North Carolina Parade (written with Richard Walser) is a group of 32 stories that begin with Virginia Dare and cover Blackbeard, Flora Macdonald, the origin of “Tar Heels,” the Wright Brothers, Thomas Wolfe, and many more North Carolina people, places, and events.
Some of her other books are Moccasin Tracks, Street Lights, Drovers’ Gold, Salem Christmas Eve, and Candle Love Feast. Candle Love Feast was featured in a December 2017 post. Mrs. Street is adept at adding dialogue that is appropriate to a region. She researched her subjects in many libraries and archives throughout the state in order to use the correct historical setting for her books and characters. She integrated speech, customs and folklore into her stories. In the book, Moccasin Tracks, several characters are Cherokee Indians and she uses Cherokee words throughout the book.
Julia Montgomery Street was born in Concord and grew up in Wake County. She graduated from North Carolina College for Women (today’s UNC-Greensboro) in 1923 and taught school in Winston-Salem and in Rocky Mount. Julia married Dr. Claudius A. Street, a pediatrician, in 1924. They made their home in Winston-Salem. Mrs. Street wrote in a variety of forms but put her writing aside while her children were young. She returned to writing when the children were older. She wrote her first book, Fiddler’s Fancy, in 1955 at age 57. Annie Lee Singletary favorably reviewed the book in the Twin City Sentinel newspaper and acclaimed that the book would appeal to young folks of all ages. Charlotte Blount also wrote a favorable review in the Winston-Salem Journal, crediting Mrs. Street with writing a superb book for children based on mountain people.
One of her later books was Judaculla’s Handprint and Other Mysterious Tales from North Carolina, published in 1975. Some of the stories in the book are “Ghost of a Cherokee Hero,” “Ghosts of the Haunted Woods,” “The White Canoe,” and “The Moon-Eyed People.” Some of the stories touch pretty close to home, such as “The Mysterious Beast of Vienna” and “The Little Red Man.”
Mrs. Street liked cats. In fact, some of the photos of her busy at work on her typewriter show a cat sitting on her desk. And she writes about cats in her stories. She played the dulcimer and enjoyed traveling the backroads and byways, particularly in the mountains. Her husband was from the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Toe River country. This area was the setting for her book, Fiddler’s Fancy. Mrs. Street died in 1993 at the age of 95.
Mrs. Street’s books can be read in the North Carolina Room of the Forsyth County Public Library. Some of the books are available for checkout from the library system.
Photographs courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
I fondly remember Mrs. Street whose husband Dr. Street, was my pediatrician in the late30’s and 40’s. She assisted him for many years. I believe their office was in a brick building on Spruce Street, downtown. And I remember, to this day, their advice on all conditions and ailments pediatric was “Dr. Street says”…..”, but Mrs. Dr. Street says “….” I loved them both dearly. They were an inspiration to all who were lucky to have known them.
Mrs. Street was my grandmother’s close friend and lived directly behind her. Dr. Street was our pediatrician. I still have many of her books given to me as a child.