One-room school life inspired two famous books by Kentucky authors. “The Thread That Runs So True” by Jesse Stuart is a nationally recognized autobiographical novel. Not as well-known but even more interesting is Janice Holt Giles’ novel, “Miss Willie,” set in the hills of [...]
"How to Build Your Dream Cabin in the Woods" will not make you a better carpenter, plumber, or rock mason. It is not going to take you step-by-step through the process of laying logs or framing or teach you constructions skills. There are lots [...]
On March 9, 1976, just before noon on a cold and cloudy day in the coal fields of Eastern Kentucky near Oven Fork in Letcher County, the Scotia mine exploded. The day shift that morning had a crew of 106 men, working six sections [...]
My friend Billy C. Clark died on March 15, 2009. Since then, I have thought of him often. Memories of long trips together or his fanciful stories supercharged with hyperbole always make me smile. The great eastern Kentucky writer and storyteller began his life [...]
Lily May, center, of Coon Creek Girls, c. 1950. Music has always been an essential part of the lives of Appalachian people, who valued their banjos, fiddles, and mandolins almost as much as the family firearms. From the early settlement of eastern Kentucky [...]
One of eastern Kentucky’s greatest heroines, Eula Riley Hall, died May 8 at her home in Craynor (Floyd County), Kentucky. She was 93. Eula Hall was born into Appalachian poverty on the floor of her family’s four-room cabin in Pike County on October 29, [...]
“A Jesse Stuart Reader” is a collection of 18 short stories, excerpts from “God’s Oddling,” “The Thread That Runs So True,” and “The Year of My Rebirth,” and 26 poems. The book was designed for junior high and high school readers, so it includes [...]
Jesse Stuart was a man of wide-ranging accomplishments. He was a world-famous author, a respected educator, a farsighted conservationist, and an authentic spokesman for his Appalachian homeland. And, like many men and women of his generation, he served in the armed forces during World [...]
The recently completed Kentucky Derby is the most famous horse race in history. Run at Churchill Downs in Louisville since 1875, the derby has attracted huge crowds for the last three decades.The Kentucky Derby is a significant part of the cycle of Kentucky life. Well-known [...]
“Tell about the South. What’s it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there?” These haunting questions posed by William Faulkner in “Absalom, Absalom!” could just as easily be applied to Appalachia. Where is Appalachia? On its surface, that seems [...]
