Smoke and Silence:
The Lives of Ol’ Mort
Smoke and Silence: The Lives of Ol’ Mort is a folk epic memoir built from memory, myth, and the stories passed down across generations in eastern Kentucky. Told in the voice of Mort’s great-great-grandson and rooted in tales shared by Mort’s grandson, this is the story of a man who lived hard and loved quietly—who survived a world war, outran federal agents, raised his family from the land, and became something larger than life.
God’s Oddling:
The title of this book, God’s Oddling, comes from something my father used to call me. For years he called me “oddling” because I had gone away to college and become a writer, and because I didn’t smoke the tobacco we grew or drink the mountain liquor brewed nearby. I was recovering from my heart attack when my father died. During those last days he often visited me at my house, and he still called me “oddling.” … —Jesse Stuart, Greenup, 1960
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Allan Eckert’s Winning of America Series
This Jesse Stuart Foundation best-selling series details accounts of frontiersmen and Native Americans and many dramatic events of the time period. Many years of research went into this popular series that also tells the story of wilderness America itself, its penetration and settlement.
Shop any of the 6 books in the series below, or BUY THE WHOLE SET!
Jesse Stuart Junior Books
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Loretta Lynn’s death a painful one for eastern Kentucky
Loretta Lynn’s death on October 4, 2022, was a painful loss for eastern Kentuckians and country music fans nationwide. Known as “The Coal Miner’s Daughter,” she was born April 14, 1935, at Butcher Holler, Johnson County, Kentucky, to Melvin and Clara Butcher Webb. Named after Loretta Young, her mother’s favorite actress, she walked several miles daily to attend a one-room school in nearby Van Lear, where she completed the [...]
2022 JSF bestsellers
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Christmas on the River
One winter day as I was sitting on the river bank, I heard a group of boys coming through the willows. Christmas was only a few days off. At the church, the boys said, sacks of hard candy would be given to all the young people. Anyone who wanted a sack could have it. All you had to do was to walk inside the church and get it. As [...]
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