God’s Oddling is a book I wanted to write all my life. It is about my father, Mitchell (Mick) Stuart, who was unable to read or write anything except his own name. He was a great man — great in spirit and great in his influence upon others. I loved and respected him. When I set out to write this book I discovered that I had been writing it all my life, for I had already published poems, stories, and articles about my father.
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.” It was then, just before he died, that I realized my father was one of God’s oddlings, not me. He was a proud, independent gentleman who made his own decisions and went his own way.
—Jesse Stuart, Greenup, 1960
HARDBACK VERSION
Jesse Stuart
