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Life is not easy for the hill people of Eastern Kentucky. But these hills are their home . . . a home of clear sky, tangy air, and brown earth. Here are stories and poems about these warm-hearted people, written by Jesse Stuart, one of America's great story-tellers. By Jesse Stuart -
Here are twenty-one tales from Kentucky’s inimitable and beloved storyteller, Jesse Stuart. Full of high, rambunctious humor, quick-paced as a maple tree against an October hill—these stories are Stuart in his best form—the form that has made him one of most widely read authors in America. Read here about the man who coveted a steam shovel and stole it piece by piece, or about the celebrated eating contest between Sam Whiteapple and the game rooster, or about the hill farmer who wanted to clear and farm one last spot of new ground before he died. Although he has a sharp eye for human foibles and infirmities, Stuart never fails to write of his people with affection or to see that justice is done them. By Jesse Stuart -
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Jesse Stuart's honest, earthy writing about the southern hill folk he knows so well has made him one of America's foremost authors of fiction. Here are twenty of his best stories that spring up from the pungent soil of Kentucky, told in his plain but highly colorful style. Stories about the Stuart family and neighbors from his beloved W-Hollow, all packed with Kentucky characters of all sorts and sizes. SOFTBACK By Jesse Stuart -
Written by a beloved American author who grew up in the foothills of the Appalachians, these twenty-one short stories explore the daily lives and activities of Kentucky mountaineers. Life, animate existence, absorbs Jesse Stuart. Never is it more vital than when juxtaposed with death, hence the contrasting motifs of life and death permeating his work. In this book, Stuart tells the stories of the hills and the men who live there. They “curse the mountains,” but love them too, he says. Existing in dimensions of real geography and elaborate imagination, Stuart moves easily between autobiography and fiction and often does not bother to distinguish one from the other. Greenup County, Kentucky blends into Greenwood County, and W-Hollow in both fiction and fact is subject to the proprietorship of the bard of Appalachia. By Jesse Stuart -
A unique and personal book bound for its own kind of immortality. Head o' W-Hollow has a permanent if modest historical value. Jesse Stuart has a "rattrap memory" for turns of speech, and he has given a socio-historical record of daily life in his remote world — now so much less remote and more changed. By Jesse Stuart REVIEWS "Stuart's first book of short stories remains haunting, powerful, and humorous." "A unique book, bound for its own kind of immortality." — Robert Penn Warren "The most honest writing that has ever been done about Kentucky mountain people." — The Nation -
Jesse Stuart Junior Book This is the story of a teenage girl, Joy Burton, who finds a lame albino fawn in the forest. Joy, a victim of polio, feels great compassion for the injured fawn and tenderly nurses him back to health. Inspired by her pet’s recovery, Joy becomes convinced that the operation her doctor proposed for her will be successful and that she will someday be able to walk without crutches. SOFTBACK By Jesse Stuart -
Presidents have been visiting Kentucky since 1819 arriving by horseback, carriage, train, steamboat, bus, and airplane. Presidential Visits to Kentucky: 1819-2017 details more than 120 occasions when the President of the United States came to the Commonwealth. It chronicles when the president came, why, where he went, and who he saw as he made history. HARDBACK VERSION By Wayne Onkst -
With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin’ a beloved bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South. This time he’s writing about his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man who died before Bragg was born but left an indelible imprint on the people who loved him. Drawing on their memories, Bragg reconstructs the life of an unlettered roofer who kept food on his family’s table through the worst of the Great Depression; a moonshiner who drank exactly one pint for every gallon he sold; an unregenerate brawler, who could sit for hours with a baby in the crook of his arm. In telling Charlie’s story, Bragg conjures up the backwoods hamlets of Georgia and Alabama in the years when the roads were still dirt and real men never cussed in front of ladies. A masterly family chronicle and a human portrait so vivid you can smell the cornbread and whiskey, Ava’s Man is unforgettable. SOFTBACK VERSION (259 PAGES) Rick Bragg -
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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 -
Lyrical prose and warm watercolor illustrations bring a "certain part of the country called Appalachia" alive for young readers. Two award-winning artists, forever touched by their experiences growing up in this unique landscape, have teamed to create a quietly powerful and beautifully crafted portrait of life in a timeless place. SOFTBACK VERSION By Cynthia Rylant -
In Hidden Heroism, Robert Edgerton investigates the history of Afro-American participation in American wars, from the French and Indian War to the present. He argues that blacks in American society have long-suffered from a "natural coward" stereotype that is implicit in the racism propagated from America's earliest days, and often intensified as blacks slowly received freedom in American society. For instance, blacks served admirably in various wars, returned home after their service to short-term recongnition, and then soon found themselves even more seriously entrenched in a racist system because they were perceived as a threat to whites. This was true, Edgerton argues, until the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam, though the stereotypes have not been fully eradicated. In this book, Edgerton provides an accessible and well-informed tour through this little-known, but significant aspect of race in American military history. SOFTBACK VERSION By Robert B. Edgerton
