A Friendship Between the Last American Cowboy and the Man in the Bushes

Abstract

A Friendship Between the Last American Cowboy and the Man in the Bushes Carol Boggess (bio) Book jackets identify Don West with phrases like “Appalachia’s legendary poet-activist,” and give his friend James Still the title “Dean of Appalachian Literature.” Such labels indicate accomplishments but reveal little about who the men really were. Still generated a more colorful description when he once called West the “last American cowboy” (see George Brosi’s afterword in No Lonesome Road: Selected Prose and Poems). About that same time, he was in the process of crafting his own image as the “man in the bushes.” Consider these contrasting images. A cowboy is independent and on the move, a man with a cause that involves mastering nature, herds of livestock, and sometimes uncooperative people. The man in the bushes is stationary, an individual who blends into nature and takes refuge there; he is solitary and hidden away, even mysterious. Though no real person ever fits a simple type, these descriptions inform us about the friendship of West and Still. West was an activist, a person who never avoided conflict and sometimes created it; he pursued his cause with vigor and wrote poetry to advance that cause. He liked the natural environment but was more interested in the conditions of the people in it. Still was, as his name implies, “still.” After he settled in Knott County, Kentucky, in 1932, he lived there for the remainder of his long life, and much of that time he lived simply and alone. Though he was not passive, he certainly was never the activist that West wanted him to be. Still was an observer who was immersed in the natural world and wrote what he heard and experienced. To explore the friendship that developed between the two, we need to begin in 1927 when they first met. Their backgrounds were similar, but their personality differences were obvious from the start and grew with time. [End Page 21] Childhood The boys experienced parallel childhoods in Georgia and Alabama. Both were born in the summer of 1906, the oldest sons of large families. Because their fathers were small farmers, they were never accustomed to luxury and frequently experienced hardship. Each boy was the first in his family to go to college, and by chance they ended up at the same one, Lincoln Memorial University in East Tennessee, because there they had the opportunity to work for an education. College years: Lincoln Memorial University and Vanderbilt Don and Jim knew each other at lmu but were not close friends. Jim was a slight young man who was nearly overcome by the physical labor required to earn the money that would keep him in school. He was shy as well, especially his first two years. The only club he joined was the Grant-Lee Literary Society. By contrast, Don was a big man about campus from the moment he arrived. He was always gregarious and busy. An example of his active involvement is revealed in the December 12, 1928, issue of the student newspaper, The Blue & Gray, where his name appears in four articles: as leader in establishing a new literary society, as representative of the student body in greeting a guest evangelist, as president of the Harrogate ymca, and as a star member of the track relay team. If all that, along with his work and studies, was not enough to keep him occupied, he ran a business collecting dry cleaning for the Middlesboro Laundry (lmu archives). Though never so active, Jim became better known by the time he was a junior, largely because he was on the honor roll and won essay prizes. He also helped Don organize the new Howard Literary Society. Another interest they shared was scout work. According to the summer 1928 issue of The Mountain Herald, Still was the scoutmaster for the Lincoln Memorial Boy Scouts and West was the assistant (lmu archives). This work would have appealed to both men because it offered the camaraderie Don craved and the contact with the outdoors Jim enjoyed. As a senior, Jim was quietly solidifying a relationship with his favorite mentor, Iris Grannis, and his future patron, Guy...