Booklist and Notes

Abstract

BOOKLIST AND NOTES George Brosi Baird, Betty Stuart. The Legacy of the Cowbird. Wadestown, West Virginia: Spider Hill Press, 1995. 300 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $22.00. Since she retired from her teaching career, Betty Stuart Baird has devoted her life to writing and writers' organizations in a sincere and gracious effort to illuminate the heritage of the mountain region. Bea Martin, the heroine of this first published novel, leaves Eastern Kentucky at the age of sixteen to follow her coal-mining husband to southern West Virginia. The action revolves around a villain whose motto is "I don't build no nest for no woman. I'm like a cowbird, jest let other men raise my youngins." The author is a niece of Jesse Stuart, arguably the most popular Eastern Kentucky writer of the mid-twentieth century. Her work perpetuates the spirit of her late uncle's contribution to regional literature. Berry, Wendell, editor. The Woodcuts ofHarlan Hubbard. Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, 1994. 160 unnumbered pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $27.50. A native of Northern Kentucky, Hubbard and his late wife, the former Anna Eikenhout, lived from 1952 until her death in 1986 on a subsistence farm accessible primarily via the Ohio River. His book Payne Hollow describes their life there as intellectuals devoted to economic selfsufficiency . This striking book presents eighty-three woodcuts by Harlan Hubbard, eight in full color, accompanied by appropriate short passages from Hubbard's written work selected by Florence Fowler Burdine. This represents about half of the woodcuts Hubbard did, all collected by Bill Caddell, Hubbard's artistic executor. Short forewords by Wendell Berry and Robert Browning Reed put Hubbard's life and artistic work in context. George Brosi sells both new and out-of-print books through the mail, and brings a display of books for sale to regional events. His address is Appalachian Mountain Books, Route 2, Whittier, North Carolina 28789. His phone number is 704-586-5319. 66 Brosi, George, instructor, and members of his Fall 1994 Kentucky Literature Class. Kentucky Literature. Berea, Kentucky: Self-published. 150 pages. Spiral-bound paperback. $18.00. This booklet presents biographical sketches complete with literary analysis and bibliographies for thirty-one Kentucky fiction writers along with shorter annotations for fifty-nine authors from the state. Except for a few done by their instructor, George Brosi, the sketches were done by students at Eastern Kentucky University in the fall of 1994 as part of their Kentucky Literature class. Although the booklet covers the entire state of Kentucky, most of the authors have Eastern Kentucky connections . The writing is understandably uneven, but there is much useful information presented here. Davis, Donald. Thirteen Miles From Suncrest. Litde Rock: August House, 1994. 253 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $19.95. Since retiring from the Methodist ministry, Donald Davis, a native of the North Carolina mountains, has made a significant contribution as a professional storyteller and the author of four books of traditional and imaginative stories. With this novel he enters the genre of fiction unambiguously . His protagonist, Medford McGee, tells his story through the easy literary device of journal entries. McGee remains a goodygoody in a milieu itself portrayed as excessively prim and proper. Although this work in no way diminishes Davis's already substantial contribution to regional lore, it does not catapult him into the front ranks of regional literature. Lowe, James. The Creative Process ofJames Agee. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994. 168 pages with a bibliography and index. Hardback in dust jacket. $27.50. James Agee (1909-1955), a native of Knoxville who graduated from St. Andrews Academy on Tennessee's Monteagle Mountain and Harvard University, enjoyed an enervating literary career in New York City and Hollywood. His posthumous novel, A Death in the Family, is the only novel from the Appalachian region to have received the Pulitzer Prize. Lowe cites the conclusions of previous critics and attempts to supersede their work. "A well-written, thoughtful, instructive and illuminating critical response to the wonderfully brilliant and idiosyncratic James Agee." —Robert Coles. Lucas, Janice. The Long Sun. New York: Soho Press, 1994. 266 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $22.00 67 This promising first...