Booklist and Notes

Abstract

Booklist and Notes George Brosi Anderson, Maggie. Windfall: New and Selected Poems. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000. 110 pages. Trade paperback. $12.95. This volume includes selected poems from the author's first three collections as well as some new poetry. Maggie Anderson (b. 1948), a native New Yorker, moved to West Virginia at the age of 13, got a social work degree at W.V.U. and practiced social work in the state before moving to Pennsylvania. She now teaches creative writing at Kent State University in Ohio. Many of the poems selected from Cold Comfort explicitly depict West Virginia, and others throughout this collection deal directly with her relationship with her father, an English teacher. Anderson's poetry is finely polished and easy to follow. "I love the voice in hear in Maggie Anderson's poems. I love the rhythm, and the knowledge, and the power."—Gerald Stern. Berry, Chad. Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. 236 pages with photos, bibliography and an index. Hardback in dust jacket. $44.95. Trade paperback. $21.95. Although based on an Indiana University doctoral thesis in history, this book is accessible to a wide range of readers because it is based on oral history interviews. The emphasis is on the period of greatest migration from the highland and lowland South to the Midwest, from the 1930s through the 1960s. "An ambitious and interesting study that offers much new information and illuminates some incidents and trends not noticed before."—Gordon McKinney. Chad Berry (b. 1963) is the grandson of Tennesseans who migrated to Indiana. He currently teaches history at Maryville College in East Tennessee. Berry, Wendell. Life Is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000. 153 pp. Hardback in dust jacket. $21.00. Although Wendell Berry (b. 1934) is a prolific author and has published about a dozen works of non-fiction prose, most of them are essay collections. This is only his third single essay book. It follows his most popular and enduring statement of philosophy, The Unsettling of America (1977) and his reflections on racism: The Hidden Wound (1970). 76 This book addresses a subject important to the author, a farmer who tills the soil organically with horses and a writer who doesn't own a computer: the proper role of science and technology in contemporary life. More than a third ofthe book is devoted explicitly to countering the argument Edward O. Wilson made in his book Consilience (1998). Unlike Wilson, Berry feels that life is fundamentally inexplicable and that spiritual and human values should reign supreme over science. Berry farms with his wife Tanya in Henry County, Kentucky, near where the Kentucky flows into the Ohio. "Berry's slender essay offers a thoughtful repudiation of an increasingly technological—and some would say, soulless—culture"—Gregory McNamee. Best, Bill. From Existence to Essence: A Conceptual and Mythological Model for an Appalachian Studies Curriculum. Berea: Appalachian Imprints, 1999. 148 pages, with a forward by Rodger Cunningham and an afterward by Richard Blaustein. Trade paperback. $14.95. This book contains the text of Best's 1973 doctoral dissertation in Education at the University of Massachusetts. It is followed by the results of a follow-up study he did on high school students who participated in a summer program called Project Torchlight, which Best organized at Berea College in the summer of 1966. The basic idea is that students from the mountains need to have their cultural heritage affirmed, not belittled, in order to make the most of educational opportunities. Billy Best (b. 1935) is a native of Haywood County, North Carolina. He has taught at Berea College since the 1960s. Billings, Dwight B. and Kathleen M. Blee. The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 434 pages with photos, maps, and an index. Hardback in dust jacket. $59.95. Trade paperback. $24.95. Sure to be seen as one of the most impressive studies in some time, this book presents a detailed look at how poverty became endemic in Clay County, Kentucky. The co-authors begin with an overview of the...