New Appalachian Books: Write-Ups

Abstract

NEW APPALACHIAN BOOKS Write-Ups George Brosi with Leanna Lantz and Ashley Lawrence Wendell Berry. Hannah Coulter. Washington, D.C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004. 190 pages with a map and a family tree. Hardback with dust jacket. $25.00. In 1960, Wendell Berry published his first book, Nathan Coulter, a novel about a Kentucky man who worked a small hill farm during the first half of the Twentieth Century. That novel was the beginning of what was to become one of the verymost distinguished writing careers ever to take place in the Southern hill country. Now, after six more novels, three story collections, fourteen poetry collections and sixteen works of non-fiction prose, Wendell Berry has returned to Nathan Coulter's life to tell the story of his wife as she recalls it late in her life. For the first time, Wendell Berry uses a woman's name for his title. Berry's combination of human insight, meaningful message and vivid prose is as refreshing as it is rare in American literary life, and this particular novel will be relished by Berry's large fan base. Wendell Berry. Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2004. 78 pages with 40 black and white photographs by James Baker Hall. Oversized hardback with dust jacket. $25.00. What a beautiful tribute to a way of life which has all but disappeared. The pictures and commentary here document a 1973 harvest in Henry County, Kentucky, performed by neighbors and friends who were "swappingwork." Berry, who was a participant, concludes his essay with this comment on a local exhibition of Hall's photos: "It was a homecoming, a fulfillment of a sort.. . . Old tobacco men stood looking at [the pictures] and wept. It was as though, across a long interval of time, a window had been opened through whichwe saw ourselves as we once were. And we were grateful for this witness to the light we had." Ace Boggess, ed. Wild Sweet Notes II: More Great Poetry from West Virginia. Huntington, WV: Publishers Place, 2005. 233 pages with contributors'notes and an index ofpoets and poems. Paperback. $17.00. 87 This collection of West Virginia poetry contrasts sharply with the previous volume: Wild Sweet Notes: Fifty Years of West Virginia Poetry, 1950-1999 (2000). The fact that the editor is a young man accentuates the youthful slant as does the fact that he purposely excluded everyone who appeared in the last book. In his "Introduction" Boggess says this anthology is made up of newcomers, up-and-comers, and howcomers . The first category consists ofpeople who have recently moved into the state; the second of longer-term residents who were too new to poetry to have been widely published earlier, and the how-comers are those who were inexplicably left out of the last collection. The editor is a widely published poet and a novelist as well as an associate editor of The Adirondack Review. He resides in Huntington, West Virginia. Robert Bridges, Kristina Olson, and Janet Snyder, eds. Blanche Lazzell: The Life and Work ofan American Modernist. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2004. 338 pages with an index and many color reproductions of the artist's work. Oversized hardback with dust jacket. $75.00. The subject of this magnificent coffee-table book is Blanche Lazzell (1878-1956). It traces her career from Morgantown, West Virginia, to New York, Paris, and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Two hundred full-color illustrations and more than fifty plates make her life and work come alive to the reader. The co-editors all are connected to West Virginia University. Tina Rae Collins. When Angels Cry. Frederick, MD: Publish America, 2004. 258 pages. Paperback. $18.95. This novel tells the story of a woman whose husband of fourteen years abandons her, their four children, and their trailer home in an Eastern Kentucky holler. This inspiring story tells of Emily's courage in dealing with these challenges as well as others including her own health problems and the condemnation of her family and her church. The author works for the Brushy Fork Institute of the Berea College Appalachian Center. She grew up in Eastern Kentucky and is a graduate of...