New Book Notes

Abstract

New Book Notes George Brosi Janet Kemper Beck. Creating the John Brown Legend: Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Child, and Higginson in Defense of the Raid on Harpers Ferry. Jefferson: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2009. 206 pages with bibliography, timeline, notes, photos, illustrations, index, and a foreword by Richard T. Gillespie. Trade paperback, $35.00. The basic idea of this book makes sense—to contrast the historical with the literary view of John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and thus shine light on the origins of the legend. This book includes a very helpful chronology of pertinent personal, literary, and historical happenings throughout Brown’s life and provides background on five contemporary literary figures, including not just white men, but also Frederick Douglass and Lydia Maria Child. The one aspect of the book I found disconcerting was that it does not offer clearly laid-out reprints of the writings of these five. The author teaches English at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. Christine Blevins. The Midwife of the Blue Ridge: A Novel. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 2008. 420 pages with readers guide. Trade paperback, $14.00. This is an historical novel, set in the eighteenth century that follows the protagonist, “Dark Maggie,” from her home in Scotland to life as an indentured servant in Appalachian America. Neva Bryan. St. Peter’s Monsters. Saint Paul, Va.: Brighid Editions, 2009. 294 pages. Trade paperback, $14.00. Neva Bryan has had a story in Appalachian Heritage and a poem in Appalachian Journal. She grew up in the Virginia coalfields where this novel is set. Sylvia DeLee Davis. Appalachian Angels. West Conshohocken, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, 2008. 108 pages with contributor’s notes. Trade paperback, $12.95. [End Page 88] This is a book of personal essays about angel encounters and neardeath experiences from the Kentucky mountains. Sylvia DeLee Davis is a teacher who lives in Richmond, Kentucky. B. L. Dotson-Lewis. The Sunny Side of Appalachia: Bluegrass from the Grassroots. West Conshohocken, Pa.: Infinity Publishing, 2008. 184 pages with photos. Trade paperback, $15.95. This book consists primarily of interviews by the author with bluegrass musicians who perform at the “Music in the Mountains” Festival at Summersville, West Virginia. The author was born in the coalfields of Virginia and raised in the West Virginia coalfields. Gary W. Gallagher. The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. 416 pages, with illustrations, maps, notes, and index. Trade paperback, $19.95. This is a collection of eleven original essays by noted scholars on over 125 days of warfare that claimed more than 25,000 casualties, yet brightened Abraham Lincoln’s chances for re-election and boosted Union morale while depriving the Confederacy of its breadbasket. The writers utilize recent scholarship and newly uncovered original sources to reexamine many aspects of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Silas House and Jason Howard. Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009. 306 pages with appendices, index, notes, selected bibliography, and a foreword by Lee Smith. Hardback with dust jacket, $27.95. This important book paints compelling portraits of eleven courageous people with deep roots in the Appalachian coalfields who are resisting mountaintop removal coal mining. Before he died, Studs Terkel wrote: “This revelatory work is a challenging tocsin shouting out the effects of poverty and exploitations of the Appalachian people by strip miners and other corporate pirates. I am reminded of the fighting spirit of the Eastern Kentuckians when I visited these embattled pioneers in their hills and hollers. Here, Jean Ritchie and others speak out in the fighting tradition of the 1930s and 1960s. It is oral history at its best.” The editors are from the coalfields. [End Page 89] Charles Hudson. The Packhorseman. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2009. 336 pages. Trade paperback, $24.95. Charles Hudson is Franklin Professor of Anthropology and History, Emeritus, from the University of Georgia, where he became recognized as a leading authority on the Cherokee. With this volume, he plunges completely into historical fiction. His last book, Conversations with the High Priest of Coosa (2007), made the transition from his many nonfiction volumes. This book, his latest, is about...