TRIBUTES TO MARY LEE SETTLE The Mother Jones of West Virginia Literature__________________________ Phyllis Wilson Moore When I think of Mary Lee Settle, a writer's writer, I often think of Mother Jones, the Miner's Angel. Their voices could fill a room; both were larger than life, and neither doffed a hat to power or privilege. Jones, born in the 1830s in Cork, Ireland, is a legend in WestVirginia for risking her life in the fight for unionization of West Virginia's coal miners. Lovely to look at and noted for salty language, she inspired and rallied miners and their families and left an indelible mark on the labor movement. Settle captured Jones's essence in her novel The Scapegoat (1950), set in 1912 during the West Virginia mine wars, and tells of her Grandmother Addie's 1902 assistance to Jones, and thus local miners, in Addie: A Memoir (1998). Settle, born July 29, 1918, in Charleston, West Virginia, is the Mother Jones of West Virginia literature. Similarly lovely to look at and noted for salty language, she was an outspoken political activist and a writer willing to take risks and defy expectations. She left an indelible mark on literature, both here and abroad. In 1991, eager to meet the creator of the mythical West Virginia estate she called Beulah, I arranged a journey to Charleston, West Virginia, Settle's home town (the model for Canona in the Beulah Quintet) to hear her read and see her receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the State of West Virginia. A fellow reader cautioned me not to ask Settle to autograph my cache of her works and not to ask to take her photograph. She explained Settle did not suffer fools gladly and had a history of being at odds with several members of the local country club set. Under these circumstances she could bristle about autographs and photographs. Nevertheless, I packed Settle's books in my tote bag, threw in my camera and headed with trepidation to the Cultural Center Theater. The on-stage Settle, dressed in her favored earth tones, had a commanding presence and statuesque good looks to match. As she spoke, her gnarled voice and training in drama added shading to her characters. Her eyes flashed through large brown-rimmed glasses while her graceful hands punctuated words. 11 After the reading, I hesitantly approached her with Prisons (1973), my favorite of her novels (tote bag and camera stuck in a corner of a near wall), and struck up a conversation about her work. When she asked which works I liked best, I said her World War II experiences in England (All the Brave Promises: Memoirs ofAircraft Woman 2ND Class 2146391) (1966) and Prisons. She asked why All the Brave Promises? I mentioned specific sections plus the gutsy dedication, "to the wartime other ranks of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Royal Air Force— below the rank of sergeant." Next she asked which character in Prisons I liked best. At my answer of Johnny Church for refusing to doff his hat to despots, she smiled broadly and said Johnny was the character most like her. Without realizing it, I "passed muster." Not only had I read the memoir and novel, I had an opinion. Still smiling, she said Charles Dickens referred to his novel David Copperfield as his favorite child because he related to the character and experiences of Copperfield. She then inscribed Prisons with an eightword quote from Dickens followed by five words of her own, "1 have in my heart a favorite child' his name is Johnny Church." Nodding toward my rather obvious tote bag she asked, "What's in there?" "More of your books," I replied. "Don't you want them autographed?" Then without waiting for a reply, "Get vem up here." As she went through the stacks she mentioned how seldom she saw a copy of her first children's book The Story ofFlight (1967) or her novel Pride's Promise (1976), first published as Know Nothing (1960), and inscribed both, "very rare copy." True to the spirit of the crusty Mother Jones, Settle autographed her ill-fated novel Fight Night on a Sweet Saturday...