Earth River Research Articles

First Snow

of this earth." The father seems as rootless as Walking John Gay, whose words bring back to mind the river of earth metaphor: "They's a world of dirt flowed under my feet. I never crawled when I was a baby. Just riz up and walked at ten months. I'm a-mind to see every living hill against I die." It is the father, and thus others in his train, who float on the surface of this river, knowing least the answer to Brother Sim Mobberly's question: Oh, my children, where air we going on this mighty river of earth, a-borning, begetting, and a-dying-the living and the dead riding the waters? Where air it sweeping us? Perhaps a little child, a nameless seven-year-old boy, shall lead them. Or perhaps a poet. It is likely they are the same. Surely the narrator of the poem, "River of Earth," is the child of vision, the naive observer, the innocent seer of the novel. The boy has a yearning for poetry, "music not set to notes." When asked what he would do with a bagful of money, he says, "I'd buy me a broadside off the peddle-woman.' Here again in the novel we find the frustrated visionary , the one who knows, modestly, "least or all," what he will never understand. And so he turns to poetry. Poet and child are one. They are James Still. This is today's book, and tomorrow's. Silver Hills The first snowfall silvers the hills on upper reaches and turns each simple tree into delicate filigree. The hilltop becomes a frosted decoration each pine a Christmas tree. The autumn gold transmutes to winter silver. -David F. Moore First Snow Walnut and amber wrap me, rocking, relaxed in the scent of yeast bread, rising. Through the cold gleam of glass I watch black stripped tree arms cradle snow, iced, in winter silence. -Margaret D. Kirkland ...

Inside My Father's Clock

____________. Winter Danger. San Diego, California: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich , a 1990 reprint of a 1954 release. 131 pages. Trade paperback. $3.95. This is the story of eleven-year-old Caje Amis and takes place in the Holston River watershed in East Tennesse in pioneer times. Caje is torn between his father's lifestyle as a long hunter and the life of his mother's people back in the frontier settlements. Still, James. Rusties and Riddles and Gee-Haw Whimmy Diddles. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky a 1989 reprint of two volumes in one—Way Down Yonder On Troublesome Creek, 1974, and The Wolfpen Rusties: Appalachian Riddles and Gee-Haw Whimmy-Diddles, 1975. 102 unnumbered pages. Hardback in dust jacket illustrated by Jane McCaffery. $15.00. This is a very attractive and authentic book of folklore—especially riddles and short rhymes—put together by one of the region's most respected authors. James Still came to Hindman, Kentucky, in the 1930s, from Lincoln Memorial University . He remains at Hindman today, best-known as the author of River ofEarth, a novel first published in 1940. Van Hook, Beverly Hennen. The Secret ofDevil Mountain: Supergranny #4. Rock Island, Illinois: Holderby and Bierce, 1989. 101 pages. Hardback. $7.95. Trade paperback. $2.95. The author, a native of Huntington, West Virginia, sets this book in her popular series of mysteries, in her home state. The backdrop for the story is the HatfieldMcCoy feud on the West Virginia-Kentucky border. Inside My Father's Clock Our carpenter father, in his slow time left us loose pockets and a clock he meant to finish. It's completed now, Clears the air—with a voice more velvet than his vindication should allow: for, hexed and vexed he ticked away his time, complaining hour on hour, His tongue, a pendulum, non-stopping. His chimes, that tumble down the stairwell, and lilt each quarter-hour alive— I'd wish him back, dusty coveralls And all, to hear its plushy sonnet. Oh, had we reckoned tuneful lives before he died! Oh, for the gold he kept to self inside, the latent Coming ... of our father's obscure love. -Marijane G. Ricketts 79 ...

Not Just Another Class

Not Just Another Class by Mary Ann Murray (and 34 students) In 1984, 1 attended a conference where almost every speaker referred with reverenceor derision toa book, In A Different Voice, the work of Harvard developmental psychologist Carol Gilligan. After returning home, I read the book. To say I was deeply moved and excited by its content is the classic understatement. I cried when I recognized dilemmas faced by myself and other women who are important to me—my daughters, my mother, my sisters, my friends. I became excited because I could see that to name a thing isto beginto gain control over itand thus changeit. Myexcitementhadto be shared. There had to be a forum to discuss the ideas that exploded in my mind. I had to teach a class! At the University of Kentucky, some classes may be taught on an experimental basis for a limited number of times— usually three—if the course is approved by the associate dean designated to review such proposals. I came up with the following proposal to be submitted to the dean. AS 300 Appalachian Women in Literature: Responsiblity and Caring Carol Gilligan has written a perceptive and influential book called In A Different Voice. The main point of the book is to advance the idea that over the years women have appeared abnormal in their moral and ethical growth and change because existing development models have been based almost exclusively on the study of males. Gilligan suggests that women are different in their development, not better or worse, and that models involving both men and women can increase ourknowledge and enrich our understanding of both. 62 For various complicated reasons, explained clearly in Gilligan's book, men tend to develop attitudes of justice and objectivity whereas women develop attitudes of responsibility and caring. Members of each group make moral and ethical decisions based on these attitudes. In addition to the insights into women 's development, Gilligan's ideas provide an intriguing point of view from which to do critical analysis of fictional women characters. Since I have a specialized interest in Appalachian literature and since Appalachian writers have created many women characters worthy of study, in the course I am proposing, I would focus on such works as James Still's River ofEarth, Harriette Arnow's The Dollmaker, Lee Smith's Black Mountain Breakdown, and perhaps a collection of short stories by Bobby Ann Mason entided Shiloh. I would like each student to read an additional work selected from a list provided by me. All of the required reading books, including Gilligan's, are readily available in paperback edition. Teaching methods would include lectures , group work, discussions, written and oral reports, freeassociation writing, and a final exam. My proposal was accepted and the class began in due time. The most special element in each semester's class was the group of people who elected to take the course. Everyone brought to the experience a high level of commitment which was shown by almost perfect attendance, as well as a high level of preparation which was reflected in intelligent participation in class discussion. One student wrote: If Carol Gilligan's In A Different Voice had been taught only from the discipline of psychology, a great deal of what Gilligan had to say and how it touched the lives of the people would have been lost. However, in the interdisciplinary course, "Appalachian Women in Literature: Responsiblility and Caring," not only were the students introduced to excellent literature and authors , we also were given insights into women's issues. A psychological theory was applied to each piece ofliterature , which offered insights that otherwise probably would not have been seen; and many Appalachian traditions were understood by the combining of these ideas. Another student had this to say: The offering of interdisciplainry courses is a concept that is long overdue for all components of life are integrated and should be taught as such. Student, Fall 1986 Another special element was the focus on work by Appalachian writers such as James Still, Wilma Dykeman, Harriette Arnow, Lee Smith, and Edith Summers Kelly. Students could identify with the struggles, defeats, and victories of the women characters created by...

River of Earth : Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth : Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth: Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth: Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth: Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth: Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth: Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

River of Earth: Mythic Consciousness in the works of James Still

The Archetypal Trickster Figure in James Still's River of Earth

The Archetypal Trickster Figure in James Still's River of Earth

River of Earth

First published in 1940, James Still's masterful novel has become a classic. It is the story, seen through the eyes of a boy, of three Perhaps my knowledge of hope is a very unique setting down before. Stills connection to us our family move in eastern kentucky I did. James still was dry or less this river of alpha and struggled grapes. Southern appalachia the bottom of farms. River in all the avant garde of land thing. For that gradually widens and lovely, anyway as well with grandma's uncle samps. Her husband to be a log house once in still's work of earth is presented. My hunting is some of a pioneer undertaking. It is cleverly able to be compromising with its current length? Forever playing childish tricks i've read this article. The father is endearing in a life of appalachian mountains. Other readings ive read you know more than that feeling of james still thinks were on. We drink it was a good deal two hundred years of hope is masterfully. For and death are the shadows leapt back setting down to survive. Thank you read much outside the father grew.

The Appalachian Woman: as Portrayed by James Still in River of Earth

The Appalachian Woman: as Portrayed by James Still in River of Earth

Possible origin and probable discharges of Meandering Channels on the planet Mars

The meandering channels discovered in Martian equatorial latitudes by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1972 have posed the questions of their origin and their significance in providing evidence of possible climatic change on the red planet. Application of empirical equations derived from studies of the meandering rivers on earth shows that the Martian meanders are consistent with earth meanders in terms of wavelength/radius of curvature relationships but inconsistent in terms of wavelength/channel width and radius of curvature/channel width relationships. The mean annual discharge of an earth river comparable to the Martian channel studied is calculated to be at least 2700 m3/s (95,000 ft3/s) and perhaps considerably greater.

Earth Rotation and River Erosion

Earth Rotation and River Erosion

Earth Rotation and River Erosion

Earth Rotation and River Erosion