Most Popular Books by James Still

James Still (1906–2001) remains one of the most beloved and important writers of Appalachian literature. Best known for his acclaimed novel River of Earth (1940), the Alabama native and adopted Kentuckian left an enduring legacy of novels, stories, and poems during his nearly seventy-year career. The Hills Remember: The Complete Short Stories of James Still honors the late writer by collecting all of Still''s short stories, including those from On Troublesome Creek (1941), Pattern of a Man and Other Stories (1976), and The Run for the Elbertas (1980), as well as twelve prose pieces originally published as short stories and later incorporated into River of Earth. Also included are several lesser-known stories and ten that were previously unpublished. Recognized as significant short fiction in his day—many of his stories initially appeared in The Atlantic and The Saturday Evening Post and were included in The O. Henry Memorial Award Stories and The Best American Short Stories collections—Still''s short stories, while often overshadowed in recent years by his novels and poetry, are among his most enduring literary works. Editor Ted Olson''s introduction offers a reassessment of Still''s short fiction within the contexts of the author''s body of work and within Appalachian and American literature. Compiling all of James Still''s compelling and varied short stories in one volume, The Hills Remember is a testament to a master writer.

After keeping school for six years at the forks of Troublesome Creek in the Kentucky hills, James Still moved to a century-old log house between the waters of Wolfpen Creek and Dead Mare Branch, on Little Carr Creek, and became "the man in the bushes" to his curious neighbors. Still joined the life of the scattered community. He raised his own food, preserved fruits and vegetables for the winter, and kept two stands of bees for honey. A neighbor remarked of Still, "He''s left a good job, and come over in here and sot down." Still did sit down and write—the classic novel River of Earth and many poems and short stories that have found their way into national publications. From the beginning, Still jotted down expressions, customs, and happenings unique to the region. After half a century those jottings filled twenty-one notebooks. Now they have been brought together in The Wolfpen Notebooks, together with an interview with Still, a glossary, a comprehensive bibliography of his work by William Terrell Cornett, and examples of Still''s use of the "sayings" in poetry and prose. The "sayings" represent an aspect of the Appalachian experience not previously recorded and of a time largely past.

James Still left eastern Kentucky for Europe in 1941 after enlisting in the US Army during World War II, leaving behind a recently published, semi-autobiographical work of fiction, On Troublesome Creek. Even as he developed a broader worldview, his work continued to draw from the agrarian and regional sources of life in the Cumberland Plateau that supported the American war effort. Like the riverbeds and creeks he so often evoked, Still reminds readers of the local and regional founts that they were fighting for in the century''s second global war. The "Dean of Appalachian Literature," James Still grew up in Alabama before settling down in Knott County, Kentucky, in the early 1930s. In On Troublesome Creek, he describes the ebbs and flows of Appalachian living while celebrating the culture defined by family, self-sufficiency, and hard work. The colloquial dialogue brings to life a community attached to the land on which they had lived for generations and the victuals and rituals that kept their world in motion amidst uncertainty.

James Still first achieved national recognition in the 1930s as a poet. Although he is better known today as a writer of fiction, it is his poetry that many of his essential images, such as the "mighty river of earth," first found expression. Yet much of his poetry remains out of print or difficult to find. From the Mountain, From the Valley collects all of Still''s poems, including several never before published, and corrects editorial mistakes that crept into previous collections. The poems are presented in chronological order, allowing the reader to trace the evolution of Still''s voice. Throughout, his language is fresh and vigorous and his insight profound. His respect for people and place never sounds sentimental or dated. Ted Olson''s introduction recounts Still''s early literary career and explores the poetic origins of his acclaimed lyrical prose. Still himself has contributed the illuminating autobiographical essay "A Man Singing to Himself," which will appeal to every lover of his work. James Still, the first poet laureate of Kentucky, recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and many other awards and honors, is the author of numerous works, including his masterful novel River of Earth. Ted Olson, associate professor of Appalachian studies and English at East Tennessee State University, is the author of Blue Ridge Folklife and the editor of CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual.

Unpublished at the time of the author''s death, a historical novel featuring a young migrant worker''s experiences on a tragic ranch couple''s cotton farm is now in print for the first time. By the author of 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 years in the life of his family and their kin. He sees his parents pulled between the meager farm with its sense of independence and the mining camp with its uncertain promise of material prosperity. In his world privation, violence, and death are part of everyday life, accepted and endured. Yet it is a world of dignity, love, and humor, of natural beauty which Still evokes in sharp, poetic images. No writer has caught more effectively the vividness of mountain speech or shown more honestly the trials and joys of mountain life.

A compilation of Mother Goose rhymes as collected from the Appalachian region oral tradition.

The people of the Kentucky mountains and the southern Appalachians preserved a language alive with colorful turns of phrase and whimsical wit and for their amusement they created a rich vein of oral lore—songs, tales, and games. James Still presents a varied and entertaining collection of riddles, whimsies, and verbal pranks, gathered through his long association with the mountain people of eastern Kentucky. This book includes in one volume two earlier books—Way Down Yonder on Troublesome Creek and The Wolfpen Rusties—that have been unavailable for several years. It contains the complete text of the original editions, including Still''s explanatory notes for archaic or obscure expressions. Also included are the original lively illustrations by the noted artist Janet McCaffery.

“A great storyteller . . . These vignettes of life in the southern Appalachians are an important contribution to the literature of the region.” —Chattanooga Times In language both spare and colorful, sure in its command of Appalachian dialect and poetic in its evocation of mountain settings, James Still’s stories reveal the lives of his people—lives of privation and struggle, lived with honesty as well as humor. With a foreword by Cleanth Brooks and an afterword by the author, The Run for the Elbertas features thirteen stories from one of America’s masters of the short story. Enjoyable and enriching, Still’s stories sparkle with wisdom and joy. “Still is an eavesdropper on the human heart. He doesn’t create ‘characters’ in a story; he is a bright-eyed, keen-eared owl in a thicket, reporting on the human beings he sees and hears . . . A marvelous book.” —Lexington Herald-Leader “James Still offers us the rhythm of the poet’s phrasing, the excitement of the word, the expression, that strikes like a little silver hammer, along with an uproarious humor and the lustiness of living of the common man.” —Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of The Yearling “The unprogressive enclaves of Troublesome Creek and Shoal Creek cry out to us what is fundamental about life, and what superfluous . . . The marvels here are truly those of art.” —The Louisville Courier-Journal

playbook

A collection of sayings and riddles from the hills of Kentucky.

“Hard times during the Depression and family sacrifices are treated with honesty and humor” in this YA book by the author of River of Earth (School Library Journal). Sporty Creek is a series of short stories set in the Kentucky hills. Narrated by a young boy (a cousin of the narrator of Still’s classic novel River of Earth), the book tells the story of his family during the Great Depression. With work in the coal mines sporadic, they move from place to place, trying to earn a living the best they can. The story is told with gentleness and humor. “What James Still has done is to look at the people of the mountains and just a ‘bunch of houses in a hollow’ and see a universe unto itself.” —Lexington Herald-Leader “Tells of the tough living that many people in that region experienced and the humor and love that kept life rich.” —Appalachian Quarterly “A testament to people of courage and humor with a zest for living.” —Language Arts “Vintage James Still.” —Paintsville Herald “Still’s novel is an appealing mixture of earthiness and poetry . . . We are filled with admiration for robust people who have time to laugh and enjoy life, even in hard times.” —Publishers Weekly “James Still is a Kentucky writer I profoundly admire. He is capable of such delicacy and at the same time such power, and he’s a man who has really mastered the art, the craftsmanship.” —Wendell Berry

Riddles and witticisms collected by the author from the people of the Kentucky mountains and southern Appalachians and previously presented in two volumes: Way Down Yonder on Troublesome Creek and The Wolfpen Rusties. Includes explanatory notes.

In this Appalachian variant of the traditional tale, Jack trades his old cow to a gypsy for three beans that are guaranteed to feed him his entire life.

Playbook

Winner of AATE''s Distinguished Play Award and originally produced at The Kennedy Center, Amber Waves focuses children in a family struggling to hold on to their farm and each other. This acclaimed one act about children in a struggling farm family is now available in a full length version that builds on the emotional strengths of the shorter play.

"A multimedia play that combines videotaped interviews with Holocaust survivors Ed Silverberg and Eva Schloss with live actors recreating scenes from their lives during World War II"--Back cover.

"A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters passionately and compassionately wrestles with the question: "How does faith both unite and divide us?" and explores the often invisibility of faith, how we make unconscious assumptions about one other based on religion, and how often those assumptions are wrong. Inspired by oral histories, community events, and the circular structure of Schnitzler''s play La Ronde, the play''s 10 scenes include a Native American woman who teaches ESL to a class of immigrant senior citizens; two astronauts in crisis far away from home and searching for common ground; a man who meets the woman who received his mother''s transplanted heart; and a journalist who interviews a family whose son has been killed in Iraq. A Long Bridge Over Deep Waters traces a joyous, restless and surprising path through a wide-open spiritual and American landscape. It is both intimate and epic--an expansive panorama that stages an interlocking chain of unexpected encounters between contemporary communities of faith. This play was the final play in Los Angeles-based Cornerstone Theater Company''s nationally acclaimed four-year Faith Based Theater Cycle." -- Publisher''s website.

Fiction. First published in 1976, with a 2001 afterword by Wendell Berry. James Still was born on Double Creek in Alabama, one of ten children. For most of his life he lived in a log house at the forks of Troublesome and Wolfpen creeks in Knott County, Kentucky. The unique native dialect of the Kentucky mountains informs the language of all his stories. "Not many writers have been able to concentrate so much power into a few pages. When you look up from `The Nest'' or `The Scrape, '' you find the room filled with afterimages...Because, perhaps, of its artistic integrity this body of work never exploits or condescends to its subject, a region that has been condescended to and exploited almost by convention"--Wendell Berry

First published in 1937, Hounds on the Mountain evokes James Still''s personal experiences of eastern Kentucky through reflective folk poems describing Appalachian mountain life from birth through death. Written during the Great Depression, the collection emphasizes a collective reliance on the earth and the primacy of nature that Still observed from the seclusion of his thirty-acre home in Knott County, Kentucky. Still, who became known as the "Dean of Appalachian Literature," describes the changing landscape of his community as a tale of personal and environmental erosion. As the poet pleads for his readers to better protect this fragile ecosphere, he plants the seeds for his rise to literary eminence. Still''s focus on the self-made authenticity of regional community artisans also reminded American readers during the Great Depression that local economies needed support, the same as those at the national and global levels. Hounds on the Mountain allows today''s audiences to appreciate Still''s first published book as both literature and as a treasured cultural symbol of Appalachian life then and now.

"As one critic wrote about Searching for Eden: "In the beginning--and throughout the play--here was laughter. And the audience found it good." More than a hundred years after Mark Twain wrote his own short stories about Adam and Eve, James Still combines those stories for Act One of Searching for Eden, and then imagines Adam and Eve in the present day for Act Two to create this completely original and contemporary play about the world''s first love story. Act One takes place at the dawn of time in the Garden of Eden. In the imaginations of Still and Twain, the Garden of Eden is a place where the battle of the sexes begins, where language is deliciously invented, and where loneliness and heartbreak are poignantly discovered. After intermission, we jump forward to the present day--but Adam and Eve have only aged into their 40s and are dealing with middle age and the distractions of high-power careers. Adam has surprised Eve with this trip back to Eden (a last-minute vacation package Adam found on the Internet) as an anniversary gift. The "first couple" returns to present-day Eden (now an upscale resort simply called "E") in an attempt to recapture the primal passions of their youth. While Act One is about childhood, discovery, and new love--Act Two is about middle age, rediscovery and trying to make old love new again. At its heart, Searching for Eden is about the pleasures and terrors of knowing one person--and being known by that person--for a long, long time."--Publisher''s website.

Playbook