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Book Cover
E-book
Author Boggess, Carol, author

Title James Still : a life / Carol Boggess
Published Lexington, Kentucky : The University Press of Kentucky, [2017]

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Front cover; Copyright; Contents; Preface; 1 A Place to Begin; 2 Old Enough to Go Traipsing; 3 The Model Scout; 4 Working His Way; 5 Mentors, Friends, and Patron; 6 The Scholar's Tale; 7 A Practical Degree; 8 "19-Dirty-one"; 9 To the Jumping-off Place; 10 Hindman Becomes a Haven; 11 Beyond the Hills, 1935-1940; 12 A Man Singing to Himself; 13 Jolly in a Courting Mood; 14 Joining Up and Shipping Out; 15 Somewhere in Africa; 16 Coming Home Again; PHOTOGRAPHS; 17 On Dead Mare Branch; 18 Back to Hindman; 19 Family Loss and Brotherly Love; 20 On to Morehead; 21 Then-what Days
22 Making Friends and Keeping Them23 Pattern of a Writer in Pursuit of Publication; 24 Still the Explorer, 1972-1990; 25 Jolly and Godey; 26 Jim Wayne and Anson; 27 At Home in This World; 28 Invitation to the Eternal; Epilogue; Acknowledgments; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary James Still (1906--2001) first achieved national recognition in the 1930s as a poet, and he remains one of the most beloved and important writers in Appalachian literature. Though he is best known for the seminal novel River of Earth -- which Time magazine called a "work of art" and which is often compared to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath as a poignant literary exploration of the Great Depression -- Still is also recognized as a significant writer of short fiction. His stories were frequently published in outlets such as the Atlantic and the Saturday Evening Post and won numerous awards, including the O. Henry Memorial Prize. In the definitive biography of the man known as the "dean of Appalachian literature," Carol Boggess offers a detailed portrait of Still. Despite his notable output and importance as a mentor to generations of young writers, Still was extremely private, preferring a quiet existence in a century-old log house between the waters of Wolfpen Creek and Dead Mare Branch in Knott County, Kentucky. Boggess, who befriended the author in the last decade of his life, draws on correspondence, journal entries, numerous interviews with Still and his family, and extensive archival research to illuminate his somewhat mysterious personal life. James Still: A Life explores every period of Still's life, from his childhood in Alabama, through the years he spent supporting himself in various odd jobs while trying to build his literary career, to the decades he spent fostering other talents. This long-overdue biography not only offers an important perspective on the author's work and art but also celebrates the legacy of a man who succeeded in becoming a legend in his own lifetime
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Still, James, 1906-2001.
SUBJECT Still, James, 1906-2001 fast
Subject Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography
LITERARY CRITICISM -- Poetry.
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV)
Authors, American
Intellectual life
SUBJECT Appalachian Region -- Intellectual life
Subject Appalachian Region
Genre/Form Biographies
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780813174198
0813174198
9780813174204
0813174201
9780813174815
0813174813