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The Wolfpen Notebooks: A Record of Appalachian Life
The Wolfpen Notebooks A Record of Appalachian Life Author:James Still 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. This was a land of creekbed roads, mountain sleds, and hillside farmi... more »ng, where the language bore vestiges of Elizabethan speech and where the ways of thinking and doing lingered on long after they had changed elsewhere. Still joined the folk life of the scattered community, attending church meetings, funerals, corn pullings, hog butcherings, box suppers at the one-room school, sapping parties, and gingerbread elections. 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 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. Still's writings draw on everyday experiences and observations. A citation by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters states: "His gift is to set forth the poverty and valor of his people in a prose as limpid and musical as the waters of Little Carr Creek." Still's fiction has been praised especially for its faithfulness to the idiom of the Appalachian people. 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. Folklorists, linguists, and all who have a love of the Appalachian region will treasure this rich gleaning.« less