James Still (1906-2001) was a master of the short story genre. Nobody, before or since, has excelled him in expressing the unique metaphors and similes and short expressions of Appalachian speech. He grew up in Alabama, just south of the most hilly regions of the state, and graduated from Lincoln Memorial University with Don West and Jesse Stuart in the class of 1929. All three went on to Vanderbilt, and Jim got a Masters in Library Science (that required two foreign languages at the time) at the University of Illinois. Don West got him a job at Hindman Settlement School where he and his wife, Connie, taught for a year. Still spent the rest of his life, except for military service during World War II, in Knott County, Kentucky.