How great it is to have this poetry book available in an inexpensive edition! Readers of regional poetry invariably consider it to be at least one of the ten finest books of Appalachian poems. Still was not “of” Eastern Kentucky. He had grown up just south of the region in rural Alabama, and he served overseas in World War II and traveled extensively, especially to sites of ancient Mayan culture. However, he lived most of his life in Eastern Kentucky and arguably was one of the closest observers of mountain speech and mountain ways ever to resettle here. His poetry is exquisite in its own right, but also stands as an enduring accounting of depression-era life in Eastern Kentucky.
Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, a 2022 reprint of a 1937 release. 74 pages with illustrations by Aurora Noctua. Trade paperback.