Emma Bell Miles (1879-1919) is an icon in Appalachian Studies. In 1905, she published the first book that illuminated Appalachian people as bearers of a distinct culture, The Spirit of the Mountains. She was not only a keen observer of society, but also a poet, a feminist and a naturalist. She lived a hard life, married to a mountaineer who seldom kept jobs for more than a few months, her attempts to feed their family often bordered on desperation. Recently her journals and a collection of her stories have been published by Ohio University Press. This book provides the author's beautiful and precise sketches of well over 100 birds as well as short, but comprehensive, descriptions of their habits and their appearance.
Our Southern Birds by Emma Bell Miles. Chattanooga, Tennessee: Walden's Ridge Historical Association, a 1983 reprint of a 1919 release. 174 pages with an introduction by Kay Baker Gaston. Trade paperback.