This reference work provides complete biographical and discographical information on more than 75 traditional recording artists from the Central Blue Ridge area. It includes a chronological overview and primary and anthology recordings.

This work carefully examines Trivett's life and photographs, comparing his work to that of contemporary outside photographers. Through Trivett's imagery we can see the everyday reality for most people in rural Appalachia.

This work is a biography of John Fox, Jr. It draws from personal and family correspondence and covers his entire life, from his birth in Stony Point, Kentucky, in 1862, to his death from pneumonia in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in 1919. His early life and education at his father's school, his two years at Transylvania University in Lexington, his transfer to Harvard and graduation in 1883, his work for New York newspapers, and his return home in the mid-1880s to work with his half-brother in the coal mines are all documented. In the 1880s he began his first novel, A Mountain Europa, and over the...

Mills Higgins Flack, a leader of the Farmers' Alliance and Rutherford County's first Populist in the state House, was murdered on August 28, 1900, by Avery Mills, an African American. This work documents the murder and lynching of Avery Mills.

In the summer of 1927, nineteen bands gathered for a recording session in Bristol, on the Tennessee-Virginia border, including some of the most influential names in American music--the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Stoneman and more. Organized by Ralph Peer for Victor records to capitalize on the popularity of "hillbilly" music, the Bristol sessions were a key moment in country music's evolution. The musicians played a variety of styles largely endemic to the Appalachian region. Rather than attempting to record purely traditional sounds, however, Peer sought a combination of musical...

This updated edition of the 1979 original covers the landmark struggle to save the New River from damming in the 1970s. The grassroots movement emphasized the river's cultural and historical value rather than narrow environmental issues and became one of the great victories of the environmental movement. This edition also includes a new epilogue examining the current ecological status of the New River and the ongoing impact of the original conservation efforts in the face of new environmental threats. The 1979 edition won the Weatherford Award presented by Berea College and the Appalachian...

Best known as the author of the acclaimed novel River of Earth (1940), Alabama native James Still is one of the most critically acclaimed writers of Appalachian literature. This compilation of scholarly essays exploring Stills literary work is the first book-length collection of its kind and features contributions from leading scholars and writers, including Wendell Berry, Fred Chappell, Jim Wayne Miller, Jeff Daniel Marion, Diane Fisher, Dean Cadle, and Hal Crowther.

Asheville, North Carolina, grew from humble beginnings as a hamlet for local livestock handlers to become one of the most culturally and artistically diverse cities in the South. Here in this book is all the fascinating history of Asheville, complete with a rich array of photographs. Multiple appendices reveal details concerning many lesser-known aspects of Ashevilles unique history, including city buildings designed by architects Richard Sharp Smith and Douglas D. Ellington, and city projects funded by philanthropist Julian Price.

This scholarly study identifies several reasons behind Owsley Countys ongoing struggle with poverty, including the countys lack of natural resources, a poor transportation system, and a centralized socio-political power structure controlled by the entrenched elite. Finally, the author asserts that Owsley Countys economic hardships are far from unique, but rather are representative of a significant number of similarly-stricken Appalachian counties and towns. Several tables and appendices provide useful demographic, legislative, and agricultural data from Owsley County between 1844 and 1975.

The mountain South thrives on centuries-old cultural heirlooms, a fact well known to readers of Appalachian literature, which is among the richest and most evocative of any region in the country.This anthology collects 225 poems by 37 poets of Southern Appalachia, from James Still and Louise McNeill to Robert Morgan, Fred Chappell and Charles Wright. Embracing the region's strong narrative traditions, dialect and syntax, the collection also includes poems that redefine the terms of isolation, as technological change and heightened tourism bring the old and new ways into greater...