Clyde May was the patriarch of a family from rural Bullock County, Alabama. He was a devoted father, a war veteran, and a churchgoer. He was also a moonshiner. This colorful memoir based on oral history interviews with May's son, Kenny, explores May's life and his passion for making good whiskey despite the risk of going to jail. Now the family tradition is taking a new twist, as Kenny and his siblings have established Alabama's first legal distillery to bottle and sell a distinctive whiskey based on the late Clyde May's recipe.
Clyde May was the patriarch of a family from rural Bullock County, Alabama. He was a devoted father, a war veteran, and a churchgoer. He was also a mo...
Using the settings and imagery of his native rural Kentucky, Charles Semones creates in this new collection of his poems a world of longing and desire, of passion and pursuit, of rapture and depression. In his reclusive, gospel-drenched, haunted world of draped mirrors and desperate dog days of summer, the poetlover moves along his lonely route seeking and hoping for at least a brief respite from the Gothic horrors, internal and external, that curse his journey. Semones's own autobiographical travels and travails, which he has translated into a universal poetry of the soul, will resonate...
Using the settings and imagery of his native rural Kentucky, Charles Semones creates in this new collection of his poems a world of longing and desire...
A national bestseller when first published in 1901, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch endures today as one of the most memorable literary creations by a Kentucky author. This immensely popular novel spawned several movies (with such stars as W.C. Fields and Shirley Temple), countless stage productions, radio shows, and even dolls.
Alice Hegan Rice spins the memorable tale of a family struggling against all odds in the Cabbage Patch, an old Louisville slum "where ramshackle cottages played hop-scotch over the railroad tracks." This hopeful story follows the Wiggs as they face...
A national bestseller when first published in 1901, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch endures today as one of the most memorable literary crea...
The last book Giles published before her death in 1979, Wellspring has been out of print for years.
The nineteen selections bring together Giles's fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, and fictionalized autobiography to reveal a behind-the-scenes look at her life, her family, her love for her adopted state of Kentucky and its people, her politics, her favorite authors, her thoughts on writing, and her views of her own work. Wellspring is available again for old and new readers of Janice Holt Giles.
Janice Holt Giles (1905-1979), author of nineteen books,...
The last book Giles published before her death in 1979, Wellspring has been out of print for years.
A personalized travelogue, My World chronicles the inspiring story of a poor Kentucky boy who learned how to turn the rough grist of his life into the fine art of literature.
Jesse Stuart's life centered on W-Hollow, Greenup County, Kentucky, and extended to the far corners of the world. As a writer, teacher, and lecturer, he traveled to all but one of the United States and to ninety countries on six continents. As the core of Stuart's world, W-Hollow was the place of his birth and his first reaching out -- to the brown earth and the green shoots growing out of it, to the...
A personalized travelogue, My World chronicles the inspiring story of a poor Kentucky boy who learned how to turn the rough grist of his lif...
In 1976, Kentucky state legislator Mae Street Kidd successfully sponsored a resolution ratifying the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was fitting that a black woman should initiate the state's formal repudiation of slavery; that it was Mrs. Kidd was all the more appropriate. Born in Millersburg, Kentucky, in 1904 to a black mother and a white father, Kidd grew up to be a striking woman with fair skin and light hair. Sometimes accused of trying to pass for white in a segregated society, Kidd felt that she was doing the opposite -- choosing to assert her black...
In 1976, Kentucky state legislator Mae Street Kidd successfully sponsored a resolution ratifying the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the U.S. Co...
After writing Hill Man, Janice Holt Giles said, "I was struck by its strength. It is the most realistic ridge book we have written, completely honest and presenting the truest picture of most of the ridge men."
Giles originally published the book in paperback in 1954 under the pseudonym John Garth. Her usual publisher declined to issue the novel, arguing that it was too sexual and violent for a writer whose other books were popular family book club selections. Now one of the most sought-after novels in the Giles canon, Hill Man is desired as much for its rarity as for...
After writing Hill Man, Janice Holt Giles said, "I was struck by its strength. It is the most realistic ridge book we have written, complete...
Although he was a native of Bullock County, Alabama, Wade Hall -- teacher, writer, poet, critic, interviewer, folklorist, and documentarian -- spent most of his fifty-year career in Kentucky. But he was never emotionally far from his home as evidenced by his passion for collecting vintage Alabama postcards. In his lifetime he amassed 10,000, which he then graciously gave to the University of Alabama Libraries and Troy University in a large joint bequest that also included rare books, quilts, folk art, letters and more. These postcards date from the late 1800s to the mid-20th century and offer...
Although he was a native of Bullock County, Alabama, Wade Hall -- teacher, writer, poet, critic, interviewer, folklorist, and documentarian -- spent m...
Serving as tour guide, Fox invites his audience to go with him log rafting down the Kentucky River, bass fishing in the Cumberland Mountains, rabbit hunting in the Bluegrass, and chasing outlaws in the border country of Kentucky and Virginia. Along the route we meet Old South colonels and their ladies, lawless moonshiners and their shy daughters, bloodthirsty preachers, and educated young gentlemen visitors who explore the southern mountains for fun and profit. These sketches offer a delightful blend of macho adventure and sage observation by an erudite young writer who had lived in the...
Serving as tour guide, Fox invites his audience to go with him log rafting down the Kentucky River, bass fishing in the Cumberland Mountains, rabbi...
Act of Contrition focuses on the intimate relationship between Regina, a widow, and Michael, a young doctor whose wife left him for another man. Having found happiness in one another, they desire nothing more than to be together. Yet in the eyes of the Catholic Church, Michael is not free to divorce his wife and marry Regina. In an emotional climax Regina must decide if she loves Michael enough to give him up or if she'll force him to choose between her and God.
By modern standards, Giles's love scenes are tasteful, and the general atmosphere of ecumenism within today's...
Act of Contrition focuses on the intimate relationship between Regina, a widow, and Michael, a young doctor whose wife left him for another...
