"Down Through The Years" by Jean Shepard, On Reading Her Autobiography

My wife Candice and I just completed reading this 2014 autobiography of Jean Shepard who was one of the first major female stars in country music, and also the first female star to have a #1 Hit on the charts which was actually her first released single, "Dear John", which was a duet piece of sorts with Ferlin Husky. Husky didn't actually sing on the song but narrated a soliloqy by a male figure in the song who is abandoned by the female protagonist who marries his brother while he is in a war zone in the military. The book is well worth reading despite several weaknesses. The text was recorded by Jean Shepard on cassete tapes and transcribed by a secretary. The transcription is literal, without any editing, and often has clearly recognizable errors in grammar and syntax which are assume are due to the secretary's faithful verbatim rendering of Jean Shepard's dialect which was rooted in her native Oklahoma. The book is composed of a Foreword, twelve numbered and titled chapters, and three other sections which are labled as "Endnote From Jean", "Special People", and "Acknowledgements". The book has no clearly identified publisher other than the author, but it does have an ISBN Number. It is somewhat oddly produced and took me some time to locate a copy on the internet. The book is filled with page after page of anecdotesa about Shepard's life, her rapid rise to stardom, the fifty plus year career she had, and the many friends both famous and unknown which she developed during her lifetime. There is sizeable discussion of her brief marriage to Hawkshaw Hawkins before his death in the same plane crash which killed Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. She also delivers what appears to be honest discussion of her other three marriages which are comprised of one before her fame which was annulled due to domestic violence, another brief marriage to a Nashville detective after Hawkins' death, and her marriage of nearly forty years until her death to Benny Birchfield who was a man of many talents: guitarist, bus driver, mechanic, and devoted family man who raised his own son with Shephard and her two previous sons by Hawkins. It is an easy read in short sections within the chapters. It is also well worth reading if you like country music, especially classic country music. You could have difficulty, as I did, in finding a copy on the typical used book websites due to the unexplained publication route the book took. But when you find it, you will enjoy it!

"Mysteries Of Winterthurn" by Joyce Carol Oates, Some Responses to Reading It!

In the past, I have read and written on this blog about at least one of Joyce Carol Oates' books, "Where Is Here" which is a collection of short stories which I liked a lot. I have also read some of her short stories which have been published independently elsewhere. I have to say that this book, "Mysteries Of Winterthurn" which is generally described as a novel is an interesting book. There are parts of it which I like a lot. There are other parts of it which fail to impress me. First and foremost, I would not say flatly that I see it as a novel. I think of it much more as a Short Story Cycle which is generally described as a collection of short stories with several common aspects including common characters, common setting, a rational timeline which is evident across all the stories, and in most short story cycles all the stories are viable if viewed as being independent of the others. The book is composed of three stories which are also arguably novellas ranging in length from 150 pages to almost 200. The stories have a common protagonist, Xavier Kilgarvan, who is a young man of about 20 or so years in the first story and a man of nearly retirement age in the third. The stories progress across his lifespan in a rational timeline, but there is a sizeable gap of time between each subsequent story and the next. All three are set in Winterthurn a rural,small town in New England. All the stories share a common cast of lesser characters. Each story involves murders which Xavier works to solve since all are unsolved at the time of his initial involvement. The writing style in these stories is very different from the style in the short story collection which I mentioned above. That writing style is reminescent of the work of Edgar Allan Poe or other major writers of early American mystery or detective stories. I believe that Oates set herself the task of emulating as closely as possible the writing style which is generally seen in early American murder mysteries or the English examples such as the work of Conan Doyle. The language is cumbersome, verbose, and replete with words and terms which have nearly fallen out of use in spoken English in America today. I commend Joyce Carol Oates on that effort to emulate the earlier style of writing. She did an excellent job of making the book appear to almost be a 19th century work in the genre. But it is a cumbersome read in today's world. I have to admit that as I read the book I was unmotivated to read it straight through from beginning to end. I had to take a break between the stories, read other works by other authors which were written in more modern styles. After reading another book following each of the stories, I was able to motivate myself to return and complete the book. I have to admit that I rarely, if ever, begin a book which I do not finish reading. I firmly believe that if I begin a book I owe the author an obligation to complete it. That author has spenta sizeable chunk of their time writing the book,obtaining a publishing contract, and marketing the book with public appearances, book signings, and other promotionial work such as radio and television interviews. If you are a devoted reader of murder mysteries, you might love this book. If you are not such a reader, you might stop long before you reach the end.

"Atlanta Review: Poland Spring/Summer 2023"

There is never a bad time to read good to great literature, and I often read literature much older than this poetry journal from 2023. Every year, the "Atlanta Review" publishes two issues. One of those issues will have about half of the writing from a selected foreign country. In this volume, the "Spring/Summer 2023" volume, the selected country was Poland. I am somewhat fascinated by Poland for a variety of reasons. I know oone or two Polish immigrants in the US. I have also read and written a small amount about the Polish Resistance during World War II. Poland suffered greatly during the war and resisted nobly throughout the war. This volume of the "Atlanta Review" is well worth reading whether or not you have an extensive interest in Poland or not. Of the 128 pages in the book, a little more than half are dedicated to the work of a large group of Polish poets, both historical and current. While I was not greatly impressed by a few of the poems, much of the writing is well above average. The book also has brief biographies of all the poets in the book, and those of the Polish poets are well worth reading to maximize the readers understanding of these people and their work. There are roughly 20 Polish poets who have work in the book. A few have only one poem while several of these writers have multiple poems in the book. Read them all when you locate a copy of the book. They are well worth the time to read them. All have been translated into English. Maria Konopnicka and Boleslaw Lesmian are two of the more notable historical Polish poets whose work appears here. The book is well worth investing the time and effort to locate a copy, and since it is only three years old, it won't require much of a search of used book websites to locate a used copy. Or, if you are not the type of reader who still prefers to hold a paper book in your hand, you can download the entire volume at this link on the journal's website. Enjoy!

"An Appalachian Eulogy" by B. Camp

The author of this book is actually Dr. Dennis Campbell, M. D. who chose to publish under a pen name despite having also chosen, at some point, to make no secret of his real identity. Dr. Campbell and I worked together in both our previous careers. He is a retired psychiatrist and I am a retired mental health and addictions therapist. We worked together for about 3/12 years in a community mental health facility in a small county in Eastern Kentucky. We also grew up in the same equally small county about fifty miles from where we actually met at work. We have remained as friends ever since working together. Dr. Campbell has now written and published somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen fiction books in several different categories and all are available on Amazon under the pen name B. Camp. I have previously written on this blog about two of his other books, "Tales From The Red River Gorge" which he cowrote with his wife who writes under the pen name Maribeth Wagner, and "Aaron Subject Number Seven". "An Appalachian Eulogy" is the most purely Appalachian book of the three in my opinion, although both of the others have settings and some characters who are Appalachian. "An Appalachian Eulogy" begins about 1825 and ends about 1975. It tells a story of a blended family in which the parents Able and Elizabeth Horn who have one biological daughter, Emily. As the book begins, their nephew Zeke is in East Tennessee living with an unrelated family who have taken him in after his parents and only brother have died of a plague. This family has written a letter who the Horns who are the brother and sister-in-law of Zeke's father. Able travels to East Tennessee in the late winter to early spring and brings Zeke back to his home which is a hillside farm on Beaver Creek in Knott County Kentucky which happens to be the creek on which I grew up. While some of the place names in the book are fictitious, most of them are actual place names still in use today in the area of the novel. The place on Beaver Creek where the Horn farm is located is about 3 or 4 miles from where I grew up. On their way to Beaver Creek from East Tennessee, they stop in a town in Tennessee for more supplies for their horseback trip and Zeke is allowed to spend some time alone seeing the sights of the town. He strays into a scene in which a group of boys are harrassing a young homeless orphan girl and rescues her from their attack. Able agrees to take the girl, Emma, along with them to his home if the local authorities agree to it. He finds the Tennessee sheriff who allows him to do just that. The three then complete the trip to Beaver Creek where both Zeke and Emma become members of the Horn family. Emma who can't remember the last name of her parents assumes the Horn name which, as odd as it might sound in today's world, was not an uncommon event in the early 19th century in the Appalachian Mountains. It was fairly common at that time for kindly, or soemetimes unkindly, non-relatives to informally adopt orphans and raise them under the family name. The three children, one biological and two informally adopted, quickly become known simply as a family, the Horn family. They live a lifestyle which was common on hillside farms in Eastern Kentucky in that time frame and learn all the chores and requirements of living a self sufficient life in the mountains. Zeke grows up to be a bright, ambitious young man and attends Alice Lloyds, Caney Creek Community Center until he graduates from high school. He then matriculates to Caney Junior College on the same campus and now known as Alice Lloyd College. Eventually, the adopted daughter Emily leaves home to marry a coal miner and live an itinerant life with her growing family in a number of mountain coal camp towns. She dies young and leaves a letter in a family Bible directing her daughter to keep it unopened until she locates another member of the Horn family from whom she has become lost due to her multiple moves from coal camp to coal camp. I won't spoil the ending. You can find the book on Amazon. If you are a fan of Appalachian fiction, the book is worth reading.

"Aylesford Place: The Second Year" by Steve Demaree

On July 8, 2025, I wrote a blog post about the first book in this series by Steve Demaree, "Pink Flamingoed". My wife and I just finished book two in the series, "Aylesford Place: The Second Year". These books are self-published by Steve Demaree and he sells them on most of the available internet book sellers including Amazon. Aylesford Place is a mythical neighborhood on a single street in a town somewhere in Central Kentucky. The real Aylesford Place is located just north and east of the University of Kentucky campus right off Euclid Avenue. Physically, the mythical street in the books bears little resemblance to the real Aylesford Place. The neighborhood in the book is peopled by a collection of eight or ten different households ranging in age from late twenties (perhaps) to somewhere near the late seventies or eighties. Most of the characters have lived on Aylesford Place most, if not all, of their lives. However, the characters whom I consider to be the primary protagonists of the book are a young couple, Brad Forester and Amy Carmichael, a male mystery author and his female photographer girlfriend, who are married by the end of this book. Their best friends are Allison Davenport and her boyfriend Chuck Madden who are also married by the end of the book. As this novel begins, Chuck lives elsewhere in the mythical town and Allison owns her own home on Aylesford Place. After the wedding, they are both residents of Aylesford Place. Brad and Amy, after their marriage, decide to remodel the two adjoining Aylesford Place homes in which they were already living to make a connector between the two and turn Brad's house into a Bed and Breakfast. Allison is in a wheelchair and runs some kind of never quite fully described business from her home. Her inclusion as a character in the novel, actually a major character, is the best part of the book for me since my wife Candice has been in a wheelchair for almost thirty years. I commend Steve Demaree for creating this character and dealing with her appropriately. Few novelists in today's world have the strengthy of character to create such a character in their books. I suspect that Steve Demaree has, or has had, someone in his life in a wheelchair. He has Allison take part in the life of the neighborhood just as fully and functionally as any other character. She tackles life head on and usually wins. Nothing seriously dangerous of deadly ever happens on Aylesford Place. Everyone in the novel is generally always happy. They might have brief periods of being less than content but the causes are never earth shattering and they always come to a happy ending. For me, two of the major aspects of good fiction writing are the creation of an element known as Conflict and the Resolution of Conflict. Not much of that happens in Steve Demaree's books. No one ever develops cancer, hepatitis, insanity, or much more than an occasional headache or hangnail. The books lack sufficient of the reality of life to be the kind of writing that makes one wish to see the next book in a series. My wife Candice likes these books considerably more than I. I doubt that I would have read the second book if she had not wanted us to read it together as we always do with one book at a time, spending about 30 to 45 minutes a day with Candice washing our breakfast dishes while read from our ongoing book aloud. It works for us, keeps us close, and interested in the same topics most of the time. Our habit can be a good one for other couples to try, especially if you both love literature. I'm simply saying I love a higher class of literature.

"The Time Bike" by Jane Langton

On many occasions in this blog, I have said that I sometimes like to read childrens' literature, especially that which has been recognized as being worthy of public recognition such as winning or being nominated for major awards. This book did not win any major awards in the field of adolescent literature so far as I know. But the author, Jane Langton, was previously nominated for a Newberry Award for her book, "The Fledgling", so I decided to take a chance on reading "The Time Bike". Since it borders on being science fiction which I have read for years and even written on this blog about a few science fiction books, I also found this book interesting. It is about a blended family but gives on explanation about why the two children, Eddy and Eleanor, are living in the home of their Aunt Alex and Uncle Freddy who run some loosely described school for adults out of their home. Uncle Freddy wins a seat as a town supervisor early in the book which increases the local banker and now defeated town supervisor's animosity toward Uncle Freddy and the entire family. Early in the book, Eddy receives a new, fancy bicycle as a birthday gift, leaves it on the porch at night, and has it stolen. But shortly thereafter, another member of the extended family sends Eddy an old fashioned looking, used bicycle which he really doesn't apprectiate until he accidentally discovers that it is a time machine. In the meantime, the banker has set out to steal the family home which is a very unique, perhaps unusual house with odd features such as a bust of Henry David Thoreau in the hall. Thoreau is also an icon in the eyes of the entire family. Eddy discovers that his second bicycle is a time machine and has both adventures and misadventures learning how it works and how to keep himself out of trouble during the times he is using it. The author died at 95 in 2018 after having an extensive career as an author of both children's literature and mysteries. She obviously had a great creative imagination. This book was published in 2000 when she would have been about 77, an age when most of us have already abandoned science fiction even when writing for young people.

The book progresses along two paralell lines of conflict, the one being Freddy's foibles with the Time Bike, and the other being Uncle Freddy's desperate attempt to find the deed to the house in time to prevent the banker from seizing it revenge for his lost election. But, in a mild twist, Eleanor uses the bike and, on her time trip, accidentally returns with the missing deed and saves the day. For many adolescents, this will be an interesting read and will also provide a much needed diversion for adults like me who are looking for a bit of light reading as a break from too much back to back heavy reading. It's worth giving to the avid childhood readers in your life.

Thoughts On Reading (Fully) Books I Don't Like

Many times on this blog, I have written about books, buying books--especially used books, reading books, reviewing books, and sometimes about books which I have not liked at all. But I'm a bit funny about how I deal with beginning a book I turn out to not like compared to how many other readers deal with such books. I almost never throw a book out without finishing it even when I have decided that I don't like it, that it is garbage, never should have been printed, and is almost totally a waste of time for everyone who has ever been involved with it including both myself and the author, the publisher, the printer, the printer's devil to use an old typesetting term, the mail man or woman who dropped it off in my mail box, the low paid and under respected worker at the Goodwill Store where I might have bought it, right down to the eventual garbage man who will dump it along with the other contents of a can into the yawning and cavernous jaws of a garbage truck. Yet, I like to acknowledge the fact that the author who spent the time to write it, get it accepted for publication, and sold made a commitment to do the necessary work to produce whatever 100, 200, or 2,000 pages of drivel I have attached to myself and my psyche much like the man or woman working on a county road gang has been a participant in the process of attaching a ball and chain to their leg and placing a Pulaski or weed blade in their hands. I have also made a commitment to the author, publisher, editor--if there was one half asleep at a desk the day they approved that particular epistle for publication, and that same belittled and beleagured Goodwill employee who rang it up, added the tax, and then had the gall to ask me if I wanted to round up so the same corporation who is robbing that person of their services and scrape extra money from me so they can move on to the next belittled and beleagured employee who has no other employment options at the time. If the author took themselves seriously enough to do the work to produce the book, put in on the market, and hope for its success much like a poor mother wishing her very ordinary child can become president some day, I owe that author the common decency to shut my mouth, put my negative opinions in my pocket, grit my teeth, and ride this flea bitten nag of a book to the end of the line where it may or may not be noted with the words, "The End", "Fini", or simply "Sucker, You Had It Coming". Authors are a weird lot say I who have also launched a couple dozen short stories into the world without ever herding them and a few others into the covers of book much like poor, bedraggled cattle into a muddy, dung spattered holding pen until the truck arrives to take them to the stockyard. Why on God's green earth, you are probably asking yourself, did I feel the need to take the time to give this nod to all the poorly educated and trained scribblers who have created so many overpriced wastes of paper and printer's ink? The answer is that I am currently involved in reading two books simultaneously which I would not have been willing to pay fifty cents for the pair if I had known in advance what they contained...or failed to contain. I am always reading at least one book, generally two or three at a time, because my wife and I are engaged in a long term habit of reading a novel together which I usually read aloud day after day as she washes the dishes. Then I rinse those dishes. We have also for a year or two been reading one short story from some collection or other in the evenings after supper. Thank God, as I have been involved in reading two bad books at the same time, we have also been reading a collection of short stories which is composed of 28 fine stories by 20 or so authors of some repute. Without that short story of quality each day, I would be pulling my hair out. Thank God for Guy de Maupassant, O. Henry, Richard Connell, Frank R. Stockton, and Jack London.

"Job: A Comedy Of Justice" by Richard A. Heinlein

"Job: A Comedy Of Justice" by Richard A. Heinlein is a novel which the author based loosely on the Book Of Job in the Bible. It was published in 1984 and, like several others of his novels, was nominated for most of the major awards available to writing in the field of science fiction and fantasty. It was nominated for both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award in 1985 but won neither of them. It did win the Locus Award For Best Fantasy Novel in 1985. It is a truly unique book in many ways. But then it is possible to make that statement about many of Heinlein's novels over the years. After all, he won a pile of awards from nearly every organization which concentrates on science fiction and fantasy. He won four Hugo Awards for the best science ficiton novel during his lifetime. But this novel had aspects to it which probably prejudiced many voters and prevented it from winning as many awards as it might have otherwise. The pictures it presents of Heaven, Hell, and religion in general were not conducive of support from believers in anything remotely resembling a customary or acceptable view of religion. The novel begins with the protagonist Alexander Hergensheimer choosing to walk across a fire pit during a shore visit by the travelers on a cruise ship on which he is traveling. He successfully makes the fire walk but lapses into a faint or brief coma from which he is revived to find himself in a different world, returns to find his ship is different but with a similar name,and a totally different crew. But there is a bright side to that new crew which includes Margrethe, the steward assigned to his room with whom he begins an affair and eventually finds himself in love. The ship is apparently hit by an iceberg in tropical waters and the two find themselves afloat in the ocean on a pool float surrounded by sharks. This is just the first in a long series of events, or sudden changes in their world and lives, which happen spontaneously and always without warning. They travel the world trying to get back to Kansas where Hergensheimer, now Alec Graham, and Margrethe to whom he refers as his wife despite being married in his past life, hope to find the answers to why their lives are suddenly upside down despite being in love. The changes just keep coming and the only consistency is their devotion to each other, Graham's work as a dishwasher no matter where he is, and the unending upheavel in their worlds. The book moves on to their being swept up, but separated, by a Kansas tornado which turns out to be the Apocalypse. Graham finds himself not only in Heaven but promoted to sainthood and unable to find Margrethe in a Heaven which consistently is portrayed in ways which very fun traditional religious believers would accept as being based on the Bible. Graham chooses to be sent to Hell to hunt for Margrethe after refusing to stop seeking her. In Hell, he is somewhat befriended by Satan himself, given a high dollar suite in a hotel and constantly served in all ways by a different woman who actually turns out to be Rahab from the Bible. While it is a strange novel in many ways with polygamy, rampant sex, infidelity, and a multitude of what most religious believers would classify as sins, both minor and major, it is a highly readable book and pulls the reader from one change in the world to the next with no actual idea of where or how it is likel to end. Read it if you have an open mind and like science fiction! Don't read it if anyone has ever called you a prude!

"African Short Stories" Edited by Chinua Achebe & C. L. Innes

The short story is, in my opinion, the greatest form of literature in the world. When I make that statement, I understand fully that fans of both the novel and drama will take offense. But consider this, an average short story contains somewhere between about 1,000 to a maximum of about 10,000 words with a lot of room for argument about both minimum and maximum lengths. The average short story contains about 3,000 to 4,000 words. Therefore, the author of a short story must be able to tell a compelling story in less than 10,000 words and still bring into that story all of the necessary elements of a short story: plot, character, setting, and theme. I would argue that a good to great short story must also possess conflict and conflict resolution. There are some literary critics or simply lovers of the short story who also mention the necessity for a short story to contain tone and point of view. Some others who also believe themselves to be experts on the short story mention "want or goal" which I believe is simply a left handed way to say, or avoid saying, plot. These same people mention "decisions" as being necessary in a short story. I would say that "decisions" in a short story are simply part of plot, character development, or conflict resolution. But enough hair splitting about what a short story is required to contain. A simpler way to put it is that a short story must tell a story which contains at least 4 or 5 elements and reach a conclusion about what has happened in the intervening few thousand words. A short story is the greatest form of literature because it has so little room for error on the part of an author. Most of the stories in this little collection from Africa achieve that rather confining goal. The book is edited by Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes and contains twenty stories from African writers which are divided into four geographical groups for the four points of the compass on the continent. The book was originally published in 1985. I won't go so far as to say all of the stories impressed me to the point that I would have included them with the remaining majority. But one or two of the stories are truly impressive feats of writing and at least a half dozen are better than average when compared with the better short stories found in other parts of the world. Most of them can be defended as being clearly African in nature. Some of them are addressing what can be called universal themes from all the world over. My personal choice as the best story in the book is called "The Will of Allah" by David Owoyele which is a masteful telling of an unusual story which clearly contains all those key elements. There are two characters who are professional thieves who make a living together robbing the homes and perhaps businesses of the people around them. They don't particularly like each other and are simply what could be called business associates who make a living in the dead of the night by victimizing the innocents around them. They go out together to rob someone and randomly choose a home in which they find a large basket similar to those in which the local people are known to keep their most important possessions. One enters the home and passes the basket and its unknown contents out a window to his partner who goes to their meeting place and opens to the basket to find that it contains a cobra belonging to a person who apparently practices as a a snake charmer. He is immediately bitten and knows he will die. He puts the lid back on the basket and when his partner catches up with him allows the partner to also open the basket and be bitten by the cobra. Then he uses the last of his life strength to reach inside the basket and kill the cobra while being bitten several more times. Naturally, both men die and the will of Allah has been carried to its logical conclusion. With the death of the two protagonists, it is amazing that the story also contains some better than average humor. In the middle of the story, I laughed out loud at least a couple of times as the two men who dislike each other carry out their plan and the necessary conversation to bring it to a conclusion. If I were ever to be asked (which will not happen in this world) to put together a collection of my favorite stories in all the world, I would include "The Will of Allah". It is truly great story. There are several other better than average stories in the book including selections from former Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta whose story is a fine piece of writing about the nature of politics; Bessie Head who died young and is still recognized as one of Africa's best writers; and Nobel Prize Winner Nadine Gordimer. This little book is well worth reading.

Reflections On Rereading "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" by John Fox, Jr.

The first time I read this book must have been at least forty or fifty years ago, maybe even longer. I didn't like it then and I like it even less now. Yes, John Fox, Jr. could write well. But that is not the real issue(s) which I have with this book. It is often described as an Appalachian book since it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It is also sometimes described as a Civil War novel which is a bit more accurate. But the majority of the book is not about the Civil War, perhaps less than 20%. That is enough to say about my doubts about it being a Civil War novel. It is most frequently described as an Appalachian Novel and has been for nearly all of the 120+ years since it was published in 1903. I disupte the idea that it can be called an Appalachian novel. Yes, it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky in a fictional area that is roughly near the headwaters of the Kentucky River, perhaps in the region of the current Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County. Yes, many of its characters, including the protagonist Chad Bufford are natives of Appalachian Kentucky. But John Fox, Jr. was not remotely an Appalachian man. He grew up and lived much of his life in the area in and around Lexington, Kentucky, which is not remotely a part of Appalachia. It is the heart of the Bluegrass and Central Kentucky. Fox later moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which is in Appalachia. Upon his death there, he was returned to Bourbon County Kentucky for burial in a family graveyard. Bourbon County is very much in the heart of Central Kentucky. For those who might have a tendency to make the claim that if Fox spent time in Appalachia and lived there at his death it made him an Appalachian, I would ask you if you believed that if you moved to Watts in Los Angeles, California, would it make you either African American or Hispanic? You know absolutely that it would not. Neither did living in Appalachia make John Fox, Jr. an Appalachian. As for the novel itself, I believe, based on my life and experiences as a native Appalachian with a strong base of knowledge and expertise in Appalachian Culture, that "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is actually an anti-Appalachian novel. Throughout the novel, Fox will sometimes make a few positive comments about the people of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and will, almost immediately, follow those postive comments with very negative statements, stereotypes, and defamations. Those negative descriptors he resorted to include poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, feuding, and a wide variety of other defamatory remarks. The Encyclopedia Virginia website describes the novel as a local color novel which is more accurate than the claim that it is Appalachian. The California Learning Resource Network website describes local color as being: Local color is a literary term that refers to the unique cultural, regional, or social characteristics that are often used to describe a particular place, community, or group of people. Sometimes "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is described as being a coming of age novel which is also more accurate than saying it is Appalachian. The novel has Chad Buford, the teenage protagonist, making his first trip to Frankfort, Kentucky, as part of a log floating operation down the Kentucky River. When he arrives in Frankfort with his friends he is soon hopelessly lost in "the big city" and forced to try to make his own way back to the mountains. This type of description of a mountain boy becoming lost on his first trip to town is a typical case of portraying native Appalachians as being inept in urban areas and can be found in hundreds of cheap, tawdry novels today, many of whose authors may well have learned the trick from Fox's work. Miraculously, Chad is rescued by Major Buford who turns out to be a relative who suspects their kinship and takes the boy in with the unspoken idea that if he can prove the relationship he will have the boy educated and made into a gentleman. As the novel progresses, that is exactly what does happen. Major Buford takes him in, he falls in love with the daughter of a general who at least initially either belittles or ignores him for his coonskin cap and backward mountain ways. Eventually, Chad becomes friends with the girl, her two brothers and the entire family of General Dean. Then the Civil War intervenes and the novel turns toward the conflicts between family members and neighbors in both Central Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. One of General Dean's sons joins the Confederate Army and the other, along with Chad Buford, joins the Union Army. In the mountains, two brothers, both giants, Daws Dillon and Tad Dillon, who also join opposite sides of the war and come to hate each other totally. It is an interesting point that Fox chose to create two giant brothers in the novel since a very famous giant, Martin Van Buren Bates, was born in Letcher County Kentucky, not far from Kingdom Come in Harlan County. Bates lived from 1837 to 1919, fought in the Civil War at 7 feet 9 inches and later toured the world as a sideshow act. It is even possible that Fox met Bates during his time traveling in the mountains to buy land and mineral rights from the locals. I have little doubt that the Dillon boys are both based on Martin Van Buren Bates. The Civil War ends and Chad Buford goes to visit his friends in the mountains who include Melissa Turner, a young woman whom Chad grew up with and who saved his life during the Civil War by misleading Rebel sympathizers who were attempting to waylay and kill Chad. As a result of her winter trek through the mountains to save Chad, Melissa becomes ill and dies. Upon Chad's return to the mountains, Melissa is dead and he doesn't even stay for her funeral before returning to Central Kentucky and then on to an unwritten life wandering the country. This failure to attend the funeral of a close friend is a very basic misstatement of behavior by any native Appalachian, especially in 1865. Another related misrepresentation of life in the time of the novel describes Major Dean's disinterment of Chad's parents to transport their bodies for reburial on his Central Kentucky farm with his relatives. At the time of the novel, nothing was considered more sacred in Appalachian Culture than the graves of the dead. This is just one of many misrepresentations of the Appalachian lifestyle in the middle nineteenth century. While "The Litte Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is an entertaining novel and written in a professional literary manner, it is an insult to every Appalachian who ever lived and loved his/her culture and homeland. If you choose to read it, paperback copies can be found all over the nation. But read it with a very jaundiced eye. It is not what it is often misrepresented to be.

"Bradbury Stories" by Ray Bradbury, Thoughts On Reading 100 Short Stories By The Master

This massive collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories was first published in 2005, seven years before the author's death, and contains an introduction by Bradbury himself. The book is 893 pages and contains stories which Bradubury wrote and published in a multitude of magazines and a few of his own books roughly between the years of 1945? and 2000. Much of the world, even the literary world, think of Bradury as a "science fiction writer" which he was having written two of the best novels ever in that genre, "Farhenheit 451" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". But Bradury was much more than just a science fiction writer or even "one of the best science fiction writers". It is much more accurate to say that Bradury was "a writer", period, the end. He wrote in many genres, and nearly all genres of stories appear in this collection. If you love the short story as I do, you need to read this book. In terms of time from the first published story in the book to the most recently published story, it covers roughly sixty years in the development of the American Short Story. In terms of genres of short stories, it covers science fiction, mystery,suspense, coming of age, humor, and nearly every generally accepted type of short story in the American oeuvre. My wife and I often read the same books together with me reading aloud while she washes the dishes in the morning, and then I rinse the dishes becasue it requires more motion and she is in a wheelchair. We usually take turns choosing a book to read in the mornings which is customarily a novel with an occasional work of nonfiction. But we have also, of late, decided to read a single short story after supper each night, sometimes from an anthology, sometimes from a complete collection by one author such as this one. This is the most massive collection of stories we have ever attempted and, at one story a day, it naturally took nearly four months since sometimes we are out and about and just don't have time to read a story when we get back home. But this collection was well worth that time. It contains many of the Bradury stories you might have heard or seen mentioned in magazines, books, and on television as being among his best. It also contains some others of his best which don't usually get mentioned in those common settings. In the introduction, Bradury specifically mentions several which I assume he considered among his best, or simply his favorites. One of those is "The Laurel And Hardy Love Affair" about a man and woman who both love a particular scene in a Laurel and Hardy movie, The Piano Movers Scene as it is generally known. They reenact some of their favorite moments from the work of Laurel and Hardy as a part of their love affair and that love for the two comedians helps bind their love for each other together. Actually, Bradury's love for Laurel and Hardy is the subject matter of more than one of his stories. Other stories also highlight parts of the lives or works of other Bradbury heroes, great writers, great actors, great politicians, and all of the stories which fall into this subset are among his best. There are also seveal stories which fall into a genre known as Coming of Age Stories in which teenage boys are the protagonists. Those stories, much like the novel "Something Wicked This Way Comes", leave you believing that Bradbury must have had a wonderful childhood. One of those stories, "All On A Summer's Night", is about a young boy who lives in his grandmother's boarding house with a broad collection of both men and women; some young, beautiful women; some single men who often buy gifts for those young, beautiful women; and one somewhat older, less attractive, female librarian who has helped the young boy to enter the wonderful world of books. That story is typical of several others in the collection which are set in the literary world or feature literary authors or their worksHe watches the older males buy gifts for the beautiful young women on the Fourth of July, heads off to the store to spend his savings on fireworks for the night's celebration, and changes his mind after he gets to the town's commercial district. He decides to spend his savings to buy the ignored librarian some perfume and to ask her to go out with him on the town that night to observe the celebration. It is a touching story and one of Bradbury's best. There are also several stories set in an Irish pub owned by a man named Heber Finn and peopled by a group of local men who typify the Irish whom Bradbury met during time he spent working in Ireland on a movie script. They are a fine group of local characters including a well offman with a fine collection of wine who directs in his will that the wine be opened and at his burial and poured into his grave. Heber Finn and his customers, including the local priest, find a way to both carry out the man's directive and subvert it simultaneously. The humor of the Heber Finn stories is among Bradury's best. The book contains stories which have been published in "Playboy", "McCalls", "Collier's", "Saturday Evening Post", "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", "Harper's", "Weird Tales", "The New Yorker", "Esquire", and at least a couple of dozen others. Few writers in American literary history can say that they have been published in such a wide ranging collection of magazines. But then Bradbury wrote and published over 600 short stories in his life. Who else can say that?

"This Proud Heart" by Pearl Buck

On several occasions on this blog, I have written about the works of Pearl S. Buck, one of the small handul of American writers to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature and one of my favorite writers of all time. I have writte3n about "The Good Earth", her most famous novel, which I believe is also one of a very small group of the best novels in all of literature. She followed "The Good Earth" with two other novels in the "Good Earth" trilogy, They are "Sons" and "A House Divided". While either of those novels could have been a career best for many writers, they are not among Buck's best works. I read everything I come across by Buck and still have numerous of her books to be read. Fortunately, a year or so ago, I bought a large collection of books, actually 5 commercial peach boxes full, from the estate of a local school principal. This one we are discussing today I found in a small group of books I bought at a small "junk store" in Rowan county Kentucky which also included a unique first edition of Jack Kerouac's first novel, "The Town And The City", which was published under his legal name John Kerouac, the only one of his books to have been published that way. "This Proud Heart" is one of Buck's lesser known novels which is set in the United States with purely American characters for the most part. The protagnonist is a brilliant woman, Susan Gaylord, and begins when she is a high school student who has shown a great deal of talent in more than one area. She is the daughter of a professor father and a dedicated housewife mother, has one sister, Mary, several years younger and not really close to her older sister. Her father is a somewhat frustrated poet in addition to being a professor in a small college. He has chosen to devote his life to his familiy and his primary profession but does manage to write poetry and publish some of it in small magazines. Susan comes to understand her father's frustration with his life decision and vows to do more to control her own life and its outcomes. She is a talented artist and piano player as the book begins but chooses to marry her high school sweetheart, Mark, who is a totally devoted husband to her and works in the real estate business after they marry. But Susan finds herself interested in sculpture and uses a barn on the old farm they buy to create a piece in wood which is composed of a family of four, a husband, wife, and two children, a son and daughter. That piece is submitted to a contest for a piece to be placed in the lobby of a hospital financed by a very rich man in New York. The piece and her work in general is supported by a famous male sculptor, David Barnes, who has a house in the small New England town in which Susan and her family live. Barnes is a brusque, short spoken man who has strong opinions about Susan's talent and her inablility, as he sees it, to succeed as a sculptor in the United States. He strongly encourages her to come with him to Paris to study under another great sculptor and a man who teaches anatomy to sculptors. She refuses until the untimely death of her husband Mark due to typhoid fever. After his death, she packs up her children and their maid to travel to Paris to actually do what Barnes has suggested. During her time there, she meets another man, Blake Kincaid, who is also a sculptor of much less talent than Susan. They fall in love and she marries Blake which proves to be a less than perfect decision. They return to New York where he lives in considerable wealth and she grows more and more hampered by his efforts to control her, minimize her talent, and disparage her work as a sculptor. She comes to realize these things about Blake and rents a studio in the poor neighborhood near his ostentatious home where she meets and sculpts marble statues of some of the people in the neighborhood. David Barnes returns to the novel from Paris and assists Susan in getting her works into a gallery for an exhibition which confirms her talent and leaves her with a full understanding that she cannot succeed as a sculptor if she remains with Blake. She moves her family back to her hometown after the death of her father and decides to end her relationship with Blake. The novel leaves the whole situation somewhat in midair at the ending but we see that Susan has been able to understand that she must be independent in order to do her best work. The novel is also widely discussed as one of Buck's better works in support of feminism. Susan Gaylord is a strong, successful, competent, talented, and highly motivated woman. For the time in 1938 when the novel was published, she is an amazingly modern woman. I suspect that this novel is somewhat biographical with the sculpting being a substitute for Pearl Buck's writing and Blake being a character based on Buck's missionary first husband whom she divorced to marry her editor and publisher after her early work caused such a stir in the literary world. While I would not say this is one of Buck's best novels such as "The Good Earth", "Imperial Woman", or "The Living Reed", it is a fine novel and well worth reading.

"Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets" by Stephen Crane

Many time on this blog, I have mentioned that I often buy books at what I refer to as "junk stores", Goodwill, Salvation Army Thrift Stores, etc. I find all kinds of less common books in such places. One of my favorite little places to buy such books is at a little shelf outside the door of the snack shop, gift shop near the entrance to Pavilion H at the University of Kentucky Hospital. It is actually located in the hall between the entrance to Pavilion H, the old main hospital section, and the kiosk where patients sign in. I believe the little gift shop is operated by some arm of the hospital auxillary. The little book shelf operates solely from donated books which must come from a variety of sources including medical staff, auxillary members, patients and their visitors and might contain anything at any given time. All the books sell for some minimal price, usually 75 cents. Due to the fact that my wife has frequent appointments at the Kentucky Clinic across the street, I often take a long walk around the medical buildings in order to get my exercise, cruise past the little bookshelf, about 2 feet wide and 4 shelves high, browse what it contains, and buy anything that interests me. My last purchase there included the book I am writing about now, "Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets" by Stephen Crane, the author of "The Red Badge of Courage" which is a much better known book. The edition of "Maggie..." which I found there is actually A Norton Critical Edition which contains a great deal of critical and historical material in addition to the full text of "Maggie..." which is actually a novella of only 58 pages. But this edition also contains about 200 more pages of the supporting writings, photographs, and maps of New York City in the late 19th century. It was edited by Thomas A. Gullason, Ph. D., an English Professor at the University of Rhode Island. It is an excellent piece of work both from the simple aspect of being a fine novella by one of America's best early novelists, and by virtue of being a fine piece of editorial work by someone who clearly understood his materieal well. The book was originally published in 1893 and the text Dr. Gullason used is that original text. He has wisely not fiddled with the language of the time, has inserted numerous and sometimes voluminous footnotes to provide extensive information about the language used, geography at times, and other aspects of life in New York City in the late 19th century. I read the book with my wife Candice as we do nearly every day. I read aloud from our chosen book as she washes our breakfast dishes. When she finishes, I rinse the dishes. We take turns choosing the books we read and it is an exercise that works well for us in terms of both literature and personal relationship. This was obviously a fast read, in terms of the text of novella alone. In light of its brevity, it was a very nice book to read. Crane's writing does use some now antiquated words at times but he was a fine novelist as anyone knows who has ever read "The Red Badge of Courage". His writing style was actually much more modern in nature than most of his peers at the time. The novella still stands up to just about anything from any modern author in today's times. Maggie is the oldest daughter of a poor, Irish, working class family living in an early tenement in New York. Her mother is an abusive, alcoholic. Her father is an abusive, heavy drinking wagon driver in the streets of the city. Her brother Jimmie is a street urchin with a violent nature. The entire family and every one around them is simply striving to stay alive in a very hostile environment. As Maggie matures into a young woman, she becomes enamored with a friend of her brother named Pete who is a bartender and passes himself off as being much more than he actually is in terms of his money, lifestyle, worldly ways, etc. Maggie falls for Pete, leaves home to be with him after a particularly violent incident with her mother. She is wined and dined by Pete early in their relationship, taken to concerts, bars, and other forms of entertainment and comes to believe that Pete will improve her life. As the novella progresses, it becomes apparent that Pete is a womanizer who is totally in everything purely for his own satisfaction. Eventually, Maggie leaves Pete after he tires of her and moves on with an older woman whom he considers more interesting, charming, and attractive. Maggis is rejected by her mother and the family as a "fallen woman", and dies on the streets. It is obviously a very dark novella filled with poverty, alcoholism, womanizing, prejudice toward minorities, and nearly everything negative that New York offered in the 1890's. But it is a fine novella and well worth reading. If you can find a copy, get it, read it, and come to understand the poverty that immigrant working class families suffered in the early days of our country. And, in light of the recent hatred, animosity, and aggression toward the immigrants who once were and still are the real builders of our country, it is fine novella to read in today's politically disastrous times.

"The Far Family" by Wilma Dykeman

"The Far Family" is a novel written by famed Appalachian author who is, perhaps, best known for her other novel, "The Tall Woman".  I have to admit that I have read little by Wilma Dykeman over the years and had tended to focus on a few other female Appalachian authors to my own detriment.  This is fine novel about a close knit but far flung Appalachian family who grew up in Nantahalla County, a fictional county which is somewhere in the area of Western North Carolina.  That area is loosely located somewhere in Nantahala National Forest and/or Nantahala Township.  The book is written in alternating chapters labeled "Yesterday" and "Today". In terms of actual time or current time, it covers a long weekend in which the family gathers together to assist one of the sons, Clay Thurston, who has just been charged with the murder of a friend or acquaintance, a black man named Hawk Williams during an all night long hunting trip which Clay organized for several of his friends.  Hawk Williams was hired to cook for the men on the trip because of his wide spread reputation as an excellent cook.  He is also acknowledged widely as a vicious and dangerous man.  The Thurston family is composed of Clay, his brother Kin, sisters Ivy Thurston Cortland, Phoebe, and Frone.  Their mother Martha is still alive but bedfast in Ivy's home being cared for by her daughter who is a widow after having married an older widower from New York State whom she had met while living in a boarding house in town while attending high school.  Ivy has a son, Phil, who happens to be a young, newly appointed United States Senator, who has also returned for the visit and its related attempt to keep Clay, a notorious alcoholic and ne'er do well, out of the penitentiary.  The "Yesterday" chapters of the book flash back to the developmental years of the brothers and sisters and tell the story of their father's repeated hopeless attempts to make a massive mark on the world around him and his eventual relatively young death in a sawmill he owned.  

 

The book is wonderful piece of work and shows a widespread, deft, and accurate depiction of life in Central and Southern Appalachia.  It discusses the massive exodus of young men and women from Appalachia indirectly in its discussion of the lives of Clay, Phoebe, Frone, and Ivy as they married, left the area, and in all cases except that of Ivy, never returned except to visit.  Ivy and her husband had chosen to sell his New York farm in the Mid-Hudson to return to North Carolina where she raised her son after the death of her older husband.  With the accusation of murder of a black man against a white member of a prominent family in North Carolina, the issue of race relations in the Appalachian South is a key focus of the story.  It is particularly addressed in one chapter when Phil, the US Senator, and his uncle Clay, the accused murder, visit the widow and other family members of the victim Hawk Williams.  As unlikely it is that a sitting US Senator would have ever made such a trip, it is a very impressively written scene in the family's shack as the two white men are welcomed by the widow and her aged father, who reminiscences about a time when a distant relative of the two men assisted him in a legal situation and saved him from conviction in a case which would have damaged the rest of his life.  It is an accurate depiction of life encounters between the races in the south in times past and, perhaps present.   

I won't ruin anyone else's reading of the book by telling the story of the outcome of the murder accusation against Clay and the conclusion of the book.  But it does involve another aspect of the race issue in the Southern Appalachians.  It is a wonderful book!  Read it!

Reflections On "The Man Who Fell To Earth" by Walter Tevis

 

 A little more than a year ago, I watched a documentary on KET about the life of Walter Tevis who had suddenly risen once again to a high profile in the media because of the success of a television miniseries based on his book "The Queen's Gambit" which is about a young female character who becomes a chess champion.  I have to admit I have still not read that book despite its having been on my large To Be Read Shelf for over a year.  But I did read his science fiction classic, "The Man Who Fell to Earth" and loved it to the degree that it prompted me to order most of his published works and add them to my long list of books I "will get around to someday". But let's talk about the actual subject of this blog post, "The Man Who Fell To Earth".  Tevis's work on that book is as good as any science fiction I have ever read.  It is one of those rare works of science fiction which also falls solidly within the larger and more important body of what we know as "Great Literature".  It is a masterpiece and deserves every accolade it has ever received. It is masterful science fiction which is solidly based in the minds of both its characters and the author and not in ray gun shoot 'em up scenes which are cheap copies of some bad John Wayne western as much of ordinary science fiction is today.  

 

The main character in the book is Thomas Jerome Newton from the planet Anthea who has been sent to earth to determine if it is possible for the occupants of his doomed planet to emigrate to earth in order to save their lives and their much more advanced culture.  His spaceship is destroyed on landing and it is determined that he will not be able to return to his home planet.  He is humanoid in appearance with some odd features which he is able to disguise well enough to "pass" as human for quite some time.  He becomes a very wealthy individual because he is able to patent many ideas which his culture has produced that are much more scientifically advanced than anything on earth.  But his obvious intelligence and scientific acumen are soon recognized the government as being impossible for an ordinary human to have achieved and "the jig is up" to use common vernacular.  But in the end, he is allowed to remain on earth, still disguised as a human, living in quiet semi-poverty with a Social Security check and a small apartment.  This is a book which no aficionado of science fiction can claim expert status in the field without having read.  The book was made into a movie starring David Bowie in 1976 for which Bowie recieved rave reviews playing the truly unique alien.  It was also made into a 2022 Showtime miniseries which "The Guardian" panned as "a misbegotten and poorly paced attempt to update the 1976 cult sci-fi classic".  I have to admit that I have never seen either production of the work, but I will go so far as to say that I won't bother with the Showtime effort based on "The Guardian's" review.  When the time comes that is available somewhere again on television, I will definitely watch the 1976 work with David Bowie.  

Thoughts On Reading "Imperial Woman" by Pearl S. Buck

 

Over the years, I have read about 10 of Pearl S. Buck's fine novels and written about several of them on this blog.  Recently, in a large purchase of used books from the estate of a former school principal in this community, I obtained several first editions of Buck's novels including a copy of "Imperial Woman" which was published in 1956.  I had never read it and completed it a few weeks ago although I have procrastinated about writing a blog post about it for no good reason.  After having read all three novels in the "Good Earth" trilogy, three novellas which were published under the pseudonym John Sedges, "The Living Reed" which is a Korean novel and, in my opinion, one of her finest other than her masterpiece "The Good Earth".  I love her work and don't believe that she ever allowed herself to write and publish a second rate book.  I had loved "The Living Reed" nearly as much as "The Good Earth", but I have to say that I am now convinced that it must be at most her third best novel running behind "Imperial Woman" and "The Good Earth".

 

"Imperial Woman" is a fictionized biography of Tzu Hsi, the last empress of China who was born of low caste and brought into the Forbidden City as a candidate to become a concubine of the sitting emperor at the time.  She is not only chosen to be one of his concubines but manages to bear him a son, the heir to the Dragon Throne, and becomes his most beloved partner and advisor.  She initially devotes her life to helping her son gain and maintain the throne.  But due to the many weaknesses of her son and his early death, she then manages to gain total control of the kingdom through a male heir she has chosen from the family of one of the dead emperor's advisors.  With the help of her cousin Jung Lu to whom she had been betrothed prior to her becoming a royal concubine, she not only managed to hold onto power but increased her power and popularity over the kingdom while living as a  conflicted type of ruler who is loving, devout, and intellectual while also being absolutely ruthless when it becomes necessary.  

It is said that Buck strove to depict both sides of the empress, who is actually only a regent for the child emperor she has chosen. Buck did an excellent job of achieving that goal.  The character of the empress can be loving and devoted to her son and the few people she allows to be closer to her while also being capable of ordering the deaths of those who oppose her.  She is a powerful and powerfully depicted ruler.  She is also dealing with a lifelong conflict between her love for Jung Lu and the inability to allow it to be a public matter in her royal role.  She arranges a loveless marriage for Jung Lu with one of the women who assists her on a daily basis and they both live with the conflict of being in love and unable to allow that love to be manifested fully.  

This is one of Pearl Buck's best efforts in my opinion and well worth reading by any lover of great literature.  It helps prove, along with "The Living Reed", that Pearl Buck's best work was not finished after "The Good Earth".  She was an incredible novelist and knew the China in which he spent much of life as few Americans ever could.  If you haven't read it, find a copy and reward yourself with this wonderful book.  

On A Second Reading Of "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas B. Costain

 

When I entered Knott County High School at Pippa Passes, Kentucky, in September of 1964, I remember thinking that the little one room library was the finest collection of books that I had ever seen. When I began to write this post, I sent a message to my friend and former high school teacher Mary Lois Jacobs who was able to tell me that the books in the Knott County High School Library had primarily been donated by Alice Lloyd College and that there were about 2,000 books in the collection, mostly fiction.  She also stated that the faculty had been disappointed in the lack of sufficient non-fiction in the collection. Prior to entering high school, the only lending library I had access to was a summer book mobile program which stopped at our country store at Dema once a week during the summer vacation from school.  I had visited the Kendallville, Indiana, library a few times during some summer visits to my sister's home there but I had never been a regular user of such a fine library.  Today, I know that the collection at KCHS would be considered woefully deficient in most public high schools in America.  The other distinct memory I have retained from that time is that on one of the first occasions I took a lengthy, perhaps epic, novel off the shelves and asked to check it out that Cloys Thornsbury, the librarian, gave me a somewhat askance gaze and asked me something to the effect of "are you sure you can read that". I'm sure I answered "yes" and I'm also pretty sure I actually finished whatever book I checked out.  Three of those first long novels I remember reading are this one, "The Silver Chalice" by Thomas B. Costain, along with his "The Black Rose", and "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas.  I don't recall that Cloys asked me that question again after I had read, returned, and could discuss those three books.  

Recently, in one of my frequent visits to some surplus store where I often buy used books, I strayed into a weathered copy of "The Silver Chalice", bought it, and committed myself to rereading it.  I can now report that the mission has been completed.  Thomas B. Costain was a Canadian born journalist and mass market writer who produced 14 novels, 8 non-fiction historical works, and 4 co-edited collections of short stories by major authors.  His major novels were generally massive works with plots, counter plots, historical settings and characters, and multitudinous casts of characters.  His works can be argued to have not been quite great works but they were well written, meticulously researched, and generally popular on the mass market.  "The Silver Chalice" is an example of all those qualities.  

The primary protagonist in this novel is a totally fictional young artist named Basil who has been sold into slavery by his uncle under Roman law upon the death of his father before he attained the age of majority.  Basil's freedom is arranged by the Apostle  Luke who does so because he has been chosen by the early Christian church to locate and hire an artist to create a frame to hold the cup which was used by Jesus Christ and the Apostles for the sacrament at the Last Supper.  The frame is to be made of silver and the cup is to be surrounded by small busts of the Twelve Apostles.  The freedom of Basil and the commission to create the frame are financed by the Biblical person Joseph of Arimathea who is the same man who is credited in the Bible with having provided his own tomb for the burial of Jesus.  As the novel progresses, Basil falls in love with the granddaughter of Joseph of Arimathea and eventually marries her just minutes before her grandfather's death.  But they have previously agreed that the marriage is one of convenience only because her father is not a Christian and would not agree to continue to finance the work after his father's death.  The newly weds leave Jerusalem for Antioch, outside the reach of Jewish law and the Jewish high priest and his co-conspirators who seek to find and destroy the cup.  Basil goes on a long journey to locate the living disciples and create their busts from actual memory after meeting them.  Along the journey, Basil decides that he has not only come to realize that he loves his wife Deborra but that he also has been converted to Christianity.  Just in case any of you want to read the novel and can actually locate a copy on some of the used book websites, I won't spoil the story by disclosing the conclusion.  Just know that this novel is well worth reading whether or not you are religious.  It moves quickly from scene to scene, from crisis to crisis.  The characters are realistically rendered, both known historical persons and those who are purely fictional.   It is filled with fascinating people including a Chinese prince who befriends Basil, Luke, and Deborra; an Arabic camel driver who seeks to become an important trader; a villain who is also a magician; and a manipulative, beautiful, and dangerous female assistant to that magician.  Basil even spends some time in the home of the Roman emperor.  If you can find it, I can't more highly recommend a historical novel.  And, I was very pleased to be rewarded by those wonderful memories from my teen years by the second reading of the book.  

 

"Oath and Honor: A Memoir and A Warning" by Liz Cheney, The One Book Every American Should Be Required To Read

 

  In the era of Trump, certain members of Congress and other Trump enablers...have preyed on the patriotism of millions of Americans.  They are working to return to office the man responsible for January 6.  We the people must stop them.  We are the only thing that can stop them.  This is more important than partisan politics.  Every one of us--Republican, Democrat, Independent--must work and vote together to ensure that Donald Trump and those who have appeased, enabled, and collaborated with him are defeated.  This is the cause of our time.  (Liz Cheney, "Oath and Honor" p. 368)

Liz Cheney used the words above to end her important and honest book "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and A Warning" and she is absolutely correct.  Donald Trump and every one of his thousands of enablers, co-conspirators, and cult members must be stopped in their efforts to return him to his illegal and illegitimate occupation of the White House.  They managed to nearly subvert the certification of an honest American presidential election on January 6, 2021, and they would not hesitate to commit any crime on the face of the earth to achieve that treasonous goal.  Liz Cheney has written the most important book in this 2024 election cycle.  No other book published before hers and none which will come after hers can more succinctly or more accurately can tell the tale of the political treason, insurrection, and domestic terrorism which they perpetrated against the United States of America on January 6, 2021, and which was rooted in the actions of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators in the White House in the weeks between the 2020 election and January 6.  Liz Cheney has honestly and forthrightly told the tale of that insurrection and was fully willing to sacrifice her political career in order to see that this virulent and treasonous conspiracy did not succeed.  She has also stepped forward to teach every citizen of the United States about the danger which this group of insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, and traitors present to America and American Democracy.  Her book is truly the one book every citizen of this country should read in this incredibly important election year.  Despite the fact that nearly a thousand of these criminals have been indicted for their crimes and several hundred have already been convicted and sentenced to federal prison, the conspiracy is still alive.  The would be dictator and his cult are still working every day to keep the treason alive, to return the traitor to the scene of his treason.  If you do not read another book for the rest of your life, read this one.  It is written in a simple, direct, easy to read prose which allows a fast read but you should read it slowly, thoughtfully, and with an open mind.  This is a book written by an American patriot who literally sacrificed a wonderful political future in order to confront these traitors and their treason, in particular to confront and hold the worst traitor in world history responsible for his treason.  Give it an honest, open minded read and then fully and without reservations of any kind commit yourself to do everything in your power to assist America and American Democracy in this fight for survival.  This is truly the cause of our time.   

"Johnny Osage" by Janice Holt Giles, A Wonderful Old Novel

 

Frequently, I read books long after they have fallen from the public view and I have no problem with that.  I also frequently find that one of these books is something I, and every other American reader, should have read long ago.  I have just done that once again having just completed "Johnny Osage" by Janice Holt Giles.  This novel was published by Houghton Miflin in 1960 but it is still a wonderful read today with high quality writing on every page, an interesting and engaging plot, and gives a highly fictional, but historically rooted, examination of the Osage-Cherokee War which took place in what was then the Missouri Territory along the Arkansas River in the 1820's.  I had just recently read "Killers of the Flower Moon" which is about a different period in the history of the Osage tribe.  I had read that book a few weeks ago and never wrote about it on this blog.  I probably also owe my readers a post on that book. 

 

 

Giles was born in Arkansas but lived most of her life in Kentucky in several locations including Frankfort, Louisville, and Knifley in Adair County where she is buried with her husband, Henry Giles.  She has been inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame at the Carnegie Center in Lexington, Kentucky, in 2014.  Because I primarily read Appalachian Literature and Appalachian authors, I had never read her work until this book.  But, I can assure you that, based on this book, I am highly likely to read the rest of her works.  It is an interesting novel for many reasons.  It is set in the early 19th century in the Arkansas River country but Giles also blended much of her knowledge about Kentucky into the book by having more than one character in the book with Kentucky ties. She has a character who was also one of the first women in Kentucky to divorce her husband because he was a member of the Shaker religious sect.  It is also a love story between a pioneer trading post operator, Johnny Fowler, also known as Johnny Osage, who is deeply connected to the Osage tribe, and a missionary woman named Judith who has come with a mission group to the Osage country to try to convert the local Native Americans, both Osage and Cherokee. This inclusion of a missionary group and several characters who are missionaries had to have arisen from the fact that Giles worked several years for missionary groups.  But Johnny Osage is deeply opposed to the predominant religion of his fellow whites and much more aligned with the spiritual beliefs of the Osage which I suspect could be a reflection of some misgivings which led Giles to leave her employment among missionary groups.  While Giles, in the foreword to the book, claims no prejudice against either tribe or open support of the Osage against the Cherokee, the primary villain in the book is a purely fictional character named Scammon or The Blade who is the primary chief of the local Cherokee.  The Blade, in an earlier period before the Osage-Cherokee War, was responsible for a raid against the Osage which resulted in the deaths of several Osage including the previous Osage wife of Johnny Fowler.  Johnny has always been close to the Osage and even fought in previous skirmishes between them and their historical enemies, the Pawnee.  His Osage name is Man Not Afraid Of The Pawnee which arose due to his success in those skirmishes against the Pawnee. 

 

The conflict in the book includes the enmity between the two tribes, Johnny's dislike of organized religion and Judith's deep religious beliefs, and Johnny's animosity toward The Blade based on the death of his previous wife.  Giles did a tremendous job of weaving enough actual history and fictional depictions of several actual historical figures including the governor of the territory and the commander of the fort at Three Forks.  The book builds steadily toward a conclusion which brings all the conflicts to a head simultaneously and it is a fine piece of work.   Find a copy of this fine old novel and read it as soon as you can.