The Wolfpen Notebooks: A Record of Appalachian Life. Este artículo no está disponible.The Wolfpen Notebooks: A Record of Appalachian Life

After keeping school for six years at the forks of Troublesome Creek in the Kentucky hills, James Still moved to a century-old log house between the waters of Wolfpen Creek and Dead Mare Branch, on Little Carr Creek, and became "the man in the bushes" to his curious neighbors. Still joined the life of the scattered community. He raised his own food, preserved fruits and vegetables for the winter, and kept two stands of bees for honey. A neighbor remarked of Still, "He's left a good job, and come over in here and sot down." Still did sit down and write-the classic novel River of Earth and many poems and short stories that have found their way into national publications. From the beginning, Still jotted down expressions, customs, and happenings unique to the region. After half a century those jottings filled twenty-one notebooks. Now they have been brought together in The Wolfpen Notebooks, together with an interview with Still, a glossary, a comprehensive bibliography of his work by William Terrell Cornett, and examples of Still's use of the "sayings" in poetry and prose. The "sayings" represent an aspect of the Appalachian experience not previously recorded and of a time largely past.

Since the early 1930s, James Still made his home in eastern Kentucky, living in an ancient log cabin on Dead Mare Branch and supporting himself by farming, teaching, and serving as librarian for the Hindman Settlement School. He is the author of several works of fiction, among them River of Earth, The Run for the Elbertas, An Appalachian Mother Goose, and of the collection of poems, From the Mountain, From the Valley.