Author Description

The best of Appalachian writing over 300 years, and the first collection of its kind -- Voices from the Hills: Selected Readings of Southern Appalachia. The literature of Appalachia has centered on the mountaineer, who, like the cowboy, has become a true American type. This book, put together by two men who know the region as native sons, is about the mountain people in the fullness of their culture. Here are vital human beings, not the stereotypes of often distorted accounts. And this is a book that tells much about the growth and the changes in the region. In Part I, there are the first reports of early travelers to this "new Eden." Then come the many fine examples of Appalachian writing, ranging from backwoods humor and myth to realism and contemporary poetry. Among the writers here: David Crockett, George Washington Harris, Sidney Lanier, Thomas Wolfe, Wilma Dykeman, Jesse Stuart, Sherwood Anderson, James Still, Harriette Arnow, James Agee, Billy Edd Wheeler, and more. In Part II, many other interesting writers look at the literature, history, and culture of Appalachia -- such critics and writers as Robert Penn Warren, Arnold J. Toynbee, Edmund Wilson, H. L. Mencken, Cratis Williams, Harry Caudill. Altogether, for those who know Appalachia intimately, here are the pleasures of recognition and new perspectives. For others, this is an introduction to one of the most fascinating and least understood regions of America. - Back cover.