The Man who Moved a Mountain

Front Cover
Fortress Press, 1970 - Biography & Autobiography - 253 pages
This is the definitive biography of Reverend Bob Childress of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Often compared to Mark Twain's tales of the Mississippi, the style and the text show, with stark clarity, the transforming effects Childress and his ministry had on the rough and wild mountain communities of this section of Virginia.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Dark Shadows of the Blue Ridge
1
The Heller of The Hollow
11
Blacksmith Lawman
31
Free Lance in the Brush Arbors
45
To Beat the Devil
62
The Heritage of the Buffalo
82
The Fear and the Fearless
99
Softening the Hardshells
109
Madness of a Mountain
155
Salvation by Laughter
170
Goats Sawmills and Roads
184
The King of Slate Mountain
198
Signs of New Life
210
Out from the Buffalo
222
All the Upright We Ever Had
240
Epilogue
251

Brewing and Bridges
123
The Year the Chestnuts Died
147

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About the author (1970)

Richard C. Davids lived in Bob Childress' country when he was researching and writing The Man Who Moved a Mountain. He talked to Bob's widow, his children, his brother Hasten, classmates from Union Seminary, and hundreds of the mountain people Bob had served. The result is a vivid portrayal of characters, incidents, and the mountains themselves.

Bibliographic information