River Of EarthFirst published in 1940, James Still's masterful novel has become a classic. It is the story, seen through the eyes of a boy, of three years in the life of his family and their kin. He sees his parents pulled between the meager farm with its sense of independence and the mining camp with its uncertain promise of material prosperity. In his world privation, violence, and death are part of everyday life, accepted and endured. Yet it is a world of dignity, love, and humor, of natural beauty which Still evokes in sharp, poetic images. No writer has caught more effectively the vividness of mountain speech or shown more honestly the trials and joys of mountain life. |
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agin allus asked baby Baldridge beans black birch Blackjack Boone breath CALIFORNIA/SANTA CRUZ camp carbide lamp chaps Clabe coal corn creek CRUZ The University Darb Sorrels dark dirt door egg tree Euly eyes face Father feet feller fingers fitten Fletch floor folks fotch going Grandma ground hain't hands Harl and Tibb head heard hills Hit's hung If'n inside Jace John Gay Jonce lamp larn laughed Lean Neck legs Leth lifted living Logg looked meat box morning Mother mouth mule never nigh night Old Bartow patch pawpaws pennies plow pocket poke porch pulled reckon Red Fox rusty seed shep dog shucks sourwood spell spoke stay stood stove suddenly they's throat titmouse told tuck Uncle Jolly Uncle Luce Uncle Samp Uncle Toll University Library UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/SANTA voice walking word yard