“Titles Must Be Perfect”: The Broad Form Deed, Politics, and Landownership in Eastern Kentucky at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

James Still was a twentieth century American writer of poetry, stories, children’s literature, and folklore. His most enduring work was the 1940 novel River of Earth. This literary biography tells the story of Still’s life, which was simultaneously simple and complex, solitary and public, transparent and mysterious. Though born in Alabama, educated in Tennessee, and widely traveled in the world, Still and his writing are inseparably associated with the hills of eastern Kentucky: specifically, Hindman Settlement School and his log house on Dead Mare Branch. The biography explores how the place shaped him and his writing, and how this “man of the bushes” became a public figure, a cultural legend that influenced the rise of Appalachian literature. During his last twenty years, many people came to know a charismatic James Still, but few were allowed into his private world. This story of that world explores how his life experiences connected to his creativity. Being of his hills provided James Still an identity and anchor. His life story should help move his work beyond the hills to the wider audience it deserves. Research for the project relied largely on letters and documents in archival collections at University of Kentucky and Morehead State University. Conversations with Still before his death are supplemented with 75 interviews of friends, family, and colleagues.

Download Full-text

Dance at Pine Mountain Settlement School

10.5406/illinois/9780252038549.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Susan Eike Spalding

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Popular Culture ◽

Good Health ◽

Historical Background ◽

Folk Dance ◽

Eastern Kentucky ◽

Good Citizenship ◽

Living Tradition ◽

Pine Mountain

This chapter examines the role played by the Pine Mountain Settlement School in the promotion of dance in Eastern Kentucky beginning in the early twentieth century. It first provides a historical background on Pine Mountain Settlement School and on one of its founders, Katherine Pettit. It then discusses the ways that Pine Mountain utilized recreation and dance to promote good health and good citizenship; settlement workers' fight for dance hall reform in the Eastern Kentucky mountains beginning in 1910; and the establishment of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers and the Russell Sage Foundation. It also explores the role of folk dance as an antidote to popular culture; how the Mountain Folk Festival helped to sustain dance at Pine Mountain; and Pine Mountain's promotion of Danish dance above local dance as well as its decision to return to local dance tradition. The chapter concludes with an assessment of Pine Mountain's legacy in terms of helping various types of dancing take root as living tradition in Eastern Kentucky.

Download Full-text

Capitalist Development in the Twentieth Century: An Evolutionary-Keynesian Analysis. By John Cornwall and Wendy Cornwall. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. 269. $59.95.

The Journal of Economic History ◽

10.1017/s0022050703542462 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 63 (3) ◽

pp. 927-928

Author(s):

GEOFFREY M. HODGSON

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Capitalist Development ◽

Cambridge University

Download Full-text

Some Polish Composers of To-Day

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298200053596 ◽

1948 ◽

pp. 25-28

Author(s):

Andrzej Panufnik

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Fertile Soil ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Progressive Group ◽

Karol Szymanowski

It is ten years since KAROL SZYMANOWSKI died at fifty-four. He was the most prominent representative of the “radical progressive” group of early twentieth century composers, which we call “Young Poland.” In their manysided and pioneering efforts they prepared the fertile soil on which Poland's present day's music thrives.

Download Full-text