Jesse Stuart



Jesse Hilton Stuart (August 8, 1907 – February 17, 1984) was an American writer who is known for writing short stories, poetry, and novels about Southern Appalachia. Born and raised in Greenup County, Kentucky, Stuart relied heavily on the rural locale of Northeastern Kentucky for his writings. He died at Jo-Lin nursing home in Ironton, Ohio, which is near his boyhood home.

Life
Stuart was born near Riverton, Greenup County, Kentucky, to Mitchell and Martha (Hilton) Stuart on August 8, 1907. In 1939, Stuart married Naomi Deane Norris, a school teacher; and they settled in W Hollow.

Education
After being denied admission at three colleges, Stuart was finally accepted at and attended Lincoln Memorial University, near Harrogate, Tennessee. After graduating he returned to the his home area and taught at Warnock High School in Greenup, Kentucky. Later he was appointed principal at McKell High School, but resigned after one year to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University. He then served as superintendent of the Greenup County Schools before ending his career as an English teacher at Portsmouth (Ohio) High School.

Poetry
One day while Stuart was plowing in the field, he stopped and wrote the first line of a sonnet: "I am a farmer singing at the plow," the first line of the 703 sonnets he would collect in Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow (1934). The book was described by Irish poet George William Russell (who wrote poetry under the name of AE) as the greatest work of poetry to come out of America since Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass.

Novels
Stuart's first novel was Trees of Heaven (1940). Set in rural Kentucky, the novel tells the story of Anse Bushman, who loves working the land and wants more land. Stuart's style is simple and sparse. Taps for Private Tussie (1943) is perhaps his most popular novel, selling more than a million copies in only two years. The novel also received critical claim and won the Thomas Jefferson Southern Award for the best Southern book of the year. In 1974, Gale Research (in American Fiction, 1900-1950) identified Jesse Stuart as one of the forty-four novelists in the first half of the 20th century with high critical acclaim. Jesse Stuart was the second youngest of that group (William Saroyan was one year younger).

Short stories
Stuart published about 460 short stories. He wrote his first short story "Nest Egg" when he was a sophomore in high school in 1923. The story is of a rooster at his farm, whose behavior was so dominant that it began attracting hens from other farms, leading to conflict with the neighbors. Twenty years later, he submitted the story unchanged to the Atlantic Monthly, which accepted the story and published it in February 1943; it was later collected in Tales from Plum Grove Hills.

One of his most anthologized stories is "Split Cherry Tree," first published in Esquire, January 1939. In this story, a high school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse keeps a boy after school to work and pay for damage he did to a cherry tree. The boy's uneducated father comes to school to argue with the teacher, but comes to appreciate the value of higher education.

Autobiography
The theme of education appears often in Stuart's books. He described the role that teaching played in his life in The Thread that Runs So True (1949), though he changed the names of places and people. He first taught school in rural Kentucky at the age of 16 at Cane Creek Elementary School, which became Lonesome Valley in his book. The Thread that Runs So True (1949) has become a classic of American education. Ruel Foster noted in 1968 that the book had good sales in its first year. At the time, she wrote, sales for the book had gone up in each successive year, an astonishing feat for any book. The book has remained continuously in print for more than 50 years.

Recognition
Stuart was named the poet laureate of Kentucky in 1954. Stuart was made poet laureate of the state of Kentucky in 1954, and

Jesse Stuart State Nature Preserve
The natural settings of W Hollow were prominent throughout Stuart's writings. Prior to his death he donated 714 acre of woodlands in W Hollow to the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission. The Jesse Stuart State Nature Preserve is dedicated to protecting the legacy of Stuart, and ensures that a significant portion of W Hollow will remain undeveloped in perpetuity. The trail system is open to the public from dawn to dusk all year long.

Poetry

 * Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow. New York: Dutton, 1934.
 * Album of Destiny. New York: Dutton, 1944.
 * Kentucky is My Land. New York: Dutton, 1952.
 * Hold April. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962.

Novels

 * Daughter of the Legend, McGraw-Hill, 1965; J. Stuart Foundation, 1994, ISBN 978-0-945084-42-6
 * University Press of Kentucky, 1980, ISBN 978-0-8131-0150-7
 * Taps for Private Tussie, E.P. Dutton, 1943; World Pub. Co., 1969
 * University Press of Kentucky, 1986, ISBN 978-0-8131-0170-5
 * Hie to the Hunters Whittlesey House, 1950; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1996, ISBN 978-0-945084-59-4
 * Mr. Gallion's School, McGraw-Hill, 1967
 * The Land Beyond the River, McGraw-Hill, 1973, ISBN	9780070622418

Short fiction

 * Head o' W-Hollow, E. P. Dutton & co., inc., 1936; Books for Libraries Press, 1971, ISBN 978-0-8369-4065-7
 * University Press of Kentucky, 1979, ISBN 978-0-8131-0143-9
 * Tales from the Plum Grove Hills E. P. Dutton & Company, inc., 1946; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1997, ISBN 978-0-945084-62-4
 * Plowshares in Heaven, McGraw-Hill, 1958
 * Save Every Lamb, McGraw-Hill, 1964
 * Come Gentle Spring McGraw-Hill, 1969; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2008, ISBN 978-1-931672-47-4
 * A Jesse Stuart Harvest 1965; Mockingbird Books, 1976, ISBN 978-0-89176-010-8
 * My Land Has a Voice, McGraw-Hill, 1966
 * Come Back to the Farm McGraw-Hill, 1971; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2001, ISBN 978-0-945084-94-5
 * 32 Votes Before Breakfast, McGraw-Hill, 1974
 * New Harvest: Forgotten Stories of Kentucky's Jesse Stuart, Jesse Stuart Foundation, 2003, ISBN 978-1-931672-17-7

Autobiographical

 * Beyond Dark Hills, E.P. Dutton & company, inc., 1938; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1996, ISBN 978-0-945084-53-2
 * Dramatic Publishing, 1958, ISBN 978-0-87129-677-1
 * The Year of My Rebirth 1956; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1991, ISBN 978-0-945084-17-4
 * To Teach, To Love, World Pub. Co., 1970; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1987, ISBN 978-0-945084-02-0

Children's books

 * The thread that runs so true, C. Scribner's Sons, 1950; Scribner, 1977, ISBN 978-0-684-15160-1
 * The Beatinest Boy Whittlesey House, 1953; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1989, ISBN 978-0-945084-12-9
 * A Penny's Worth of Character, Whittlesey House, 1954; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1993, ISBN 978-0-945084-32-7
 * Red Mule 1955; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1993, ISBN 978-0-945084-33-4
 * A Ride with Huey, the Engineer 1966; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1988, ISBN 978-0-945084-10-5
 * Old Ben 1970; Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1992, ISBN 978-0-945084-22-8