More than eighty years ago, a young man from Kentucky borrowed $150, gathered up his Oliver typewriter, a trunk short on clothes and long on manuscript pages, and headed for Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a master’s degree. He was essentially a farmer, and liked what he had heard about a group of Vanderbilt writers who were more interested in the land than the growing industrialization of the South.

The young man was Jesse Stuart, author of Beyond Dark Hills, a book which began in 1932 at Vanderbilt as a paper for an English professor who asked his seminar students to turn in a maximum of eighteen typewritten pages. In the eleven days allotted for the assignment, Jesse crammed 322 pages from border to border with the story of his young life. Embarrassed to present his professor with such a bulky memoir, Stuart made as small a package as he could of the manuscript, waited until everybody else in the class had turned in a paper, and then attempted to slip his work unobtrusively into the pile.

Of the 322 pages about a simple farm boy and his family, Stuart’s professor said, “I have been teaching school for forty years and I have never read anything so…beautiful, tremendous and powerful.” Stuart later added a final chapter and the manuscript was published in 1939. It is the story of a rural boy defining his life as he made the passage from boyhood to manhood.

The story is as relevant today as it was in the 1930s. Here, Stuart shares all his youthful anxieties as he prepares for life and then ventures forth on his own—his first “true love,” his early school years, his adolescent desire to escape the confines of his parents’ loving but often smothering tutelage, his short-lived stint as a carnival worker and as an apprentice blacksmith, before entering college. Stuart freely shares his frustrations and successes as he examines the forces that mold and shape him into a world-famous author and educator.

These ageless, universal experiences were told by a vibrant, precocious young man who became one of the most widely read American authors of the twentieth century. For the young reader who has yet to experience the transition from childhood to adulthood, this book can be an inspiring guide. For older readers, it may be a beautiful trip down memory lane.

For old and young alike, this book provides inspiration, hope, desire, and courage to make each life count.

A new edition of Beyond Dark Hills, designed by JSF Art Director Suzanna Stephens, is available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, Stop in for a visit at 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland, KY. 

“Good books make good readers.” That has been a constant theme in more than 100 workshops and training sessions that I have conducted for Appalachian teachers and librarians in my efforts to promote literacy. In a number of published essays, I suggest that today’s educational problems are rooted in the well documented 20th century decline in American literacy. 

However, the problems in our schools do not exist separate and apart from the problems of a broader society. Rather, school problems both reflect and are caused by societal problems. So to truly correct school problems, we must correct the larger societal issues that cause them. Anything else is a band aid on an open wound. 

I have witnessed first-hand the educational problems of this century, which began with 9-11 and continued with economic catastrophes, a technological revolution, and an emphasis on preparing students to live in a global world and function in a global economy. College-Career Readiness, school accountability, and the impact of the technological revolution are all a part the challenge facing American education today. Complex problems do not have simple solutions, but part of the answer must be an intensified effort to promote reading. That is what we are doing at the Jesse Stuart Foundation by providing good books to readers of all ages. 

We have added to our inventory a wonderful selection of six classics that retail for $10.99 each. You can purchase them from the JSF for $6.99 per book or $29.99 for the set of six. They are new softcover editions, published in 2012, and would make a great addition to a home or school library. Just click on the above image to start the purchasing process.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Since February is Black History Month, the Jesse Stuart Foundation has prepared a special display of books that relate to the Underground Railroad.

If you have a friend or loved one recovering from illness or surgery, Jesse Stuart's The Year of My Rebirth would be a perfect heart-month gift.

     The late Poet Laureate of Kentucky, Jesse Hilton Stuart, published 2,000 poems, 460 short stories, and more than 60 books. In addition to being one of Appalachia's best known and most anthologized authors, his works have been translated into many foreign languages.

     Yet his contributions are more than literary. During his life, this charismatic educator and author served as a leader for the people of his mountain homeland and as a spokesman for values like hard work, respect for the land, belief in education, devotion to country, and love of family. His life and works still attract hundreds of tourists to eastern Kentucky every year.

Jesse's highschool photo (on left) his Guggenheim Fellowship photo on the right.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Jesse Behind the plow.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives

A 1939 photo of the Stuart siblings: Glennis, James, Mary, Jesse, Sophia and parents Martha and Mitch.

 -Voiers Photo Album

Early Life

     Jesse Stuart was born on August 8, 1906, in northeastern Kentucky's Greenup County, where his parents, Mitchell and Martha (Hilton) Stuart, were impoverished tenant farmers. From his father, Stuart learned to love and respect the land. He later became a far-sighted conservationist -- donating over 700 acres of his land in W-Hollow to the Kentucky Nature Preserves System in 1980.

     Mitchell Stuart could neither read nor write, and Martha had only a second-grade education, but they taught their two sons and three daughters to value education. Jesse graduated from Greenup High School in 1926 and from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, in 1929. He then returned to Greenup County to teach.

Jesse working in his bunkhouse after a long day at school.

- Courtesy of the H. Edward Richardson Collection, Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville

Jesse Stuart (1906 - 1984) was one of America's best-known and best-loved writers. In 1976, late in his writing career, the editors of Country Gentleman magazine boldly proclaimed Stuart "America's Most Famous Chronicler of Rural Life."At that time, nearing the end of a five-decade writing career, Stuart had published nearly sixty books, including biography, autobiography, essays, and juvenile works as well as poetry and fiction. These books have immortalized the Kentucky hill country that inspired his writing.

Thousands of Stuart's stories, articles, and poems appeared in America's most widely read magazines, journals, and periodicals. His frequent literary appearances from the 1930s through the 1970s made him a nationally famous author. Stuart, who taught and lectured extensively, was also a famous educator. His teaching experience ranged from the one-room schoolhouse of his youth in Eastern Kentucky to the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

In 1979, five years before his death, Stuart joined forces with education and business leaders from across Kentucky and assigned his literary estate to the Jesse Stuart Foundation, a nonprofit educational and publishing organization.

Never a week passes without someone saying, "Exactly what is it you folks do down there at the Jesse Stuart Foundation?" My stock response is that "In brief, we make and sell books." But our work is much more complicated than that.

We are actively involved in cultural tourism, and our bookstore and galleries attract visitors from all parts of America. We also sponsor book signings and writing workshops, an annual Jesse Stuart Weekend, tours of Stuart's W-Hollow homeland, and workshops for teachers, students, and librarians. But our primary mission is "preserving the legacy of Jesse Stuart and the Appalachian way of life" by publishing books about our unique history and culture.

Books are vital to our future. Think about what you know and where you acquired your knowledge. Most of us learn from the four cornerstones: family, church, school, and books. Like clean water and fresh air, books are so elemental to life that it's easy to take them for granted until we don't have them anymore. Then we suffer from their absence.

I became the Executive Director of The Jesse Stuart Foundation when I moved to Ashland in the fall of 1985. At that time, most of Stuart's books were out of print and teachers had, according to Greenup County's Ethel McBrayer, "given up using Jesse's books because they aren't available anymore."

That changed when we began to edit and republish Stuart's out-of-print books. With strong support from Judy Thomas, Ashland Oil (now Ashland Inc.), Morehead State University, and thousands of other individuals and organizations, we began with A Penny's Worth of Character and have reprinted more than thirty of Stuarts out-of-print books.

Now, at age sixty-seven, I realize that I will be fortunate to see all of Stuart's books back in print during my lifetime. At least twenty still need to be reissued, and many more Stuart books from his huge body of never-before-published works also need to be made available to the reading public.

As JSF grew in stature as a publishing house, several great regional authors came to us and said what Billy C. Clark once said to me: "Do for my books what you've done for Jesse's." So we expanded our mission and became a regional press and bookseller. We recently, and proudly, added the name Allan W. Eckert to a distinguished list of JSF authors that includes Jesse Stuart, Billy C. Clark, Loyal Jones, Thomas D. Clark, Harry M. Caudill, and many others.

More recently, we realized that as an institutional extension of Jesse Stuart, the great "school teacher of America," we needed to help beginning writers find their literary voice just as Stuart had helped his students. In the last decade, we have published more than twenty new books by new authors and helped to launch the careers of another generation of Appalachian writers.

Eleven years ago, after a long search for a permanent home, JSF purchased the former Post Office Building on Ashland's main street. Since then, we have done a major "clean-up, fix-up" job on this historic, 30,000 square foot structure.

Thanks to the assistance of 5000 Associate Members nationwide and the work of a truly dedicated Board of Directors, we have our building paid for, but old buildings are a mixture of charm and challenge, and we will always have much to do to maintain it.

Many of us who are associated with the Jesse Stuart Foundation are career educators and "everyday folks" who don't have the resources to make large charitable contributions, but our friends and Associate Members regularly help in many ways. One lady sold a couch and sent us the proceeds. "I never liked it much, anyway," she wrote. " And you need the money for your Building Fund a lot more than I need a couch that's been in our garage for two years."

Another individual made a presentation to a professional group and sent us the honorarium. My staff and I parked cars on our lot during a summer festival and added $462 to the Building Fund by doing some extra work. There are ways to make a contribution without dipping into your savings account.

I have never been comfortable asking hard-working people for money, so, to all of you who read this article, I submit that we make a significant contribution to the community and to education. We promote local economic development, and we also play a role in the intellectual and cultural life of the broad community we serve. I respectfully invite your assistance and participation not based on a statement of need but on our record of accomplishment.

Winston Churchill once wrote: "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." At the Jesse Stuart Foundation, we value every dollar and we respect every donor. The Jesse Stuart Foundation now has a permanent home in Stuart's beloved Eastern Kentucky homeland. In the years ahead, the Jesse Stuart Foundation will become one of the major Appalachian resource centers in America. We'll be the place to find Appalachian books, and we'll also present a wide variety of visual arts and regional crafts.

At present, we are the second largest publishing house in Kentucky and the major publisher of Appalachian books in America. As a regional press, we have become a sensitive interpreter of the hopes, dreams, and accomplishments of a great regional people. We have become your voice, too, speaking your unspoken thoughts, dreaming with you about things that you had never hoped to realize, and stirring ambitions within you that had long lain dormant in your soul. That's what books do.

What do we do at the Jesse Stuart Foundation? Well, in brief, we make and sell books, but it's more complicated than that . . .

James M. Gifford, Ph.D.

CEO & Senior Editor

     The late Poet Laureate of Kentucky, Jesse Hilton Stuart, published 2,000 poems, 460 short stories, and more than 60 books. In addition to being one of Appalachia's best known and most anthologized authors, his works have been translated into many foreign languages.

     Yet his contributions are more than literary. During his life, this charismatic educator and author served as a leader for the people of his mountain homeland and as a spokesman for values like hard work, respect for the land, belief in education, devotion to country, and love of family. His life and works still attract hundreds of tourists to eastern Kentucky every year.

Jesse's highschool photo (on left) his Guggenheim Fellowship photo on the right.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Jesse Behind the plow.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives

A 1939 photo of the Stuart siblings: Glennis, James, Mary, Jesse, Sophia and parents Martha and Mitch.

 -Voiers Photo Album

Early Life

     Jesse Stuart was born on August 8, 1906, in northeastern Kentucky's Greenup County, where his parents, Mitchell and Martha (Hilton) Stuart, were impoverished tenant farmers. From his father, Stuart learned to love and respect the land. He later became a far-sighted conservationist -- donating over 700 acres of his land in W-Hollow to the Kentucky Nature Preserves System in 1980.

     Mitchell Stuart could neither read nor write, and Martha had only a second-grade education, but they taught their two sons and three daughters to value education. Jesse graduated from Greenup High School in 1926 and from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, in 1929. He then returned to Greenup County to teach.

Jesse working in his bunkhouse after a long day at school.

- Courtesy of the H. Edward Richardson Collection, Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville

Early Career

     By the end of the 1930s, Stuart had served as a teacher in Greenup County's one-room schools and as high school principal and county school superintendent. These experiences served as the basis for his autobiographical book, The Thread That Runs So True (1949), hailed by the president of the National Education Association as the finest book on education in fifty years. The book became a road map for educational reform in Kentucky. By the time it appeared, Stuart had left the classroom to devote his time to lecturing and writing. He returned to public education as a high school principal in 1956-57, a story told in Mr. Gallion's School (1967). He later taught at the University of Nevada in Reno in the 1958 summer term and served on the faculty of the American University of Cairo in 1960-61.

Deane, Jane, and Jesse during Jesse's World War II service.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

"Autograph Party" for Dawn of the Remembered Spring, published in 1972.

- Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Stories and Poems

     Stuart began writing stories and poems about Appalachia in high school and college. During a year of graduate study at Vanderbilt University in 1931-32, Donald Davidson, one of his professors, encouraged him to continue writing. Following the private publication of Stuart's poetry collection Harvest of Youth in 1930, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow appeared in 1934 and was widely praised. Mark Van Doren, for instance, likened Stuart to Robert Burns as a poet "who captured the heart and soul of his people."

     Stuart began his autobiographical, Beyond Dark Hills, while he was at Vanderbilt. Published in 1938, it inspired readers to follow Stuart's example of overcoming great obstacles to obtain an education. His first novel, Trees of Heaven, appeared in 1940, followed by short story collections Head o' W-Hollow (1936) and Men of the Mountains (1941). More than a dozen other short story collections were published in Stuart's lifetime.

“First, last, and always, I am a teacher,” Stuart often said.

- Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Kentucky's Poet Laureate

     He was also a widely-read novelist, and critics such as J. Donald Adams ranked Stuart as a first-class local colorist. His first novel, Trees of Heaven appeared in 1940, followed by Taps for Private Tussie (1943), an award-winning satire on New Deal relief and its effect on Appalachia's self-reliance. Taps catapulted Stuart to success, but the critical reaction was mixed. Some saw it as nothing more than a comical, almost stereotyped story of poor, lazy mountaineers on relief, while others explained that Stuart wrote for a popular rather than a high brow audience.

      Stuart was a successful poet. His ten volumes of verse include Album of Destiny (1944) and Kentucky Is My Land (1952). He was designated as the Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 1954 and was made a fellow of the Academy of American Poets in 1961. Stuart also wrote a number of books for children that are still highly regarded and much in use in today's classroom.

Jesse's recuperation after his first heart attack.

- Courtesy of the Louisville Courier-Journal

Jesse at the podium on Jesse Stuart Day, Greenup, Kentucky, October 15, 1955.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Depertment

Jesse's monument, dedicated on Jesse Stuart Day, still stands on the Greenup County courthouse lawn.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Honors and Health Issues

     Stuart suffered a major heart attack in 1954. During his convalescence, he wrote daily journals that were the basis for The Year of My Rebirth (1956), a book recording his rediscovery of the joy of life. He later became an active spokesman for the American Heart Association.

     Throughout his adult life, Stuart received numerous honors as a writer and educator. In 1944, the University of Kentucky awarded him his first of many honorary doctorates. October 15, 1955 was proclaimed "Jesse Stuart Day" by the Governor of Kentucky and a bust of Stuart, which is still standing, was unveiled on the Greenup County Courthouse lawn. In 1958, he was featured on This Is Your Life, a popular television show. In 1972, the lodge at Greenbo Lake State Resort Park was named the Jesse Stuart Lodge. In 1981, he received Kentucky's Distinguished Service Medallion.

Jesse and Deane's graves and marker in Plum Grove Cemetary.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Death

     In 1978, Stuart was disabled by a stroke. In May 1982, he suffered another stroke which rendered him comatose until he died on February 17, 1984. He is buried in Plum Grove Cemetery in Greenup County, close to W-Hollow, the little Appalachian valley that became a part of the American mind through his world-famous books.

Deane and Jesse in August, 1977.

-Jesse Stuart Archives Department

Proud father Jesse with daughter Jane.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Grandpa Jesse with his grandsons Erik and Conrad.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

     Jesse and Dean's home on W-Hollow.

-Jesse Stuart Foundation Archives Department

Jesse Stuart Foundation

     Late in his life, Stuart realized that he had created a legacy that needed to be perpetuated, so he and business and educational leaders across Kentucky created the Jesse Stuart Foundation in 1979.

     Incorporated for public, charitable, and educational purposes, the Jesse Stuart Foundation is devoted to preserving the legacy of Jesse Stuart and the Appalachian way of life. The foundation, which owns and manages the rights to Stuart's published and unpublished literary works, is currently reprinting many of his best out-of-print books, along with other books which focus on Kentucky and Southern Appalachia.

     Over the last three decades, it has become a highly regarded regional press and bookseller which serves a large and devoted reading public. "Every year," reports marketing director Anthony Stephens, "we sell books to bookstores, libraries, and individuals in every state and several foreign countries."

     The foundation opened its offices in Ashland in the fall of 1985. Since then, the Jesse Stuart Foundation has produced more than 100 printings and editions. Chairman Keith R. Kappes proudly reports, "Our books, along with a wide range of educational products and services, supplement the education system at all levels."

     The public is invited to visit the Jesse Stuart Foundation offices at 1645 Winchester Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky, where hundreds of regional books are in stock and available for sale. JSF visitors can also enjoy a visit to the Leming Gallery, a photographic gallery that focuses on Appalachian topics. Also available are displays of regional art and crafts. For more information, call (606) 326-1667; or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

You can also write to:  Jesse Stuart Foundation, 1645 Winchester Ave., Ashland, KY 41101.

James M. Gifford, Ph.D.

CEO & Senior Editor