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 following stories are included in one of my favorite books, I’ll Be Home For Christmas.  This book, published by the Library of Congress, celebrates the spirit of Christmas during World War II.

$12.00

Quantity:

Eddie Rickenbacker's Deliverance: A World War II Christmas Story

Americans know Ohio native Eddie Rickenbacker as a World War I hero. He was the ace fighter pilot of the Ninety-fourth Aero Pursuit Squadron who personally shot down twenty-six enemy aircraft. He was awarded the Medal of Honor and received many other decorations for bravery and service to his country.

Two decades later, Rickenbacker, over fifty years old and the president of Eastern Airlines, served his country again. In October 1942, he was inspecting air bases in the Pacific when his B-17 crashed into the ocean 200 miles north of Samoa.

Rickenbacker and seven other men survived. Adrift on three rubber rafts, they had four oranges, a little water, and two fishing lines - but no bait. One man died and the other seven suffered terribly from thirst, hunger, and heat.

One of the men had a Bible in his pocket and he and his fellow sufferers sustained themselves by reading aloud. On the eighth day, they prayed "frankly and humbly" and a seagull landed on Captain Rickenbacker's shoulder. It became bait and the starving fliers caught some fish and survived for twenty-three days before they were rescued.

At the beginning of World War II, this was a special Christmas story. For those who reflect on it today, it is a reminder that faith will bring deliverance.

Captain Rickenbacker's ordeal also becomes a metaphor for our lives, because we are adrift in a sea of ignorance, vulgarity, irresponsibility and genuine evil. If we pray for guidance in 2011, it will come as surely as it came to Eddie Rickenbacker and his crew in 1942.

Rickenbacker's story is included in a magnificent book, I'll Be Home For Christmas. This book, published by the Library of Congress, celebrates the spirit of Christmas during World War II.

DEATH OF A PILOT

We dreaded Christmas that year.  It was 1944, and the war would never be over for our family.

Born in the midwest, my brother rode horseback to school but wanted to fly an airplane from the first day he saw one.  By the time he was twenty-one we were living in Seattle.  When World War II broke out, Bob headed for the nearest recruitment office.  Slightly built, skinny like his father, he was ten pounds underweight.

Undaunted, he persuaded Mother to cook every fattening food she could think of.  He ate before meals, between meals and after meals.  Finally, he passed the weigh-in with eight ounces to spare.

When he was named Hot Pilot of primary training school and later involuntarily joined the “Caterpillar Club” (engine failure causing the bailout) at St. Mary’s, California, we shook our heads and worried.  Mother prayed.  Bob was born fearless, and she knew it.  Before graduating, he applied for transfer to Marine Air Corps at Pensacola, Florida.  He trained in torpedo bombers before being sent overseas.

They said Bob died under enemy fire over New Guinea in the plane he wanted so desperately to fly. 

Mother’s faith sustained her, but father aged before our eyes.  He would listen politely when the minister came to call, but we knew Daddy was bitter.  He dragged himself to work every day but lost interest in everything else, including his beloved Masonic Club.  He wanted a Masonic ring real bad, and at Mother’s insistence, he’d started saving for the ring, but that, too, ceased.

I dreaded the approach of Christmas.  Bob had loved Christmas.  His surprises were legendary:  a doll house made at school, a puppy hidden in a mysterious place for our little brother, an expensive dress for Mother bought with the very first money he ever earned. Everything had to be a surprise.

What would Christmas be without Bob?  Not much. Family was coming, so we went through the motions as much for his memory as anything, but our hearts weren’t in it.

On December 23, another official-looking package arrived.  My father watched stone-faced as Mother unpacked Bob’s dress blues.  Silence hung heavy.  As she refolded the uniform to put it away, a mother’s practicality surfaced, and she went through the pockets almost by rote.

In a small inside jacket pocket was a folded $50 bill with a tiny note in Bob’s familiar handwriting: “For Dad’s Masonic Ring.”

If I live to be one hundred, I will never forget the look on my father’s face.  Some kind of transformation took place—a touch of wonder, a hint of joy, a quiet serenity that was glorious to behold.  Oh, the healing power of love!  He stood transfixed, staring at the note and the trimly folded bill in his hand for what seemed an eternity, then walked to Bob’s picture hanging prominently on the wall and solemnly saluted.  “Merry Christmas, son,” he murmured, and turned to welcome Christmas.

"This book would be a great gift for any World War II veteran" says World War II aviator & Jesse Stuart Foundation board member Carl Leming.