Dear friends and Associate Members:

Most Jesse Stuart fans know that Harvest of Youth, privately published by Jesse in 1930, was Stuart's first book. His next book was Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow, published in 1934 by E. P. Dutton & Company, a major commercial publishing house. The first printing of the First Edition sold out in less than a month. The success of this Pulitzer-nominated book was the springboard to a great writing career.

However, Between Harvest of Youth and Man With A Bull-Tongue Plow, Stuart wrote a second collection of poetry, Songs of a Mountain Plowman, that was not published until 1986, two years after his death. This is the first book I published when I became Executive Director of the JSF in 1985. Songs was edited and introduced by the late Jim Wayne Miller, a great Appalachian scholar and long-time member of the JSF Board of Directors. Its First Edition of 1000 sold out in the 1980s, and was never republished. It is an important book for Stuart fans who wish to uinderstand Stuart's development as a poet, a great addition to Stuart collection, and an important resource for school and public libraries.

Now, twenty-five years after its first appearance, the JSF plans to re-issue a hardback Special Edition of Songs of a Mountain Plowman that will be designed as a companion to our 2011 reprint of Man With A Bull-Tongue Plow. It will be presented Sepytember 28, 2012 at this year's Jesse Stuart Weekend. This publication will be funded by gifts ffrom friends of the JSF.

Donors will receive recognition in the Acknowledgements section of the book, invitations to book launch events, and a numbered copy of the special edition. Your gift will provide one copy of the book to you and as many as thirty-six copies of the book to libraries. Each gift copy will include a bookplate that identifies you as a donor, if you wish. 

We hope you will join us in reprinting this valuable and interesting book.

   

Sincerely,

James M. Gifford, Ph.D.

CEO and Senior Editor