Book description
Long before the official establishment of the Commonwealth, intrepid
pioneers ventured west of the Allegheny Mountains into an expansive,
alluring wilderness that they began to call Kentucky. After blazing
trails, clearing plots, and surviving innumerable challenges, a few
adventurers found time to pen celebratory tributes to their new
homeland. In the two centuries that followed, many of the world's finest
writers, both native Kentuckians and visitors, have paid homage to the
Bluegrass State with the written word. In The Kentucky Anthology,
acclaimed author and literary historian Wade Hall has assembled an
unprecedented and comprehensive compilation of writings pertaining to
Kentucky and its land, people, and culture. Hall's introductions to each
author frame both popular and lesser-known selections in a historical
context. He examines the major cultural and political developments in
the history of the Commonwealth, finding both parallels and marked
distinctions between Kentucky and the rest of the United States. While
honoring the heritage of Kentucky in all its glory, Hall does not
blithely turn away from the state's most troubling episodes and
institutions such as racism, slavery, and war. Hall also builds the
argument, bolstered by the strength and significance of the collected
writings, that Kentucky's best writers compare favorably with the finest
in the world. Many of the authors presented here remain universally
renowned and beloved, while others have faded into the tides of time,
waiting for rediscovery. Together, they guide the reader on a literary
tour of Kentucky, from the mines to the rivers and from the deepest
hollows to the highest peaks. The Kentucky Anthology traces the
interests and aspirations, the achievements and failures and the
comedies and tragedies that have filled the lives of generations of
Kentuckians. These diaries, letters, speeches, essays, poems, and
stories bring history brilliantly to life. Jesse Stuart once wrote, “If
these United States can be called a body, Kentucky can be called its
heart.” The Kentucky Anthology captures the rhythm and spirit of that
heart in the words of its most remarkable chroniclers.
