Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Book Description
West Virginia Farm Review
The Milkweed Ladies
Author: Louise McNeillPublisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822979772
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 138
Book Description
The Milkweed Ladies, the memoirs of poet Louise McNeill, is written out of deep affection for and intimate knowledge of the lives of rural people and the rhythms of the natural world. It is a personal account of the farm in southern West Virginia where her family has lived for nine generations.Born in 1911, McNeill tells the story of her own growing years on the farm through the circadian rhythms of rural life. She presents the farm itself, "its level fields, its fence row, and hilly pastures . . . some two hundred acres of trees and bluegrass, running water, and the winding, dusty paths that cattle and humans have kept open through the years." She writes movingly of the harsh routines of the lives of her family, from spring ploughing to winter sugaring, and of the hold the farm itself has on them and the earth itself on all of us.By the 1930s, the farm and the surrounding community had been drastically changed by the destruction left by the lumber companies, by the increased access to the outside world resulting from railway and automobile, and by war. McNeill herself left the farm in 1937 to complete her college education and to persue her literary career.Throughout The Milkweed Ladies, McNeill juxtaposes the life of the farm with the larger world events that impinge on it. But the larger world moves closer and closer to the world of the farm as McNeill herself moves away from it. The book concludes with McNeill's perspective on the events of August 5, 1945. As she sits in the Commodore Hotel in New York City, reading the headlines about Hiroshima, she understands that she can never see the farm in the same way again.The Milkweed Ladies is filled with memorable characters - an herb-gathering Granny, McNeill's sailor father, her patient, flower-loving mother, and Aunt Malindy in her "black sateen dress" who "never did a lick of work." With her poet's gift for detail and language, McNeill creates a world, forgotten by many of us, to some of us never known.
Chickens in the Road
Author: Suzanne McMinnPublisher: HarperOne
ISBN: 9780062223715
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320
Book Description
Suzanne McMinn, a former romance writer and founder of the popular blog chickensintheroad.com, shares the story of her search to lead a life of ordinary splendor in Chickens in the Road, her inspiring and funny memoir. Craving a life that would connect her to the earth and her family roots, McMinn packed up her three kids, left her husband and her sterile suburban existence behind, and moved to rural West Virginia. Amid the rough landscape and beauty of this rural mountain country, she pursues a natural lifestyle filled with chickens, goats, sheep—and no pizza delivery. With her new life comes an unexpected new love—"52," a man as beguiling and enigmatic as his nickname—a turbulent romance that reminds her that peace and fulfillment can be found in the wake of heartbreak. Coping with formidable challenges, including raising a trio of teenagers, milking stubborn cows, being snowed in with no heat, and making her own butter, McMinn realizes that she’s living a forty-something’s coming-of-age story. As she dares to become self-reliant and embrace her independence, she reminds us that life is a bold adventure—if we’re willing to live it. Chickens in the Road includes more than 20 recipes, craft projects, and McMinn’s photography, and features a special two-color design.
New Deal Photographs of West Virginia, 1934-1943
Author: Betty RivardPublisher:
ISBN: 9781933202884
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231
Book Description
Upon entering the White House in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt faced an ailing economy in the throes of the Great Depression and rushed to transform the country through recovery programs and legislative reform. By 1934, he began to send professional photographers to the state of West Virginia to document living conditions and the effects of his New Deal programs. The photographs from the Farm Security Administration Project not only introduced “America to Americans,” exposing a continued need for government intervention, but also captured powerful images of life in rural and small town America.New Deal Photographs of West Virginia, 1934-1943 presents images of the state's northern and southern coalfields, the subsistence homestead projects of Arthurdale, Eleanor, and Tygart Valley, and various communities from Charleston to Clarksburg and Parkersburg to Elkins. With over one hundred and fifty images by ten FSA photographers, including Walker Evans, Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, and Ben Shahn, this collection is a remarkable proclamation of hardship, hope, endurance, and, above all, community. These photographs provide a glimpse into the everyday lives of West Virginians during the Great Depression and beyond.
Miscellaneous Publication
Author: Catalogue of the Library
Author: Massachusetts Horticultural SocietyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 380
Book Description
An Appalachian New Deal
Author: Jerry Bruce ThomasPublisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 9780813120645
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
The Depression had already begun in West Virginia before the stock market crash of November 1929 and lasted until the coming of war in 1941. In tracing the responses of the people and government of West Virginia during the Depression, historian Jerry Thomas not only deals with politics and institutions but also tells about ordinary people during the worst conditions in the state's history. 18 photos.
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