West Virginia Books

Charlottesville, VA, home of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe and of the University of Virginia, now offers up a new contribution: Mary Lee Settle. This book is a thrilling read, yet it's so evocative of the time in which it is set that Prof. Stephen Innes of UVa assigns it to his undergrad's (of whom, by the way, I've never been one). Try it, you'll like it!

William Lowther Jackson was overshadow by his cousin Stonewall Jackson. Jee who wouldn't be, but William Jackson performances serving in the Confederate Army was out standing, even through most of the war his troops had to endure poor logistics, communications, reinforcements, you name it and the South was Short on almost everything.

As part of Jubal Early's Valley Campaign (Shenandoah Valley July-September 1864) his unit of less then 4000 cavalrymen seldom fought as a unit as it's services as scouts and flank guards were to important. On 11 July 1864, William Jackson's Brigade penetrated the defense of Washington D.C. as far as the Seventh Street fort near Silver Springs, Maryland. Intending to enter Washington the next day. Two Union divisions from the Federal Sixth Corps, were rushed over night in position to block Jackson. Jubal Early realised he did not have enough manpower to carry the new Federal position assigned Jackson's brigade to cover the withdrawal.

William Jackson was on his way to command a infantry regiment at Philippi when the first shots were fired in Virginia at Grafton. General George A. Porterfield was commanding a small force of about 800 rebels at Phillipi. these inexperienced soldiers abandoned their post on the road (from Grafton) that ran along the heights, that dominated the town of Philippi on the night of 2nd June 1861. These troops were soaked from heavy rains and sought shelter not knowing the Union army was approaching till a early morning 0430AM (3 Jun 1861)bombardment of the town send these troops running for their lives south. They did not stop till they reached Beverly nearly 40 miles away. William Jackson finally caught up to them at Huttonsville 5 miles south of Beverly. It was here that he started his war. He became very active and drilled his undisciplined men in to tough soldiers that was a characteristic of his for the rest of the war.

This book of interesting short stories telling of the author's childhood days on the farm in West Virginia, his involvement in WWII, and his life in Florida brings vivid images of a bygone era to the reader's mind. An excellent book documenting one man's perspective in rural America from Depression days to the present.

In American history, westward expansion was the key to opening up new territories. From Lewis and Clark to the Gold rush in 1849 to Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickcock the stories you hear are amazing. But what about those stories that aren't about glamour and fortune, what about those?

In the book One Eternal Winter you will be reading about an group of people who had tragedy upon tragedy thrust on them and how this affected their decisions and how and why things that happened aren't always the way Hollywood makes them out to be.

The Donner Party was to travel from Springfield, Illinois to California in hopes of finding new property and beginning a new life. What happened in Donner Pass is still one of the great tragedies in American History.

A winter that saw people starving to the point of cannibalism. The endurance of the families involved and the breaking of the human spirit is what made the reading so interesting. I was able to finish the reading in less than 1 hour.

History and American expansion, drama and tragedy, One Eternal Winter blends it all together and you have a story more that Hollywood could ever dream of.

I enjoyed taking little sips of other West Virginia family's histories as I read through this wonderful book. It never occurred to me that I would find my own family, but there is was on page 163, "A Front Porch in Halleck". My grandfather was old Mr. Richardson who sat legless on the front porch as he sold his farm in 1965. It was wonderful to read about him and to learn the history of that special farm house where I spent so many delightful weekends as a child.

We are headed to Seattle to "scope it out" for a possible relocation and I just received this book. It is simply laid out and obviously written by a parent who knows what kids enjoy. It focuses on non-"commercial", quality family time which I love!

Rinda West's Out of the Shadow is what she calls a "restoration narrative," and the restoration of which she speaks is many limbed, extending in directions of which even the author may be unaware.
Perhaps because I too am a baby-boomer, I find this book a refreshing return to a way of speaking and seeing, to a discourse, long since abandoned but not, as West proves, forgotten. Elegantly written and free of the kind of overly-rationalized, guilt-ridden, self-destructive prose of the post-modernists, this book happily embraces a Jungian essentialism that not only embraces nature and an essential self, but champions this essentialist discourse as a way back, a restoration, not just to individual health, but to planetary health, and along the way champions a recovery from a criticism that only deconstructs and cannot find a presence upon which to rebuild.
C.J. Jung's theory of "the shadow," the dark alter ego which lurks in the subconscious as a foil to the rational ego, is the unifying thread of her argument. We haven't heard much of Jung of late, nor of his belief in the healing potential implicit in the re-union of intellect with the unconscious, of the overly-civilized ego with the nature in us and outside of us. That at least this echo of 60s romanticism survived the desert wastes of post-modernism signals hope, for it is a dirty secret not heard much in academia that the radical moment 40 years ago was more a moment of romantic essentialism than deconstructive post-modernism. That rebellion was waged with nature as the alternative to the establishment. West's book is a return to that older, healing insight.
That this is a book written as part of the University of Virginia's series "explorations in ecocriticism" is fitting. For the rediscovery of the importance of nature for our own wholeness is the heart of West's text as well as the texts she unveils for us. Concentrating largely, but not exclusively on "women's fiction," West shows how the novels of Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, Barbara Kingsolver, to name only a few of the authors referenced in this richly varied work, play out Jung's themes. Reading these works with a sensitive eye, she shows how in each text the rituals which return us to the earth itself, can also return us to ourselves. To reach out and to touch nature, and the nature in ourselves, is to recognize and be reconciled with our shadows.
What West herself says of Erdrich perhaps can stand as a comment on her own book: "in restoring vitality to the culture, the land, and the psyche, she generates a rich diversity that ensures there is room for everyone."

Cleta Long is by far one of the best poets out there. Her poetry is refreshing and simply wonderful. I highly recommend getting a copy for yourself and your best friend(as I know she will love it)!

R.S.

McKeown's extraordinary biography of a young pacifist (Tom Bennett) who went to the Vietnam war as a medic is farm more than a chronicle of a boy's difficult, deadly passage into manhood. It is a passionate portrait of a small town...Morgantown, West Virginia...and a great university, both torn by the political and spiritual struggles of the late 1960's.

The author was born in Philadelphia and was partly reared in Hampshire County, West Virginia. A nationally known poet, she was active in many political causes.

An errie story told through fantastic photographs taken by the author. A story of a young woman who was murdered while incarcerated in a prison . The prison has now become a beautiful country inn with a third floor remaining as a prison without electricity. Tiny drawings on the wall left by the young murdered woman. A must read!