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James Still

Born

in near Lafayette, Chambers County, Alabama, The United States

July 16, 1906

Died

April 28, 2001

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry

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For the American playwright, see James Still.

James Still (July 16, 1906 – April 28, 2001) was an Appalachian poet, novelist and folklorist. He lived most of his life in a log house along the Dead Mare Branch of Little Carr Creek, Knott County, Kentucky. He was best known for the novel River of Earth, which depicted the struggles of coal mining in eastern Kentucky.

Still’s mother was sixteen when she moved to Alabama due to a tornado destroying the family home. His father was a horse doctor with no formal training. James Still was born July 16, 1906 near Lafayette, Chambers County, Alabama. Still was considered a quiet child but a hard worker. He along with his nine siblings worked the family farm. They farmed cotton, sugar cane, soybeans and For the American playwright, see James Still.

James Still (July 16, 1906 – April 28, 2001) was an Appalachian poet, novelist and folklorist. He lived most of his life in a log house along the Dead Mare Branch of Little Carr Creek, Knott County, Kentucky. He was best known for the novel River of Earth, which depicted the struggles of coal mining in eastern Kentucky.

Still’s mother was sixteen when she moved to Alabama due to a tornado destroying the family home. His father was a horse doctor with no formal training. James Still was born July 16, 1906 near Lafayette, Chambers County, Alabama. Still was considered a quiet child but a hard worker. He along with his nine siblings worked the family farm. They farmed cotton, sugar cane, soybeans and corn. At the age of seven, Still began grade school. He found greater interest not in the school text books but at home where there was an edition of the Cyclopedia of Universal Knowledge. He became enriched with philosophy, physics and the great British poets – Shakespeare and Keats.

After graduating from high school, Still attended Lincoln Memorial University of Harrogate, Tennessee. He worked at the rock quarry in the afternoons and as a library janitor in the evenings. He would often sleep at the library after spending the night reading countless literature. In 1929, he graduated from Lincoln and headed over to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. While there, he became involved in a controversial miner strike in Wilder, Tennessee. The miners were starving due to holding the picket line; Still delivered a truckload of food and clothing for the miners. After a year at Vanderbilt, he transferred to the University of Illinois and earned a graduate degree.

Still tried various professions including the Civil Service Corps, Bible salesman and even had a stint picking cotton in Texas. His friend Don West – a poet, civil rights activist, among other things – offered Still a job organizing recreation programs for a Bible school in Knott County, Kentucky. Still accepted the position but soon became a volunteer librarian at the Hindman Settlement School. Knott County, would become Still’s lifelong home.

James Still served as a Sergeant in the US Army in WWII and was stationed in Egypt in 1944.

Still moved into a two-story log house once occupied by a fine crafter of dulcimers, Jethro Amburgey. He would remain here till his death. Here, he began writing his masterpiece, River of Earth. It was published February 5, 1940. River of Earth depicts the struggles of a family trying to survive by either subsisting off the land or entering the coal mines of the Cumberland Plateau in the reaches of eastern Kentucky. Still depicts the Appalachian mining culture with ease. Mines close often and the family is forced to move and find other means to survive. Still received the Southern Author's Award shortly after publication which he shared with Thomas Wolfe for his work You Can’t Go Home Again. Still went on to publish a few collections of poetry and short stories, a juvenile novel and a compilation of Appalachian local color he collected over the years. The children's book "Jack and the Wonderbeans" was adapted for the stage by the Lexington Children's Theatre in 1992. Still participated in one performance, reading a portion of the book to open the show. He died April 28, 2001 at the age of 94. ...more

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James Still’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 1,844 ratings · 209 reviews · 41 distinct works • Similar authors

	River of Earth 4.02 avg rating — 1,295 ratings — published 1940 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Chinaberry by James Still, Silas House (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 3.88 avg rating — 196 ratings — published 2011 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wolfpen Notebooks: A Record of Appalachian Life 3.97 avg rating — 63 ratings — published 1991 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	From the Mountain, From the Valley: New and Collected Poems by James Still, Ted Olson (Editor) 4.02 avg rating — 45 ratings — published 2001 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pattern of a Man and Other Stories by James Still, Wendell Berry 4.43 avg rating — 37 ratings — published 1976 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Run for the Elbertas really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 36 ratings — published 1980 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hills Remember: The Complete Short Stories of James Still by James Still, Ted Olson (Editor), Teresa Perry Reynolds (Contributor) 4.42 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 2012 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Wolfpen Poems 4.50 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1986 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Appalachian Mother Goose 3.57 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 1998 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sporty Creek really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1977 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by James Still (?)

“It always matters who the storyteller is. It’s a lens.”
― James Still

tags: assumptions, bias, culture, heritage, preconception

7 likes

“And behind them a little bull of a man came walking. He wore a mine cap with a carbide lamp atop. Thick his chest was, and a fleece of black hairs came curling out of his shirt.
He took off his cap and his head was as clean as a shaven jaw.
I thought how I would tell Uncle Jolly and Grandma about him. I spoke the words aloud to know their sound.
“A fella not five feet high came along, and I skeered him proper. A low standing fella.
Oh, he was a little keg of a man, round and thick, and double jinted.
A mountycat he thought I was, fixing to spring.”
― James Still, River of Earth

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Polls

What shall we read in March, 2026? Books published in or before 1990.

The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

9 votes 33.3%

Raney, by Clyde Edgerton

7 votes 25.9%

A Long and Happy Life, by Reynolds Price Raney

5 votes 18.5%

Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex, and Suicide in the Deep South, by Rosemary Daniell

3 votes 11.1%

River of Earth, by James Still

2 votes 7.4%

Buckdancer's Choice, by James Dickey

1 vote 3.7%

27 total votes

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James Still’s Followers (42)

James Still

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Combine Editions
James Still’s books