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40 ACRES AND NO MULE
In the late 1940s, Janice and Henry Giles moved from Louisville back to the Kentucky hills, where Henry had grown up and where his family had lived since the time of the Revolution. With their savings, the couple bought a ramshackle house and forty acres on a ridge top and set out to be farmers like Henry's forebears. This is the personal account of their first year in the Appalachian hill country.
Mrs. Giles, a city woman, soon experienced the trials of settling in the farming the barren land, digging a well, building a fireplace, cultivating a vegetable garden, canning on hot summer days, and grading tobacco in the bitter cold. She also came to know and understand the proud, generous people who were her neighbors. In describing these people, she employs the same warmth, humor, and observation that characterize her novels, and she brings to this account a deep appreciation of their old, established ways.
In 1967, when the book was reissued, Janice Holt Giles added a prologue to 40 Acres and No Mule. In it, she relates her experiences to the nation's view of and interest in Appalachia, comments on her growing understanding of the role of religion and the strength of family ties in the area, and offers conclusions on the character of the region - and how that unique character has been affected by the outside world, particularly through television.
Enlightening and evocative, personal and universally pertinent, this description of a year "of backaches, fun, low ebbs and high tides, and above all a year of eminent satisfaction" will be welcomed by Janice Holt Giles's many readers, old and new.
Mrs. Giles, a city woman, soon experienced the trials of settling in the farming the barren land, digging a well, building a fireplace, cultivating a vegetable garden, canning on hot summer days, and grading tobacco in the bitter cold. She also came to know and understand the proud, generous people who were her neighbors. In describing these people, she employs the same warmth, humor, and observation that characterize her novels, and she brings to this account a deep appreciation of their old, established ways.
In 1967, when the book was reissued, Janice Holt Giles added a prologue to 40 Acres and No Mule. In it, she relates her experiences to the nation's view of and interest in Appalachia, comments on her growing understanding of the role of religion and the strength of family ties in the area, and offers conclusions on the character of the region - and how that unique character has been affected by the outside world, particularly through television.
Enlightening and evocative, personal and universally pertinent, this description of a year "of backaches, fun, low ebbs and high tides, and above all a year of eminent satisfaction" will be welcomed by Janice Holt Giles's many readers, old and new.
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1967
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About the author
Janice Holt Giles
43 books45 followersJanice Holt Giles was an American writer best known for her series of pseudo historical novels focusing on life on the American frontier, particularly within Kentucky.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 10, 2014
Some chapters I LOVED, but most chapters were not as enjoyable to me.
April 26, 2025
Kentucky author's memoir of first impressions in very rural Knifely, Kentucky. For the most part, amusing. Some of the later chapters depict the seamier side of backwoods life.
April 30, 2015
I think this is my favorite of all Janice Holt Giles' histories of her life in Adair County, Kentucky. This is the first of the books, and in it, she tells the story of exactly how and why she let Henry convince her to move from Louisville back to the hills and hollers of his home county. This book made me laugh out loud more than a few times. She managed to hoe up all the seedlings in the garden. Getting their house weatherproof has to be read to be believed (it involved a lot of cardboard boxes and some seriously heavy-duty wallpaper).
I know the places Mrs. Giles wrote of. When she mentions Dunbar Hill, it's one of the hills one goes over on the way to Pap and Granny's. The little village of Knifely is not more than a loud shout from the old home place.
Her way of writing about the people in the county Pap loved the best give me a better understanding of half my roots, an understanding I didn't have when I was younger. I love these books for showing me part of my heritage in a better light.
And then there's this, from the end of the book:
We live in a time and circumstance that breeds feelings of insecurity, not only because of the world situation with its ever-present threat of tensions and war, but because we have created a very complex civilization, fast-moving, noisy, crowded, and nervous, in which we are not entirely at home. It has come too fast and our personalities cannot adjust to it fully. Most of us can remember, or at least our parents can remember, a slower day, a quieter day, and in our memories perhaps, a sweeter day.
She wrote the book in 1950 and 1951. What would she say about how fast we move today? The longing to live in a simpler time has not dimmed. We move even faster now, it's even noisier, more crowded, unsettled, and we're even more nervous. Reading about Kentucky in a simpler time is a refreshing thing to do in our modern world.
I know the places Mrs. Giles wrote of. When she mentions Dunbar Hill, it's one of the hills one goes over on the way to Pap and Granny's. The little village of Knifely is not more than a loud shout from the old home place.
Her way of writing about the people in the county Pap loved the best give me a better understanding of half my roots, an understanding I didn't have when I was younger. I love these books for showing me part of my heritage in a better light.
And then there's this, from the end of the book:
We live in a time and circumstance that breeds feelings of insecurity, not only because of the world situation with its ever-present threat of tensions and war, but because we have created a very complex civilization, fast-moving, noisy, crowded, and nervous, in which we are not entirely at home. It has come too fast and our personalities cannot adjust to it fully. Most of us can remember, or at least our parents can remember, a slower day, a quieter day, and in our memories perhaps, a sweeter day.
She wrote the book in 1950 and 1951. What would she say about how fast we move today? The longing to live in a simpler time has not dimmed. We move even faster now, it's even noisier, more crowded, unsettled, and we're even more nervous. Reading about Kentucky in a simpler time is a refreshing thing to do in our modern world.
August 18, 2008
I was almost as curious about what the author
didn't
include in this book as I was interested in what she did write about.
The author, a city girl, ends up marrying a man from backwoods Kentucky, and goes to make a life with him on his family land & tobacco farm after WW II. While the tone is light & even cheery, there are dark places throughout the book. Her shock over the marriage of a young neighbor girl (at age 13, if I remember correctly) is hardly overstated but it's all the more upsetting for that.
I haven't read any of her other books, fiction or non-fiction, in part because many of them are hard to find. I'll probably try The Enduring Hills next.
The author, a city girl, ends up marrying a man from backwoods Kentucky, and goes to make a life with him on his family land & tobacco farm after WW II. While the tone is light & even cheery, there are dark places throughout the book. Her shock over the marriage of a young neighbor girl (at age 13, if I remember correctly) is hardly overstated but it's all the more upsetting for that.
I haven't read any of her other books, fiction or non-fiction, in part because many of them are hard to find. I'll probably try The Enduring Hills next.
January 31, 2010
I had so hoped this one would be a keeper; I've been looking forward to it. While it offered some valuable social insights in the preface, the book itself simply wasn't constructed with enough clarity--a little too much rambling, not quite enough of an evident framework, and the most negative bits saved for last. Even though it resonates with my own time spent deeper in the Appalachians, it's just not a book that speaks to me.
January 16, 2010
really ate this up...the author is just a pleasure to read, as well as a great compassionate, philosophical mix in her thinking.
Melissa, if you're reading this, YOU WOULD LIKE THIS BOOK!
I plan to search out more of her books to read, soon.
Melissa, if you're reading this, YOU WOULD LIKE THIS BOOK!
I plan to search out more of her books to read, soon.
July 23, 2021
Full of beautiful lines and interesting facts and history. But if the author were writing today, I’d say this was more a collection of blog posts or articles than a book. Fascinating stuff, to see people working on a farm, no water, etc. But it’s also a bit of a sad book - read when you’re in the mood for cold hard facts about life without the melodrama.
August 25, 2017
I first read this as a teenager. I am currently rereading all of Giles' body of work. I can't say enough about how much I enjoy them now as I did many years ago.
February 8, 2018
I feel as if Janice is an old friend of mine, and I’d like to be more like her. Alas, I suppose I’ll never know if within me dwells the strength of character required to make a home in a place that time has passed by as she did. Reading her stories makes me yearn for that simpler life lived on the ridge, but I know I’m too “soft” and life there is often quite ugly. It was certainly a way of life which takes courage and has such potential to build one up from within using the best of our own internal resources.
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August 3, 2019Really good. Non fiction. About life in eastern ky
July 14, 2020
Delightful account of rural life in the hills of Kentucky.
August 9, 2020
A fascinating view of life in rural Appalachia in the late 1940's. Many great descriptions of how hard people had to work just to live.
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October 17, 2020This was really good as i'm from the area kinda close. Most of these things i have done and i've seen roads like this today also. Probably not like it was then but similar. Nicely done.
April 21, 2021
This book felt like home.
January 5, 2022
I learned a lot about Appalachia from this book. It was quite interesting. Especially for them moving into Appalachia and what she called The ridge in the late 40s.
July 30, 2024
I usually don't enjoy non-fiction books, but this was quite enjoyable and a learning experience.
January 19, 2020
I have mixed feelings about her book. I found it incredibly condescending towards the people she terms "Appalachians," apparently the residents she encountered in Adair County. For the record, Adair County is not in Eastern Kentucky or the mountains. Adair County is in South Central Kentucky. She talks about the people there like they are specimens in a science experiment. I found her tone incredibly prejudiced with a superiority complex that she wasn't ashamed to put front and center.
Apparently, the city girl wasn't going to leave her no matter how long she lived there. Her patronizing tone dripped on every page. One could tell she thought she was smarter, more sophisticated, more civilized, and better than everyone around her.
This book meanders around so much, it can be difficult to follow. At one point, she randomly talks about her dog for pages on end. Good grief.
I do think Giles is a good writer as I've read Hannah Fowler and am reading The Kentuckians also by her. I just wish she wasn't such a snob.
If you want a real Kentucky author who is humble and gracious, try Wendell Berry instead.
Apparently, the city girl wasn't going to leave her no matter how long she lived there. Her patronizing tone dripped on every page. One could tell she thought she was smarter, more sophisticated, more civilized, and better than everyone around her.
This book meanders around so much, it can be difficult to follow. At one point, she randomly talks about her dog for pages on end. Good grief.
I do think Giles is a good writer as I've read Hannah Fowler and am reading The Kentuckians also by her. I just wish she wasn't such a snob.
If you want a real Kentucky author who is humble and gracious, try Wendell Berry instead.
July 2, 2014
Janice Holt Giles is as authentic of a writer as you can find. All of her novels take place in her adopted state of Kentucky where she moved after meeting her husband Henry, who was eleven years her junior. This book is an autobiography of the first years that Janice and Henry left good jobs in the city and moved to the hills of Adair County, Kentucky. Times weren’t easy and they had to do without a lot of comforts. This is probably the best book I have ever read that describes the Appalachian people so thoroughly. She helps the reader to understand their customs and beliefs. In addition there are so many really wonderful people we are introduced to in this book and stories that were the basis of some of her novels. Giles lived from 1905 to 1979 and left a wonderful legacy of historical fiction to the world.
January 11, 2008
I liked this book very much. It made me think about the way our culture has changed so much in the last century. We take for granted that progress equals improvement, but there are many precious things lost in the process. I loved her character sketches and descriptive passages about the land and events. I plan on looking for more books by this author and her husband if possible!
February 25, 2014
My lover for Janice Holt Giles knows no bounds... If you have any interest in Appalachia or Appalachian culture, or in country life in the 1940s / 1950s, you will enjoy this book.
March 15, 2015
Interesting account of returning to a life with the barest conveniences. The neighbors are strange, poverty lurks around the corner, but their entrepreneurial spirit conquerors all.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews