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Le colline ricordano
Completamente associato all’universo del Kentucky e spesso considerato il ‘decano della letteratura degli Appalachi’, nei suoi racconti Still non può essere ritenuto inferiore ad altri autori della grande tradizione della short story statunitense, come Poe, Hawthorne, Jewett, Hemingway, Welty o Cheever. Concisione strutturale, un uso del linguaggio che spesso si avvicina alla poesia, capacità di presentazione fin dale prime parole di una situazione intrigante, universalità del signifiCato: queste le caratteristiche che si trovano pagina dopo pagina nei suoi racconti. Spesso si ritrovano i personaggi dei romanzi di Still, quelli di Fiume di terra e dell’ancora inedito Sporty Creek.
| Prendemmo su per il crinale, camminando tra cespugli d’edera, e uscendo, in cima, in una chiazza di chiaro di luna. Tutt’intorno all’orizzonte, le colline stendevano la spina dorsale fin dove arrivavano a guardare gli occhi. In basso, le insenature del torrente erano illuminate a giorno, senza un velo di nebbia.| J. S.
| Prendemmo su per il crinale, camminando tra cespugli d’edera, e uscendo, in cima, in una chiazza di chiaro di luna. Tutt’intorno all’orizzonte, le colline stendevano la spina dorsale fin dove arrivavano a guardare gli occhi. In basso, le insenature del torrente erano illuminate a giorno, senza un velo di nebbia.| J. S.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
15 people want to read
About the author
James Still
35 books42 followersFor 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.
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.
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April 12, 2025
Già dopo le prime pagine mi è venuto il dubbio di aver già letto un racconto simile. Poi mi sono detta: ma va là, stai invecchiando, hai dejavu, torna in te! Infatti subito dopo un racconto che non mi ricorda proprio niente. Ma poi, cazzo, questo l'ho sicuramente appena letto! E infatti: racconto identico (IDENTICO) nel libro Fiume di terra appena terminato. Vabbè, pazienza. Ma poco dopo un racconto molto simile, cambiano i nomi dei protagonisti, poco altro. Poi un paio di racconti nuovi. Poi due racconti con piccole variazioni ma interi paragrafi identici. E un racconto con la prima parte identica, e sono pronta a saltarlo, ma sfogliando velocemente per proseguire mi accorgo che diventa diverso. Poi due identici(*). E' un continuo passaggio da questo libro a quell'altro per confrontare, sapere cosa posso saltare, chiedermi se ho le traveggole. Insomma mi sono rotta i cabbasisi e lo mollo. Peccato perché il suo modo di scrivere mi piace parecchio!
Quarta di copertina (o quel che è in un libro elettronico): Spesso si ritrovano i personaggi dei romanzi di Still i personaggi? Buona parte del libro, altroché. Mattioli, mi sarebbe piaciuto saperlo prima!
(*)l'ordine potrebbe essere diverso, non correte a controllare :-D
Quarta di copertina (o quel che è in un libro elettronico): Spesso si ritrovano i personaggi dei romanzi di Still i personaggi? Buona parte del libro, altroché. Mattioli, mi sarebbe piaciuto saperlo prima!
(*)l'ordine potrebbe essere diverso, non correte a controllare :-D
Displaying 1 of 1 review