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On Troublesome Creek
New edition of a short story collection originally published by Viking in 1941. These linked stories, divided into the sagas for the families "Up-Creek" and "Down-Creek," make pre-war eastern Kentucky come to a vivid, poetic life.
Some stories in "Up-Creek" also published in The Run for the Elbertas from The University Press of Kentucky.
Some stories in "Up-Creek" also published in The Run for the Elbertas from The University Press of Kentucky.
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
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About the author
James Still
35 books43 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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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 10, 2025
My last couple of audiobooks were both marathon efforts of 20 hours plus, so I was looking for something shorter. This collection of Depression-era stories from east Kentucky came in at just under 4 hours, so met my requirements nicely. The collection was originally published in 1941. The author is, I believe, best known for his novel River of Earth.
The collection is in two parts. The first, “Up-Creek” has 6 stories, all told from the perspective of a young boy, whose parents live variously in a mining camp and on a farm in the eponymous Troublesome Creek. I absolutely loved these stories. Looking at my previous reviews, I seem to be partial to this type of “child’s eye perspective” (as long as it doesn’t feature child abuse, a subject I can’t bear to read about). It’s hard to pick any favourites, but The Proud Walkers and Locust Summer would be the ones I’d choose.
There was some decent humour throughout the collection.
All of the spoken dialogue is in fairly strong 1930s Appalachian dialect, but I had little difficulty in understanding it. One exception was a story called The Stir-Off. I wasn’t familiar with the tradition of the “stir-off”, but was able to look it up on the web. The story also made reference to something called “candy-jacks” which seems to come by the gallon. (I know an American gallon is smaller than the British version). After discussion with an American GR Friend, I think “candy-jacks” was most likely moonshine flavoured with molasses or syrup, but I’m not certain.
Generally I have a liking for the richness of different dialects, so the style of these stories suited me well.
There are 4 stories in the second part, “Down-Creek” which features a different set of characters. To begin with I missed the voice of the narrator from “Up-Creek” and I thought the opening two stories of this second set to be a little inferior. However I really liked the last two. Moving tells the story of a family leaving a closed mining camp, whilst the last story, The Scrape, is about the rivalry of two men for the affections of the same young woman. This had one the best endings I’ve encountered, and was a great way to finish the collection.
The collection is in two parts. The first, “Up-Creek” has 6 stories, all told from the perspective of a young boy, whose parents live variously in a mining camp and on a farm in the eponymous Troublesome Creek. I absolutely loved these stories. Looking at my previous reviews, I seem to be partial to this type of “child’s eye perspective” (as long as it doesn’t feature child abuse, a subject I can’t bear to read about). It’s hard to pick any favourites, but The Proud Walkers and Locust Summer would be the ones I’d choose.
There was some decent humour throughout the collection.
All of the spoken dialogue is in fairly strong 1930s Appalachian dialect, but I had little difficulty in understanding it. One exception was a story called The Stir-Off. I wasn’t familiar with the tradition of the “stir-off”, but was able to look it up on the web. The story also made reference to something called “candy-jacks” which seems to come by the gallon. (I know an American gallon is smaller than the British version). After discussion with an American GR Friend, I think “candy-jacks” was most likely moonshine flavoured with molasses or syrup, but I’m not certain.
Generally I have a liking for the richness of different dialects, so the style of these stories suited me well.
There are 4 stories in the second part, “Down-Creek” which features a different set of characters. To begin with I missed the voice of the narrator from “Up-Creek” and I thought the opening two stories of this second set to be a little inferior. However I really liked the last two. Moving tells the story of a family leaving a closed mining camp, whilst the last story, The Scrape, is about the rivalry of two men for the affections of the same young woman. This had one the best endings I’ve encountered, and was a great way to finish the collection.
January 12, 2026
JAMES STILL left eastern Kentucky for Europe in 1941 after enlisting in the US Army during World War II, leaving behind a recently published, semi-autobiographical work of fiction, On Troublesome Creek. Even as he developed a broader worldview, his work continued to draw from the agrarian and regional sources of life in the Cumberland Plateau that supported the American war effort. Like the riverbeds and creeks he so often evoked, Still reminds readers of the local and regional founts that they were fighting for in the century's second global war. The 'Dean of Appalachian Literature,' James Still grew up in Alabama bef9ore settling down in Knott County, Kentucky in the early 1930s. In On Troublesome Creek, he describes the ebbs and flows of Appalachian living while celebrating the culture defined by family, self-sufficiency, and hard work. the dialogue brings to life a community attached to the land on which they have lived for generations and the victuals and rituals that kept their world in motion and uncertainty."
~~back cover
~~back cover
October 31, 2022
আরো একটু যত্ন করে পড়া উচিৎ ছিলো।
September 13, 2023
Enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews