Hawk's Nest

Appalachian Echoes

by Hubert Skidmore

“Very real and tremendously moving. . . . Not only an obvious brief for the unfortunate but a well told and honest story.” —New York Times

“Hubert Skidmore, a native West Virginian, wrote as a witness from inside the belly of the beast. His gift is for pitch-perfect dialogue, a varied cast of characters, and the calling up of emotion, of anger, fear, dread, and love. To encounter this novel at last is a sort of resurrection, both for its persecuted author and the Depression poor whose lives it evokes.” —Denise Giardina, author of The Unquiet Earth and Storming Heaven

The building of a tunnel at Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, beginning in 1930 has been called the worst industrial disaster in American history: more died there than in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the Sunshine and Farmington mine disasters combined. And when native West Virginian Hubert Skidmore tried to tell the real story in his 1941 novel, Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation apparently convinced publisher Doubleday, Doran & Co. to pull the book from publication after only a few hundred copies had appeared.

Now the Appalachian Echoes series makes Hawk’s Nest available to a new generation of readers. This is the riveting tale of starving men and women making their way from all over the Depression-era United States to the hope and promise of jobs and a new life. What they find in West Virginia is “tunnelitis,” or silicosis, a disease which killed at least seven hundred workers—probably many more—a large number of them African American, virtually all of them poor. Skidmore’s roman à clef provides a narrative with emotional drive, interwoven with individual stories that capture the hopes and the desperation of the Depression: the Reips who come from the farm with their pots and pans and hard-working children, the immigrants Pete and Anna, kind waitress Lessie Lee, and “hobos” Jim Martin, “Long” Legg, and Owl Jones, the last of whom, as an African American, receives the worst treatment. This important story of conscience encompasses labor history, Appalachian studies, and literary finesse.

Hubert Skidmore (1909–1946) was the author of five other novels: I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes (1936), Heaven Came So Near (1938), River Rising (1939), Hill Doctor (1950), and Hill Lawyer (1942). He died in a house fire at the age of thirty-seven.

Genres: Fiction, Historical

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2004

Reviews

[Dave Marsland · Rating 4 out of 5]

” Out of the South and of the East they came; and out of Joplin, Missouri, and Picher, Oklahoma, searching their way toward the rocky, irregular state. Depression-ridden and work-hungry, they set out, leaving their families behind with the great chat piles: crushed rock from which the ore had been removed.”

Hawk's Nest is a novel dusted in sorrow. It’s a fictionalised account of true events that happened in West Viginia during the Great Depression. The Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster killed hundreds at Gauley Mountain in 1930-31, and to this day is the worst industrial disaster in American history.
The Union Caride and Carbon corporation wanted to dig a 3-mile tunnel through the Gauley Mountain to divert water to a hydroelectric plant. The mountain was 99 percent sandstone, which, when drilled, creates silica dust. When inhaled it causes silicosis, a deadly lung disease with no cure.
Nearly 3,000 workers grafted in 12-hour shifts, enduring hideous working conditions with scant regard for health and safety regulations. As men started becoming ill, they were simply replaced. It’s believed that at least 764 workers died from silicosis.
Hubert Skidmore does a brilliant job in telling this story. It’s a moving, passionate and unflinching account. It deserves to take its place alongside The Grapes of Wrath and Whose Names Are Unknown as a great American book of the dispossessed.
Doubleday printed Hawk’s Nest in 1941, but it was never released. Allegedly they were pressurised by Union Caride not to publish. In 1970 Jim Comstock (editor of The West Virginia Hillbilly) published the novel in West Virginia Heritage books (Vol. 4), and then in 2004, the University of Tennessee published Hawk’s Nest, as part of its Appalachian Echoes Series. This is a book that truly deserves to be read.

[WURLD]

just had to read it for school, read it if you want

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving, compelling, all too TRUE story in the vein of Grapes of Wrath. Heavy and heart-rending.

[Reid Mortimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1930’s, Hawk’s Nest is a story about a tunnel built in West Virginia. Based on true events, it follows several tunnel workers and their families as their lives are completely destroyed by the work they do in the tunnel. After being lulled by promises of good money, men and their families flock to the tunnel by the dozens to work. Once there, they are paid less than they were promised, forced to live in two room shacks, and allowed to only buy groceries from the overpriced company store. While in the tunnel, the men are not allowed to wear masks, and have to work in extreme amounts of dust. The dust is so thick and heavy that the men can barely see, and after awhile they all become sick with silicosis-a deadly disease in which dust from silica gets into the lungs and causes lung failure.
There is immense controversy surrounding the situation of Hawk’s Nest, which only makes the book more interesting. Originally set to be published in 1941, the book was pulled after only a few copies were made, the reason for which was never known (But rumors of the company’s outrage over the book were fast to circulate, and have never died). The entire incident, in which hundreds of men died, was never widely publicized, and few Americans even known what happened. When the men first started getting sick, the men were denied medical treatment and lied to about what was happening. Skidmore highlights these events in such an honest, brutal way, that the reader can’t help but become completely immerged in what is happening, and outraged over how the workers were being treated.
The book does a wonderful job of drawing the reader into the story through the characters. Skidmore takes a unique approach to character development, and instead of a few main characters, there are about 20 that all tied together by the tunnel. It is a captivating book that sets up misfortune after misfortune, and keeps the reader hoping for a happy ending when there is no hope in sight.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was assigned for one of my courses at Drew University. It is based on a true story and describes a terrible example of corporate greed and the way that some people treat others as worthless and insignificant. I highly recommend it.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am from West Virginia and I am very familiar with the language used in the book. I read it as if my dad was telling a story. My grandfather actually retired from union carbide and I had no idea about any of this terrible treatment of precious human life until last week when I read an article on a website called wv explorer. This fictionalized story of true events makes you aware of what it was like to be poor and hungry during the Great Depression. How desperate people were to make a dollar just take care of their family. The hope and promise of a job that would put food on the table and maybe a bit extra turns into a nightmare. It’s also sad that this book was written 84 years ago and not many people have read it because it was taken off the shelf shortly after around 200 copies were distributed. I’ve read accounts that say it was because the company pressured them to get it off the shelf. This story needs to be shared! The author did an amazing job telling the story through characters that make you want a happy ending, yet leaves you gutted at the end. It shows the true kind hearts of most Appalachian people. The ones that are there for you when you need them no matter what it costs but also the brutal reality that some are only there for what they can gain.

[Eva Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hawk’s Nest (1941) by Hubert Skidmore is an American classic right up there with The Grapes of Wrath. It will make you sad and then make you mad.

Hawk’s Nest was published by Doubleday, Doran & Co. The book is a fictional account of what several sources call the worst industrial disaster in American history – lives lost in connection with the 1930s construction of a three-mile tunnel through Gauley Mountain in West Virginia that would divert water from New River to produce electricity for Union Carbide. The story is told from the point of view of people who, struggling during the Depression, find their way to employment on the tunnel dig.

After about 200 copies of Hawk’s Nest were printed, Doubleday pulled the book from publication and it is alleged this was under pressure from Union Carbide. Skidmore, 36, died in a house fire in 1946 in his Pennsylvania home. A United Press article said Skidmore, an Army signal corps lieutenant, was “on leave” from the VA hospital in Martinsburg. He had served 18 months in the European Theater.

Jim Comstock (editor of “West Virginia Hillbilly” newspaper) reprinted Hawk’s Nest in Vol. 4 of the West Virginia Heritage books. Vol. 4 doesn’t have a publication date but it was in the early 70s. That’s where I found Hawk’s Nest.

After Comstock published the book, Hawk’s Nest also became available through in a facsimile edition by Thomas In-Prints of Gauley Bridge. It is now available through the University of Tennessee Press or Amazon.

Hubert Standish Skidmore is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira, Chemung County, New York.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9...

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book before it was widely published by a university press. Hubert Skidmore relates in slightly fictionalized form a REAL event that occurred in 1930s when Union Carbide murdered hundreds of men, mostly African American, by sending them to mine silica in tunnels. They died of acute silicosis but Union Carbide knowingly did nothing at all to prevent their deaths.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating for the history it is based on. I grew up in Charleston, the daughter of two Union Carbide employees, and Hawk's Nest is a place I was very familiar with, but I never know about this tunnel. I found this book entertaining and educational, both about the tunnel and about the plight of the workers so desperate for jobs.

[Katy · Rating 5 out of 5]

a fictionalized account about the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster, the worst industrial accident to occur in America---when the book was first published, a major corporation went to great lengths to have the book removed, and a major publisher succumbed.

Riveting story, told in the vernacular of the day, adds to the pathos of the actual tragedy that is largely unknown to today's public

[John Tipper · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic historical novel about the worst industrial catastrophe in American history. In the Great Depression (1930), over seven hundred men died from silicosis after working digging a tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia. Most of the men were African Americans, like Owl Jones, from the Deep South. Jim Martin, a cynical white hobo was world weary. His friend, Long Legg, was a left-leaning, argumentative worker. He confronted the Union Carbide company supervisors. The book has an ensemble cast of characters, which I usually object to, but here it makes sense. Some two thousand men toiled in the tunnel. Some of the scenes border on mawkishness, but given the dreadful circumstances of families torn apart due to the deaths, they work here. It's a story of how a big company exploited desperate people. The company was greedy. And knew the dangers of blasting and digging through silica rock. Hawk's Nest has been compared to The Grapes of Wrath. The white workmen were paid 30 cents an hour, while the black men got 25 cents.

[Anne Earney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much a depression-era novel, in the vein of Grapes of Wrath. Equally moving. The story follows several men, women and families who came to the Hawk's Nest tunnel area desperate for work at a time when there wasn't any. The characters are varied and realistically depicted. Skidmore does an excellent job with dialogue, in particular. The company who dug the tunnel provided no protection to the workers, ultimately causing the deaths of hundreds. It's infuriating to read about.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written with characters that I wanted to see make it. I've visited Hawk's Nest many times but had no idea the company digging the tunnel denied safety precautions that took the lives of so many men. This book leaves me wanting to learn more about what happened to them and to the families left behind.

[literatelady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even my bones are crying

[Natalee Jamerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book hard to put down. Many times I found myself giggling in the moments they found humor and saddened in moments where pain had nowhere to be but present. Phenomenal storytelling.