Kettle Bottom

by Diane Gilliam

This award-winning, unforgettable collection is written in the voices of people living and working in the coal camps during the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-1921, featuring poems that illustrate how a community responded to a time of danger. Written in the voices of people living and working in the coal camps during the West Virginia coal mine wars of 1920-1921, these vivid poems show how a community responded to a time of danger. KETTLE BOTTOM imagines the stories of miners, their wives, children, sisters, and mothers; of mountaineers, Italian immigrants, and African American families -- people who organized for safe working conditions in opposition to the mine company owners and their agents. The poet, Diane Gilliam, whose family was part of the Appalachian outmigration from Mingo County, West Virginia, and Johnson County, Kentucky, has created a book of poems that address a violent time with honesty, levity, and compassion. At its core, KETTLE BOTTOM is about how a community lived in the presence of multiple risks and the choices the residents made. "Like the Michelangelo of her poem who 'cuts away everything from the stone that is not David,' Diane Gilliam makes the stone of the West Virginia mountains yield up its human past, and gives a second, enduring life through her art to the people of her home place, who would otherwise be 'all gone under the hill.' Her community is fortunate to have harbored such a poet, and American poetry is the larger for this extraordinary book."--Eleanor Wilner "Mining may be men's work, but the conditions of this work pervade their family lives. Their wives and children bear the fallout from the mines … [Gilliam] creates a self inside this history and makes this history personal. At the same time, she locates this self in a larger world, drawing on her family stories and culture to create a collective identity from this tragedy."--Teow Lim Goh, Tin House "In KETTLE BOTTOM, Diane Gilliam probes the emotional truth of coal camp history, and then extracts it--holds its darkness in the light of her brilliant lines."--Joyce Dyer "Students immediately engaged with the poems; faculty found the poems a productive way of exploring issues of class, of race, of history and who gets to tell it, of suffering, of moral choice, and of resilience."--Carol Christ, President of Smith College Poetry. History. Family & Relationships. Women's Studies.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Historical, Labor, School, Historical Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most intense, beautiful and plainspoken book of poetry I've read in a long time, these are mostly one-page poems written in the varied voices of the mining community of Mingo County in 1920, a company town and the site of an important mining strike in West Virginia. An astonishing piece of imagination and characterization in understated verse, these elegant poems bring a whole world to life. Everyone has his say.

A kettle bottom is the root system of a petrified tree, and when a tunnel is dug, it can fall through the tunnel roof, suddenly and without warning, crushing the men working there. The symbol of hidden danger.

If the purpose of art is to deepen our humanity, this slim book is the highest of art. And it is that.

[Jacqueline Knirnschild · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read this book in high school and it’s even better than I remembered. Many of the heart-wrenching final lines of the poems gave me actual chills. Diane Gilliam Fisher has a vivid imagination, bringing the miners & families of Mingo County to life—showing the horrible conditions of those early 20th century mines and the deviating repercussions on women and children.

[✨Alix✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The accounts of these coal miners are heartbreaking... But accurate. This book is not for the light-hearted, but it is one to put on your tbr.

[Zoë Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom offers a striking view of life in old coal country, in the heart of Appalachia. In this collection of poems, history is woven together with stories to create a tapestry that is both heartbreaking and compelling to the reader. Set during the West Virginia mine wars of the 1920s, Kettle Bottom explores complex topics: from racism to religious and gender roles to poverty and loss. Diane Gilliam Fisher appeals to the reader’s sense of attachment by following a set of characters throughout the entire work; by the end of Kettle Bottom, we are worried for “dearest” Hazel, proud of the young and confident Pearlie Webb, and grieving with Gertie.

In the poem “L’Inglesse,” which is found at the beginning of the work, we discover the meaning of the title. We learn that a “della caldaia” is a petrified tree trunk, which can weigh up to three hundred pounds. When one drops through the roof of a mine, it is called a kettle bottom. The speaker of this poem wonders why such a deadly object has such a common name; she states, “For such a thing / I would not say ‘kettle bottom.’ / For such a thing I would say, / Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate qui.” Translated from Italian, this means something along the lines of “leave all hope when you come here.” From the very beginning of Kettle Bottom, Gilliam Fisher warns readers that they, like the coal miners of West Virginia, are entering a place of darkness and loss.

Throughout the work, Gilliam Fisher explores genders roles in the mining community, which included the effort that miners’ wives put into relationships that were generally cut too short, because most men did not survive the mines for long. In “Explosions at Winco No. 9,” the first poem of the collection, Maude Stanley is so heartbroken by the loss of her husband that she gives her own name as his for the register of the dead. Maude tells us
“It is true that it is the men that goes in, but it is us
that carries the mine inside. It is us that listens
to what all they are scared of and takes
the weight of it from them, like handing off
a sack of meal.”
Again, later, we see this feminine strength and this sense of ever present loss in the poem “Pink Hollyhocks.” Here, the speaker of the poem has recently lost her husband to the mines, as well. This series of mourning continues throughout the entire work: husbands, uncles, fathers, and infants are all buried in or on the mountain.

Kettle Bottom is a powerful and noteworthy book that brings many different issues to the table for discussion. To me, its poems that address gender roles and loss are the most interesting and moving in the collection. Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom is for you if you want to explore these themes and /or if you want to explore the devastating world of Appalachia’s coal mines.

[Olivia P · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems about life, is a great read for every type of person. Kettle Bottom by Diane Gilliam Fisher was release over 10 years ago and is still relatable for so many people. These poems showcase the life of a variety people from a mining town. Each poem is from a different point of view from someone who would have lived in this mining town. All of the poems show the hardships, the love, and all the aspects of life for the towns people. I personally liked the poems in Pearlie’s point of view the best. Pearlie is a young girl a young girl who is realizing that life is not all rainbows and sunshine. It is a hard awakening for a young child, but it is a reality that many of us face. At one point Pearlie says, “I have tried so hard to be so good, and now it is all for naught, for them men, them men has put murder in my heart,” (Fisher). It shows what she has gone through at such a young age, that many women can relate to. I know it is something that I can I and many others I have known have faced. We go on to see her learn more hard life lessons. There are many more poems from Pearlie point of view and many other people. I highly recommend you read this collection of poems to find out more about Pearlie and everyone else from her little mining town.
Works Cited
Fisher, Diane Gilliam. Kettle Bottom. Florence: Perugia Press, 2004.

[Tabitha · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've ever wondered how to land a poem, read "Kettle Bottom". This collection is spectacular and heart breaking and so real you choke on the coal dust. The different narrative voices are unique and authentic and powerful; Diane Gilliam Fisher takes us through the thoughts and the voices of everyone touched by coal from the children to the women waiting to a man lost in a mine after a cave in. This is tragedy not rendered beautiful but so real you can't help but find the beauty in the fierce tragedy of lives degraded, lives lost, proud lives filled with struggle and ferocious love. This is the voice of my home and I feel honored that it was so deftly handled and so carefully, so artfully made accessible to those who are fighting to keep Blair Mountain un-mined as well as to those who may never have stepped into the Appalachians or driven past the coal fields.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harrowing, illuminating, searing, wondrous; this is the most brilliant evocation of Appalachian coal camp life I've yet encountered, and one of the finest books of poetry I've ever read.

[Amber Rookstool · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Gilliam Fisher accomplishes a balance between emotion and object in her collection Kettle Bottom. She leaves readers with a detailed layout of Matewan, West Virginia, during the mine wars of 1920s, creating people in characters, using different voices, and extracts several struggles in the interaction among and between the poems and the people. These techniques allow her to create a vivid rendering of the people and their emotions, while avoiding exceeding amounts of sentimentality.

Fisher uses conflict to disturb sentimentality. One of the conflicts Fisher highlights is the insider-outsider relationship. People outside the community cannot completely understand what happens inside. She has one speaker address the president:

Then I come back here, to West Virginia,
to the coal mines. I have seen a whole trip car
of men drug by a mule through a pocket of black damp,
which is carbon dioxide, if you don’t know, the men
all lop-headed and limp-armed,
same trickle of blood out the corner
of their mouth as them boys in France (“Dear Mr. President,” 11-17).

The speaker, a World War I veteran of the European Theatre, sees in the mines a fight for life against the enemy—carbon monoxide. The speaker compares mustard gas used in combat oversees with the carbon monoxide emitted from the mines. His goal is to convince the president they are fighting a war, not just with the company, but with the job itself as well.

The last two lines explain the emotional purpose of the poem: “we all know that. But what in the world / makes you think you can scare us” (26-27). The president is trying to scare the miners into submission with military action against the strikes, but the mines are equally dangerous and scarring as war, building strong, hard-headed characters.

This poem, like all the poems, has the potential to be over emotional, but Fisher avoids sentimentality with concrete images, such as “lop-headed and limped-armed” and “trickle of blood.” Readers visualize the difficult setting, watching dead bodies pulled out of the mines. We empathize with the hard headedness of the miner-soldier. The last two lines have what I call the BAM effect. The BAM effect is where Fisher sums up the poem in the final lines. She wrings the lines with emotion from a summary of the images presented in the poem. She uses the BAM effect in all fifty-one poems of the volume.

The death imagery and BAM effect is strongest in the final poem, “The Mother Has Her Say.” Fisher uses this poem because it encompasses all the death and grief the poems demonstrate, and the tribulations and trials the people endure. Just as Fisher presents the BAM effect in the last two lines of each poem, she employs it once more in the last poem: the last two lines is to a single poem as “The Mother Has Her Say” is to Kettle Bottom.

I ain’t going to do it, Mama. Don’t need
to go sing about some faraway home.
Ain’t I already living in a land
where a boy can’t never grow old (“The Mother Has Her Say,” 24-27).

Death permeates the community to a point where it is rare for young men to live long. This lesson is the last statement and image Fisher leaves the reader. She fills the lines with the emotion of a mother who lost her son, yet she intertwines and combines the sentimentality with the conflicts persistent through the volume. The reader feels borderline unreal circumstances in the camps because of the penultimate and ultimate lines of the volume. The fantastic feeling forces the reader to regard the volume as stories based on fact.

Every poem consists, in some element, of the emotions conveyed in the last two lines of the last poem. This collection is well written and balances emotion and events equally so that the reader feels what the miners and families felt, sees what they saw, and know how they lived and died. Fisher completely emerges the reader into the life of the coal camps of West Virginia. I recommend Kettle Bottom to anyone interested in learning more about the mine wars through example.

[Emrie Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Delsey Salyer knowed Tom Junior by his toes,
which his steel-toed boots had kept the fire off of.” (“Explosion at Winco No. 9”, 1-2.)

From the first stanzas of Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom, one is already profoundly aware that they have picked up a volume that will impact and devastate them. Reading these stanzas myself for the first time, I found it necessary to close the book and resolve myself to the heaviness of the subject material, before continuing to read. The first poem in the collection, “Explosion at Winco No. 9,” depicts the women of the Winco mining camp identifying the bodies of their husbands who have perished in a coal mine collapse, and its heart-wrenching stanzas set the tone for the rest of the collection.

Told in the form of persona poems with a varied and diverse cast of narrators, Kettle Bottom depicts the lives and interactions of the inhabitants of one of the many mining camps that were prevalent in Appalachia in the early 1900s. The focus in “Summer ~ Fall,” the first of three parts into which the collection is separated, is primarily on the individual experiences of the characters as told in one or more poems. We encounter a pair of brothers with different desires, but who nonetheless share the same blood, in “Jake and Isom,” witness the disillusionment of a little girl named Edith Mae in “Dear Diary,” and witness the homesickness of an Italian immigrant in “L’Inglese.” Subsequent poems add nuance to the stories of each character, but the stories, for the most part, culminate and converge in the third part of the volume, which is preceded by the poem “Raven Light,” which is both the longest poem in the collection and the only one in the second part which bears the same name. “Raven Light” tells the story of a young man trapped in yet another mining collapse, while the next poem, “Journal of Catherine Terry/5 December 1920,” picks up the story outside the mine, where the other inhabitants, including the young man’s wife, have gathered. Ultimately, a strike is declared, and “Winter ~ Summer,” the third part of the volume, recounts the events and results of the historic West Virginia labor battles, a conflict between mine workers and operators, which took place primarily in the years 1920 and 1921. Those familiar with Appalachian history may already know that, tragically, the strike did little to improve conditions for the inhabitants of the mining camps, and Gilliam Fisher does not let this fact escape the reader, with these stanzas being the last in the book:

Mama come, and tried to shame me
into going to the church, and I told her,
I ain’t going to do it, Mama. Don’t need
to go sing about some faraway home.
Ain’t I already living in a land
where a boy can’t never grow old? (“The Mother Has Her Say”, 18-23)

“The Mother Has Her Say” is told from the point of view of a woman whose thirteen year old son has just died, shortly after beginning work in the mine for the first time. The poem opens several stanzas of the hymn “Where We’ll Never Grow Old,” illustrating one of the rich references to the historic culture and religion of Appalachia that frequently appear in Kettle Bottom. The inclusion of the Italian immigrant family as well as several African American characters helps to combat the mythology that Appalachia’s inhabitants have always been solely white, and both men and women are given viewpoints and representation in the collection.

Overall, I would highly recommend Kettle Bottom to students of both literature and history, as well as to the casual reader. It is a volume which one ought to go into aware of the sadness it will bring, but it is also a story which will capture your heart and interest, and leave you thinking about it for many weeks to come.

[Cindy Willmot · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1963, author Harry Caudill wrote about coal and the land. It was a curse, he said, and “It peoples this transformed land with blind and crippled men and with widows and orphans.” Unless one has lived and worked the mines or shared in the coal mine legacy, one will never know how coal transforms the land or its people. Poet Diane Gilliam Fisher aims to change that with her collection of fifty-two lyric poems in Kettle Bottom written in 2004. She gives voice to the people who lived and died in the West Virginia coal mines. More so, she masterfully lets the people tell their own stories, fears, hopes, and dreams, so that the reader can experience Big Coal for themselves.

From the beginning of her collection, Diane Gilliam Fisher brings her reader into the midst of the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-21. Her lyric poems read more like stories, and they are narrated by twenty-five different “speakers.” With her first poem “Explosion at Winco No. 9,” the reader is plummeted into the mind and soul of a miner’s wife, Maude Stanley, as she waits for the recovery of her husband’s body. Through her, Fisher reveals that mining is a family business, where everyone reaps the rewards and suffers the sorrows. Maude tells those watching the bodies being pulled out, “It true that it is the men that goes in, but it is us that carries the mine inside.” As the stories unfold throughout the year, Fisher draws the reader deeper into the mines and deeper into the lives of those affected. The reader feels compelled to go on.

Structurally, Fisher cleverly arranges her freestyle poems in the form of a narrative. The reader then hears the distinct voices and perspectives of miners, their children, and the mine owners. These characters share the weight of their poverty, racial segregation, arduous work, and their fears of the consequences of joining a union. Fisher gives this historical moment a new life. With compelling storytelling, she transports the reader to the West Virginia coal mines. The reader is there, and the reader cannot help but listen while the characters share their customs, values, and dreams.

Diane Gilliam Fisher has a story to tell. It is a story of Big Coal. It is a story of the mountains and their secrets. It is the story of the people who are buried in the mines, and those who were left to pick up the pieces. She lets the people tell their own stories in their own voices. These fifty-two lyric poems provide a glimpse into the forgotten lives of hard-working people. In these poems, the reader learns that their hopes and fears matter, and they are universal.

Personally, I have mixed feelings about poetry. Much poetry is personal and overly emotional. Diane Gilliam Fisher’s poems, though, are different. They are not her feelings or experiences. Through brilliant writing, she offers a glimpse into other people’s hearts and souls. In general, the collection reads like letters from home. Many are. Some are the last fleeting moments of coal miners trapped inside under collapsing ceilings. A few are tirades against the working conditions and the company’s far reach into the people’s lives. All of them are beautiful, profound, and magnificent. This is American history, not from those who wrote it, but from those who lived it. As Miss Pearlie Webb, Grade 8 tells the reader, “History is facts,” but sometimes, “…it ain’t got nothing to do with the truth.” In her collection Kettle Bottom, Diane Gilliam Fisher gives us both. For this reason, I give the collection of poems 5 stars. It’s well worth the read.

[Kristin Lyons · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The darkness here is the dark
of the blind, the dark behind
the blind, the purely unknown.”
-Diane Gilliam Fisher, “Journal of Catherine Terry,” lines 18-20

From the first page of Diane Gilliam Fisher’s 'Kettle Bottom,' readers will doubtlessly be captured by the subtle, yet intricate, poetic storytelling of true and devastating historical events. The collection contains an array of characters, all with compelling voices and memorable stories. Each speaker uniquely shares his or her experiences living in a West Virginian mining town in the years 1920 and 1921, and through their experiences, readers gain insight on the all-encompassing effects of coal mining. It explores not only the tragic fates of miners, but also broadens the perspective and highlights the victimization of all who lived in the town. Through its interconnected story lines and simple, haunting prose, 'Kettle Bottom' provides memorable and thought-provoking details about oppressed and marginalized communities and keeps readers’ interests piqued from start to finish.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Fisher’s collection is the attentiveness paid to each character and their indelible story arcs. In a collection of this size, one would expect readers to become lost in the intricate story lines, but they are written so carefully and memorably that readers will become involved with even once-mentioned characters and speakers. It will open readers’ eyes about a topic that is seldom mentioned in history classes and offer a new perspective of Appalachian living.
The most constant theme throughout Kettle Bottom is the constant, inescapable, all-encompassing darkness than inhabits both the coal mining community and its residents. It gets on their hands, their nicest clothes, the law, religion, and more, and it embeds itself in the most precious pieces of family life. One reoccurring character, Catherine Terry, has a series of journals about her time living in the mining town. In one of her deeply heartfelt journal entries, she states:
“Their gaze was the only spell they had
to conjure faces out of that dark; it pulled
like a rope on a well bucket, it was a net
flung out between a black sky and a black sea
drawn back empty and flung again.” (“Journal of Catherine Terry,” lines 31-35)
Through these troubled characters’ experiences and feelings, readers become painfully aware of the dark stain that measles its way into what is most personal and sacred. From Catherine Terry’s journals to the stained blankets in “Pink Hollyhocks” to the burned clothing in “Violet’s Wash” and the miner’s prayers in “Raven’s Light,” the darkness is prevalent, and it sticks and bleeds, even after washing.
The one apparent shortfall of 'Kettle Bottom' is its insatiable, overpowering sense of doom. Throughout the book, there is sadness after sadness, repeated by loss after loss. Like the darkness, the doom sticks, and it is cemented in each poem. Like the speakers and characters, readers will begin to expect chaos and destruction. There are many unexpected twists and turns, but at some points, readers may predict the end of the poem within the first few lines. Despite these critiques, however, each poem still maintains its own strength and importance within the overall collection. It is a striking and worthwhile read, and throughout, readers will connect with and cry out for each character.

[Justine · Rating 3 out of 5]

“First off, I do not understand what a book report is for. It seems to me books is to read, and it is the author’s job to write.” (A Book Report, by Pearlie Webb) Getting assigned to write a book review about an assigned reading could start with no other quote than one from Pearlie. The assigned reading was made very enjoyable because of Pearlie. Particularly her stance on book reports. “I did not mean to start nothing with that other book report, Miss Terry.” (Another Book Report, by Pearlie Webb)

Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom is a book of poetry with many different “narrators,” all about the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-21. There were many times reading that I forgot the book was written by one author from many different viewpoints because each narrator was so convincing, and their points of view were all heart-wrenching.

From the Author’s Note, “The events of the West Virginia mine wars of 1920 – 1921, grew out of decades of conflict. … The situation was aggravated by the organization of life in the camps, which the companies controlled in every respect. … Following the Matewan Massacre, violence escalated on both sides. Martial law was declared. Baldwin-Felts agents, in a strictly illegal, unconstitutional move, were deputized and allowed to operate in the camps with the full force of the law. … The miners, many of whom were World War I veterans, were convinced to return to their homes, at least partly because they were unwilling to fight against the armed forces they had so recently been a part of. … The events of 1920-1921 did little to better the lives of the miners and their families.” (1-2)

Truthfully, I would not have picked out this book to read on my own. It was an assigned reading in an English class titled “Images of the Working Class,” but I am also always excited about a textbook that is not actually a textbook. So while I wouldn’t have chosen it at the library to read for fun, I am very glad I was told to read it. It is a heartfelt look into life at the mines and told in a way that feels less non-fiction and sterile, more just trying to tell the people’s story. Again, the fact that I forgot multiple times that these poems were not written by individual people but by one author was a pleasant surprise and is telling of Fisher’s writing. Each poem either made me laugh or gave me a punch in the gut, which I think is important since the poems are about real events that happened to real people. Real events aren’t always sunshine and roses, even though that makes an easier read. Particularly when it’s involving people who are so essential to our daily life but continually looked down upon and forgotten. The working-class is integral to the life we know and love today, and yet they’re constantly ignored and put down. This book humanized them and brought us into their point of view and struggles.

[James McGinnis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kettle Bottom is a book in a lane, or perhaps a mine shaft, of its own. Intricately weaving together the lives of characters who lived during the West Virginia coal mine wars of 1920-1921, Fisher beckons the reader back in time with the poetic monologues of her diverse cast of characters. This book, the third from Dr. Diane Gilliam Fisher, was published in 2004 by Perugia Press, and it consists of 50 poems written from the perspective of coal mine workers and their families. Fisher has attempted to create the widest scope of reality possible within her book, as there are personal accounts from individuals of all sorts of backgrounds, including: black miners, miner’s daughters, foreign immigrants, orphaned children, weary wives, and weary old men. These characters each have distinct voices, whether it’s the sarcastic, young Pearlie’s musings about not believing in “being extra smart” because it “means a person has go to do extra work” (25), or the earnest journal entries of her teacher, Miss Terry. Miss Terry’s three journal entries are passioned perceptions about the coal mine town and its inhabitants, with beautiful and tragic poetic images of the “millions of green leaves… whispering and retreating” that “[give] glimpses beyond [their] curtain” (14). Her account of seeing a woman being told that her husband and two of her sons had disappeared in a mine shaft collapse where “even the air around her seemed bruised” as she put her ear against the rocks to listen for their cries is especially moving (56). A standout character is the fatherless, fifth grader, Walter, who is wrestling with deep grief over the loss of his Uncle Joe in a mine shaft collapse. He suggests to Miss Terry that maybe people can be petrified like wood (33) and asks his mother where the angels are that rolled away the rocks to Christ’s tomb (40).
It's not always clear who is speaking in the text, and that’s probably my biggest critique, but each voice is distinct and engaging. The story is made up of its characters, and they are all able to instill a sense of deep empathy in the reader; I don’t think this book would be nearly as effective if it were written in any other format. Out of four stars, I would have to give this book a good solid three, but that three is leaning towards the fourth star closely. This book has earned a spot on my bookshelf because of Fisher’s diverse cast of characters that I’ve come to know through the poems of Kettle Bottom.

[Sharon Stottlemyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The coke ovens at night
glow orange, like eyes
opening on the hillside,
like oracles, the founding
of a hearth for a new world.
(“Beautiful, the Owner Says,” 9-13)

Diane Gilliam Fisher, daughter of parents who were part of the post-war Appalachian outmigration, from Mingo County West Virginia and Johnson County Kentucky. Fisher's book, Kettle Bottom, published in 2004, is her second book. This book is a collection of poems that tell the stories of the people living in the coal mining camps in the 1920-1921 West Virginia mine wars. “Kettle bottom” is a miner’s jargon word for rock masses in mine roofs, they tend to be semicircular and are potential roof-fall hazards. As described in the second poem of Fisher’s book, entitled “L’Inglese”, (English), “What is “Kettle bottom,” “il sotto della caldaia” (Italian) “the under of the boiler” (English) that they fear? Drops through the mine roof (v.13) Kills a man just like that. (v. 15-16).

Coal mining is only part of the story in these poems. These poems give light on a people of Mingo County in 1920-1921 during the mine wars. The author through poetry gives a vivid description of mining camp life, the struggles, the emotional turmoil that families experienced and the conditions for the workers and their families in and out of the mines. You will learn that “You can’t have nothing clean,” from the poem Violet’s Wash. In the poem, My Dearest Hazel, you learn of a sister’s love and how mining effects every fiber of their family. Oh, the poem, Pink Hollyhocks, let me just say that the last verse of this one will make your heart melt “I turned the quilt over on the bed to keep them on me, Harlan’s hands. You will also read about warnings fathers give their sons that work in the mines,

“When I first come in the mine
Daddy told me, Them rats
can hear a branch crack
up on top of the mountain.
They hear the earth start to give
When the roof’s about to fall.
Them rats makes a run for the drift mouth,
You drop what you’re doing, son,
You run.
(“Raven Light” second stance second paragraph)

If it had not been for our assignment in my class, “Images of Working-Class Life” and required readings, I may never have read this heart changing book. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves history and learning about the real meaning of hard work. Fisher will have you laughing or crying all through her book. It also lets you see through different lenses people that are often looked down upon or even forgotten.” Kettle Bottom is a true reflection of working-class people.

[Macy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It breathed not smoke, but dust – a roof fall, the mouth of the mountain clamped shut, eating its children” (Fisher, 41). Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom explores the narratives of coal miners and their families during the West Virginia mine wars in 1920-1921 through poetry. Fisher made the lives and characters of these poems come to life with varying viewpoints to produce a full collection of what the coal miners and their families went through.
Kettle Bottom shows the tensions of the mining community during a time of public unrest. The miners’ safety and poverty-stricken living conditions were the leading themes throughout the novel. The poems feature perspectives from men and women of all ages and racial backgrounds. In the poem, “L’Inglese,” an Italian man claims “Lasciate ogni Speranza voi ch’entrate qui” (Leave all hope you who enter here) as he worked the mines (Fisher, 8). The men who entered the mines entered their own tombs.
Personally, Kettle Bottom makes the perspectives of the characters seem as if they are primary sources. If I had not known that the book was historical fiction, I would have believed it to be a collection of personal notes and letters. The intimate perspectives provide an understanding to the true history of the weight miners and their families had on their shoulders. The working class, in general, during these times were underappreciated and had to face hazards and filthy work conditions. The working class was succumbed to working in life-threatening careers with employers who did not care for the safety or situations of their laborers. One poem showcases the employers ignorance and greed with, “The darkness here is the dark of the blind, the dark behind the blind, the purely unknown” (Fisher, 14). Kettle Bottom does a behind the scenes look at what miners and their families had to endure to stay alive.
Overall, I would give Kettle Bottom a 4 out of 5 stars. It held just the right amount of reality to make a reader’s heart break. Anyone who is a poetry or history lover would love the unique perspective the poems of Kettle Bottom have to offer.

[Aimee Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book Kettle Bottom by Dianne Gilliam Fisher, is a very detailed book and thought out as the author has tied in deep emotions. The title “Kettle Bottom” is actually meaning the rocks in large quantities on the roofs of coal mines which can fall at any time and be very dangerous. What goes on in the book is something that most people shouldn’t have to go through and it is very hard to understand the depth of the events.
This book was published in 2004 but primarily talks about the years of 1920s. You do not need to read any other book to understand it. This book focuses on the working life while having families at home to take care of with the feeling of constant danger surrounding them all. You can imagine everything the author has brought into the books from the scenery of the mines to emotions and also the harsh conditions. I think the first poem really sets the mood for the whole book and it is called “Explosion at Winco No. 9”. It shows a family as loss because of a mining accident. There was an explosion and it killed many people, as they brought out the bodies you couldn’t even identify them. The wife Maude Stanley said “They brung out bodies, you couldn’t tell. I seen a piece of my old blue dress on one of them bodies, blacked with smoke, but I could tell it was my patch under the arm.” This also shows how poor people were and they can’t do anything but use what they have to fix their everyday clothing.
I really enjoyed this book because of how thorough it was. In todays day and age we don’t get to experience this and nor should we have to but it just goes to show how strong people were back then. I am not a big reader myself, but out of books I have read I would say this is the most interesting book. Not only is it interesting but it is very moving. I have learned from this book that if we think we are having a hard time in life, don’t be selfish and look from only our eyes. We need to be grateful for what we have today. I would rate this book a 9/10. I say that because it was great, but the wording was a little different and I assume that’s because they talked like that back then.

[Jenna Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories and the hardships faced by coal miners in Appalachia at the turn of the 20th century are not often told. In Diane Gilliam Fisher’s collection of poetry, “Kettle Bottom,” one has the opportunity to hear these tales so often forgotten. Some of the stories in Gilliam Fisher’s works are based on true events shared with her from family friends. The stories take place in Mingo County, West Virginia, home of a coal mine that waged a war against the Baldwin-Felts mining police in 1920-21. The work consists of three sections, broken up into seasons, following these wars. Each poem consists of voices from over a dozen narrators: from men who worked in the mines to their wives to their children to their school teacher. This work successfully evokes empathy in the reader for the challenges that these people faced, from living in poverty to performing hard and dangerous labor.
This work is appealing to those interested in historical fiction and poetry. The “voice” of the characters is mostly consistent throughout, representing the region in which the poems take place relatively successfully. We hear this voice distinctly in “Dear Diary,” a poem voiced by the character Edith Mae Chapman: “Daddy has scolded me for listening / to him and Uncle Ted, for there is things, / he told me, little girls aint meant / to understand. Nor go around repeating.” Gilliam Fisher avoids going too over the top with the Appalachian drawl, which adds to the quality of the piece. The content of the poems is somewhat typical for what you would expect from testimonials of a coal mining town. Gilliam Fisher writes of poverty and hunger, living in filth, men dying in the mines from “kettle bottom” rocks falling on them, women and children living in fear of their fathers and husbands not coming home, strikes and scabs, and mention of the company store (of course). The way that Gilliam Fisher writes these poems, however, has a certain emotional charge and energy to them that sets this work apart from others similar. I would rate this collection at 4 out of 5 stars for quality, depth, and consistency of characters.

[Jackie Abenante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Through her series of poems, Diane Gilliam Fisher transports you back to the 1920-21 West Virginia mine wars where she has her readers step into the shoes of the people who lived in the mining camps. Lonely wives, a trapped miner, sad children, an immigrant who came for a better life, and a teacher are among the many characters we meet along the way. Perhaps most notable is a young girl named Pearlie, whose uncomfortable encounter with some company men made her grown up overnight. Pearlie told us, "I have tried so hard to be so good, and now it is all for naught, for them men, them men has put murder in my heart".
Chapter 2 takes us into the dark, unforgiving mine where Nathan Stokes is trapped. As he tries to avoid being crushed by the falling rocks he travels deeper and deeper into the mine, knowing that he's gone too far to be saved. As the cold, pain and dehydration continue to ravage his body, he is haunted by thoughts of his beloved wife and burying his father after he too was lost to the mine.
The last chapter shows the readers how the miners lived through the strike after the mountain collapse. Men, women and children thrown out of their homes and forced to live fearfully in tents that would be destroyed by the company thugs on a whim. The stories becoming increasingly bleak and the reader feels every bit as trapped as the people at the camp. A kettle bottom is the name for a flat, petrified tree trunk in the roof of a mine that can give way at any moment and crush anything below it. Many miners have perished this way. In "My Dearest Hazel" on pg. 67, Hazel's sister wrote "the whole camp is like a mine with a hollow-sounding roof, and hid up there in the mountain above us, where we can't see it and can't nothing hold it up, that old kettle bottom is waiting to drop". Diane Gilliam Fisher does an excellent job of making the readers feel that despair, straight down to the last entry from a grieving mother who lost her 13 year old son "in [the] land where a boy can't ever grow old". Working class people just trying to provide for their families and make a life, doomed to the mountain with no chance to escape.

[Lisa Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I have tried so hard to be so good, and now It is all for naught, for them men, Them men has put murder in my heart” This is the closing line from ‘Pearlie Asks Her Mama What Poontang Means’ and I think that it really encapsulates the soul of this book. Kettle Bottom is a collection of poetry by Diane Gilliam Fisher. All of the poems are fictionalized accounts of the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1920-1921. Fisher was raised by a native of Mingo County, where the mine wars took place.
Fisher is able to utilize the West Virginia dialect very well. Her written dialogue spoken by the miners and their families feel very genuine, almost like a transcript rather than poetry. The language is definitely full of local colloquialisms and the speakers are for the most part uneducated. However, in her poem’s protagonists, Fisher does not equate uneducated with unintelligent or simple with easy to manipulate. She is able to show the struggles of working men and the wives who have to pick up the pieces when their husbands become ill or die. In both the husbands and wives, we see the struggle to provide for the children in conditions that aren’t getting any better. Fisher is also able to utilize child characters who see what is happening to their relatives but are unable to help, such as Pearlie Webb, who is sexually harassed by men and told by her mother to not make waves or Walter Coyle, who is absolutely devastated by the mining death of his uncle. These children and their peers are innocent victims of the struggles of their working class parents. The parents struggle with the concept of unionizing. Are we grateful for what we already have or do we fight for a better life? These are the concepts explored by Fisher through the townspeople of her poems.
I recommend this book, particularly if you are interested in worker’s rights, the history of unions, coal mining, or Appalachian culture. The poetry isn’t flowery, but is very raw and the characters within feel like real human beings. A lot of emotional weight and themes for a very small collection. I give it three stars.

[Pauline Santangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is a kettle bottom? Is it a place or thing? Read on to find out. Kettle Bottom was written by Diane Gilliam Fisher in the year 2004. Ms. Fisher is a poet and has other published works. This book is a collection of poems that focus on the coal mines of West Virginia in the early 20th century. It is an emotional trip back in time that reveals the working conditions of coal mining by the men who made that kind work their life, as well as the impact coal mining had on the miners and their families.
These poems offer a unique way to discover different people’s perspectives. Some of the poems in this book are from a child’s perspective. “Daddy, you are the huckleberry of my heart”, is what little Edith Mae says to her father in one poem. This adoring view cannot ever be changed by the tumultuous environment this child is living in. Some of the poems are from the miner’s perspective before there was talk of forming a union. “First hour of every shift down in the mine, shakes and cold sweats worse’n the grippe that near took me last spring”, echoes one miner. One poem by the mine owner makes it seem as if the mine itself is alive. “The coke ovens at night glow orange, like eyes, opening on the hillside”, provides visual imagery.
Reading these poems reveal who are the victims and who are the villains. My perspective was widened because of the individual views revealed within the collection. Different characters will appear in the poems along the read and learning about those characters in this way adds interest. The meaning of the words kettle bottom and its importance is revealed within the poems.
I would give this book a 4 star rating. It has a nice mix of history, interesting characters, and visual imagery. For the most part, the poems were understandable. There were some terms which were unfamiliar but at the end of the book there is a notes section which provide explanations.

[Sophia C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom is a collection of poems that centers the hardships experienced in the West Virginia coal-mining camps of the early 1920s. This collection of poetry sheds light on all of the voices affected by the coal camps including the miners, miners’ wives, mothers, children, immigrant workers, and even school teachers. The audience meets key characters in their own separate series of poems within the book, each exuding the qualities of the working class through their hard work, perseverance, and pride. The idea that members of the working class were obsessed with their professions (because it gave them ways to earn a living even at the cost of their own health) is apparent in characters like Clayton whose, “....lungs [was] so full of dust, some nights he [couldn’t] hardly draw breath. But he won’t go back to farming, even though Momma’d give [him] a stake on the home place,” (Fisher 9, lines 16-19).
Something I enjoyed about this book was how Fisher did not make it obvious as to which character stole the spotlight of each poem, which helps in keeping her audience engaged. I also liked how realistic/familiar the characters felt. Kettle Bottom was published in 2004, making it a fairly recent read, but undoubtedly a great choice of literature for a course that focuses on the “working class.” This book is its own piece and not a part of a larger series, however, it may do one good to perform intertextual research as Fisher ties religious and cultural influences into her work. This is not something I disliked about the book, though had I not been reading it for a class, I would not have been motivated to research terms and phrases I did not understand, and this may have made the stories difficult to interpret. Pick-up this book if you would like to explore the gruesome details of one of our country’s most desired yet prison-like professions!

Gilliam Fisher, Diane. Kettle Bottom. Perugia Press, 2004.

[Aliviah Abrams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of us have no knowledge about coal mining and how life was during the days of old-fashioned coal mining. Its dangers, sacrifices, and long-term effects of the difficult work has become forgotten with new technology and safer methods of extracting coal. Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom is a nonfiction collection of poems about life in West Virginia during the coal miner strike that took place from 1920 to 1921. You’re able to experience what life was like for the children and wives of coal miners along with seeing the point of view of immigrants that all lived in coal mining camps. This book does contain some serious topics for instance the quote that a child shares after the death of a young boy, “Ain’t I already living in a land where a boy can’t never grow old?” We’re able to imagine how children were forced to work in or near the mines at an early age and you’ll be able to see this through the point of view of concerned mothers and fathers struggling to have enough money to survive. There are many references to death and gruesome ways people died in the mines and how this impacted their families. You’ll be able to follow the different characters as they go through the coal mine strike and see how it impacted their families. I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to since I usually avoid poetry books and historical poetry seems like it may be difficult to follow and enjoy. It was confusing to read at first since the poems aren’t separated by person and stories revolving around the same person or family is scattered in different parts of the book. That being said, I learned a lot reading Fisher’s collection of poems about a coal mine worker strike that I never even knew happened in the past. Overall, I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in historical literature and enjoys reading poetry.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you put your shoes on for work in the morning, do you look at your family and think, “This might be the last time I ever see them?”. Many of us would answer no, but that was the reality for mine workers. Every day they didn’t know if they would be coming home to their family and their family was left wondering if the same. Little girls wondering if they would ever see their daddy again, wives wondering if they just shared their last kiss with their husbands. Kettle Bottom gives the reader a glimpse of what knowing a miner was like or living during such a difficult period as someone in the middle class.
Kettle Bottom is a novel filled with poetry by Diane Gilliam Fisher. The novel was published by Amsterdam University in 2004. The book focuses on the labor struggles that happened in America between 1920-1921. Diane took real events that occurred and gave them a backstory by creating these poems. She stood in each person’s shoes and wrote poetry from their points of view. The poems vary between little girls who fear men who harass them at the store, to wives who warn their sisters of the struggles that come along with marrying a coal miner.
If I were to rate this book, I would give it 2 stars our of 5. While it is a low rating, I would say the book isn’t a terrible read. It depends on if you are a reader who likes to read poetry. I am one who has a difficult time getting into a novel full of poems. Though I liked that each poem was from a different person’s perspective, sometimes it repeated a person’s perspective and I found it difficult to keep track of all the people. I think if you enjoy reading poems, this will be a quick read for you. If you come from a family of coal miners, I believe you will also enjoy this book. It will give you a glimpse into what your family lineage might have gone through.

[Greta Aldrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine you were taken back to a time without advanced technology, without modern medicine, and had to live self-sustaining while working tirelessly long hours underground from sunrise to sunset to provide for a family. The physical toll this would take on your back, your lungs, your heart, let alone the mental stress, would lead some to madness. This is the lifestyle Diane Gilliam sheds light upon in her book titled Kettle Bottom. Within the pages you’ll find many characters of various ages and stages of life all sharing the same reality of working in the coal mines of 1920’s Apalachia, all sharing their own perspective. This collection of works takes great care in developing characters and storylines which readers can relate and sympathize with, allowing them to become more invested in the lives of those who experienced such tragedies. You should read this title if you enjoy historical fiction OR nonfiction, because while still fictionalized, Gilliam intentionally based her writings on the livelihoods of real individuals and the common sufferings of this era. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5, because while it isn’t exactly my type of go-to reading, I highly appreciate the depth and humanity Gilliam injects into her writing. The characters and utilization of their perspective is moving and not used heavy-handedly. There’s also a sense of humor that goes into many of these characters, such as when Pearlie says in her twangy little accent “my mama has taught me do not sass, so I will write my book report as I am told”, these small details aid the audience in feeling closer to the narrator, who’s Pearlie in this instance.

[Katrina Weber]

“What it means to us is a lot of dead husbands and caved-in bellies” (Fisher, 70). This quote from Kettle Bottom shows the fear that people had while living in coal mine camps. Kettle Bottom was written by Diana Gilliam Fisher and published in 2004. Kettle bottom is a series of poems regarding life in coal mine camps set in the 1920’s. Fisher is well advised in this area since her parents once lived in the Appalachian area where the coal mining took place.
Fisher does a good job at capturing the coal mining era. Throughout the poems you meet reoccurring characters that each tell their own story of the coal mining life. From Pearlie Webb, a daughter of a miners, wives of miners and the miners themselves. Fisher creates a deeper understanding of the daily struggles present on coal mining camps through these character’s voices. Fisher’s poems enable her readers to feel as if they are there on the coal mine camps witnessing the stories firsthand. In November of 2021 my family was able to tour an old coal mine in Centralia, PA. Being able to visualize the coal mine while reading the text added to my understanding and enjoyment of the poems.
I would recommend this book to everyone with a 4/5 - star rating. One of the reasons I believe Fisher’s poems should be read by everyone is because it shows the exploitation that coal mining companies had on the American citizens. While it’s not the exact same this type of exploitation is still happening all around the world today. Fisher’s poems bring appreciation to the sacrifices made by coal miners and awareness to exploitation happening today.

[Ariana]

The book “Kettle Bottom” by Diane Gilliam Fisher is a book of poems that consists of fifty-one poems that are divided into three sections and narrated by different speakers. Throughout the book, the speakers will appear and disappear throughout the book but you be able to recognize who is who as you read the poems. In the kettle bottom, its characters include the miners and the families, the town’s teacher, and the ones that stood out to me the most, the black coal miners who were given the most dangerous job, and their families who are segregated from the white families. There were even families who were tricked into living and working in a coal mine country, and the owners of the mine were included as well. Throughout the poem, you feel a lot of pain and emotions as you read.
The very first poem “Explosion at Winco No.9”, which is told by Maude Stanley a young wife of a miner that died in the explosion talks about the aftermath after a disaster happens in the mine. She described the shocking task that is left to the women after a loved one has been severely injured, or died. In the poem, it says “it is true that is the men that goes in, but it is us that carries the mine inside. It is us that listens to what all they are scared of and takes the weight of it from them, like handing off a sack of meal. Us that learns by heart birthmarks, scars, and fingers. How teeth set crooked or straight. Us that picks up the pieces.” the women and the families are left to do the hardest job of all, identifying the corpse of their loved one. Being a miner is a difficult job, but one person isn’t going to go through the rough times, the entire family is going to deal with it.

[Candy Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Them rats makes a run for the drift mouth, you drop what you are doing son, and run” (p.46). These and other pearls of coal mining wisdom can be found throughout the poignant and often disturbing pages of Kettle Bottom, a riveting collection of poems by Diane Fisher Gilliam. This book, written about the West Virginia mine wars that took place from 1920-1921, was published by Perugia Press in 2004

The hardships and tragedies that befell the miners, are told in the first person by the men, women, and children who experienced them. It is the poems of the children that always tug the hardest on the heartstrings. Little Edith Mae Chapman, learns the price one must pay for accepting charity, when she assures her mother that her new coat is warm, “for it is only my heart that is cold” (p. 57). Eighth-grader, Pearlie Webb, has seen and heard things in the mining town that no child should ever have to experience. Fisher’s youngest characters make the reader want to reach through time and give these brave children a hug. The reader quickly learns why Edith Mae writes in her History essay, “My daddy is very upset with the Lord” (p. 57).

I would highly recommend this book, not only for its historical relevance, but for the quality and depth of the writing as well. I give this book 5 stars. My only misgiving about the book is that Fisher allows us to part with some of the beloved characters without ever learning their fate.

Works Cited

Gilliam, Diane. Kettle Bottom. Florence, Mass., Perugia Press, 2004.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kettle Bottom Offers a Vivid and Emotional Way to Learn About Mining History

Kettle Bottom is a collection of 50 poems by Diane Gilliam Fisher, published in 2004. Split into 3 sections, these works tell stories of men, women, and children who lived and worked in the West Virginia mining community, centered around the mine wars of 1920-1921.

The works in this collection give the reader a full picture of mining towns of the era: the way they lived and worked, their hopes and lack thereof, and the everyday decisions each person had to make to survive or make sure their families did.

I give this book a 5-star review because the author really made me feel like I was part of this community 100 years ago. Readers hear from children, miners, wives, a schoolteacher, and even the owner. Each has a story of loss and of life.

The second poem, “L’Inglese,” gives the reader their first explanation of the book’s title. Most striking to me is the ending line of this poem, “Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’entrate qui,” or “Leave behind all hope, Ye who enter here” from Dante’s Inferno. This is not only a strong illustration of the dangers of mining, but it is also an appropriate warning for what sort of story the reader is about to experience.

I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn more about the West Virginia mine wars of 1920-1921. Often when reading about events so long ago, it is difficult to fully empathize with people’s circumstances. This solves that issue by providing a full range of people’s emotions in this setting.

I would not recommend this book for people who prefer their poetry to be rhyming or autobiographical.

[Ember · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Firth off, I do not understand what a book report is for” (Fisher 25). When the world is falling apart all around, the need for small tasks such as a book report seem small like described in the book Kettle Bottom written by Diane Gilliam Fisher published by Perugia Press.
Kettle Bottom is a collection of poems that describes an assortment of different people’s experiences during the coal mining period. Life experienced in the coal camps were different for everybody. From the wife doing the washing, children going to school, and men working in the mines the lasting effects of the coal mines followed them. “We are all in it now, like it or not” (Fisher 67). The lifestyle was chosen for them as if a destiny they were born to live out.
I give this book 4 stars. The theme behind Fisher’s collection of poems related to the working class helped give a broad example of not only what the minors went through, but also the people that were around them. Fisher did a great job of not having a narrow point of view which is hard to find when reading about the working class. The images of pain and weariness described in these poems made me feel like I was able to see what they were experiencing. I cannot imagine living through a period such as this, but thanks to people like Diane Gilliam Fisher I have a better understand of this past. The title of this book is perfect for the stories that were brought to life inside. So, what is “Kettle bottom?”
Fisher, Diane Gilliam. Kettle Bottom. Perugia Press, 2004.

[Ally Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever noticed how life for miners impacted everyone and everything it touched? Kettle Bottom, a collection of poems by Diane Gilliam Fisher, shows how so many different characters can be touched by the mines in different ways and on different levels. The poems focus on a variety of characters, all of whom are different ages, from a range of backgrounds, and have different things going on in life, but somehow the mines still affect them all. Fisher’s poem shows readers the different struggles and challenges that everyone had to face, whether they were a miner themselves, or the daughter or wife of a miner, or even if they just simply lived in the town. Mining is grueling and dangerous work, and men would come home filthy and exhausted, stressing about how they are going to make ends meet.
This book was interesting to read, and I really liked the author’s use of a large variety of characters. It provides readers with a better perspective of life for coal miners and their families. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the working class, or anyone who may want a closer look into the personal lives of coal miners. While this was interesting and enlightening to read, I also didn’t feel any sort of personal connection with the poems. If your ancestors previously worked in mines, this may be more interesting for you, but sometimes I found it difficult to relate to. There was also frequent use of slang or a certain vernacular that frequently pulled me out of the story, which is why I rated this book 3 stars.