I should not be surprised that others on this list are
familiar with Breece D'J Pancake but it is still gratifying
to read the comments. As Todd mentioned, I think there is
something about the coal territory that is given to suicide.
My wife's people are from Harlan ("Bloody Harlan") and Bell
County Kentucky and the depression there is something I am
well aware of. Her Uncle Carl committed suicide even though
back in 1945 he survived a fall from the eleventh floor of
the Admiral Farragutt Hotel in Knoxville, Tenn. (a feat that
got him into Ripley's Believe It Or Not). Carl didn't exactly
"fall" as he was going out for a football pass and the
quarterback overthrew...well, its a long story.
I always wondered how a person who could be that lucky
to live could later
(decades later I admit) decide to end it all by choice. I
think I told the story of Uncle Carl at the 2001 Bouchercon
in one of two impromptu evening storytelling "slams" with Joe
Lansdale. Crider, who never drinks anything stronger than Dr.
Pepper, can be the final word on that front. Now that I think
of it, I don't think Lansdale was drinking either. Unfair
advantage I say.
We are enduring a Hurricane here on the East Coast. Things
are fine so far. We still have power, unlike most of my
friends. Water is coming under the windows in the direction
of the ocean but we mop it up with towels. The most desperate
people I have seen today are those who splated against the
ABC liquor store doors (which, state-owned, were all closed).
But I am snug with plenty of Scotch (and if that goes I will
venture into the wonderful Irish whiskey Red Breast) and I
have plenty of wine. Oh yeah, and food as well.
Now to return to West Virginia writers (and beyond), I also
recommend John Douglas. Novels include SHAWNEE ALLEY FIRE
(St. Martin 1987), BLIND SPRING RAMBLER (St. Martin 1988) and
HAUNTS (St. Martin 1990). I think, but am not positive, that
he is also the writer by that name who has contributed to
various music publications spectializing in the "Blues." Good
stuff, Whoever wrote it!
I also recommend John Yount, another "mountain" writer, even
though his fine novel HARDCASTLE about a violent coal strike
features a villain with my wife's family name Cawood. I won't
blame him for that. There is, afterall, a town named Cawood
in Harlan County named after her great grandfather who
achieved local fame (so I am told) by being the first person
elected to Sheriff to live out his term of office.
I say all this without prejudice to mountain people (who are
admittedly different from the mass) as my grandfather was
born in Clay County, North Carolina
("Deliverance" territory) and his grandfather is buried in
nearby Shooting Creek, N.C. The generation in between is
buried at Blue Creek Baptist Church in White County Georgia,
just across the state line from NC.
Richard Moore
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