Seeking A People Partnership
Perley Ayer

Eleven speeches by the late Executive Director of the Council of the Southern Mountains, who believed "every person - man, woman and child - should have the opportunity to be better than he or she is. " Perley Ayer was one of the best of the "outsiders" who came to the Southern Mountains in the first half of this century to invest their lives in the fortunes of Appalachian people. First in North Carolina, then Tennessee, and finally at Berea College, he was an excellent teacher. Not content just to teach, he could preach, write, and make marvelous speeches. In 1951, he was asked to take over the moribund Council of the Southern Mountains. With characteristic imagination and vigor, he resurrected it, built an impressive membership, prepared it for foundation-supported projects and then the government's War on Poverty of the mid-sixties.

Paper, 36 pages. ($1.50)

Radio's "Kentucky Mountain Boy," Bradley Kincaid
Loyal Jones

A biography of the early collector, singer and radio star , with words and music to 50 of his songs and notes on his 332-song repertory, a recording discography, 42 pictures and an index.

Paper, 193 pages. ($7.50)

Faith and Meaning In The Southern Uplands
Loyal Jones

In Faith and Meaning in the Southern Uplands, one of the Appalachian region's most eloquent spokesmen reveals a people devoted to and thoughtful about their religion, and profoundly influenced by it. Loyal Jones's three decades of conversations and interviews, supplemented by documents such as sermons, testimonies, and articles of faith, articulate Southern Upland views on basic issues of the human condition--faith, God, the world, the Word, and the devil--as well as on community issues such as racial integration and women in the church. In their own voices these people describe their beliefs, their churches, and their lives, exposing a deep conviction tempered with humanity and humor.

Paper, 245 pages. ($16.95)

Coon Creek Girl
Lily May Ledford

The story of one of country music radio's earliest and most important women singing groups, The Coon Creek Girls, told by Lily May herself. From Eastern Kentucky, they first broadcast on Chicago's WLS National Barn Dance in the early 1930's, and later went back to Kentucky where they became a fixture on the Renfro Valley Barn Dance Program directed by John Lair. In 1939, they performed at the White House for President Roosevelt and the visiting King and Queen of England. 1991 reprint of the original 1980 edition, with a new introduction by Loyal Jones.

Paper, 31 pages, with photos. ($2.50)

Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers
Betty N. Smith

Jane Hicks Gentry lived her entire life in the remote, mountainous northwest corner of North Carolina and was descended from old Appalachian families in which singing and storytelling were part of everyday life. Gentry took this tradition to heart, and her legacy includes ballads, songs, stories, and riddles. Smith provides a full biography of this vibrant woman and the tradition into which she was born, presenting seventy of Gentry's songs and fifteen of the "Jack" tales she learned from her grandfather.

Paper, 226 pages. ($25.00)

The Holy Season: Walking in the Wild
Albert Stewart

Stewart, a native of Knott County, Kentucky, is a teacher, editor, poet and artist. He founded the regional magazine, Appalachian Heritage, and writers' workshops at Morehead State University and the Hindman Settlement School. The Holy Season is a handsome volume, with 8 color plates of the author's artwork which complement the theme of his poetry. Kevin Nance, in the Lexington Herald-Leader, had this to say about Stewart and his poetry: "The older he gets, the more everything seems to come together in a wholeness of creation. He talks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, navigating an ocean of time, the sea of life. Now, nearing the end of his own voyage, he has a message 'too marvelous to keep':

Who should I tell
Who should I show?
It could be you.
Like the Mariner, I am looking
For the one to whom it must be told.

Hardback, 72 pages ($14.00)

The Wolfpen Poems
James Still

James Dickey, in a Los Angeles Times review, said, " The Wolfpen Poems seem to establish Still as the truest and most remarkable poet that the mountain culture has produced. The poems are quiet, imaginative and sincere, and the poet's terrible grief over the loss of a way of life registers with double effect because of the modesty of statement."

Paper, 82 pages, ($7.50)

Southern Mountain Speech
Cratis D. Williams

This book is a collection of articles on Appalachian speech from Mountain Life & Work, the North Carolina Historical Review, and elsewhere. The book was compiled and edited by Jim W. Miller and Loyal Jones, and includes an introduction by Professor Miller and a 62-page glossary of mountain words and phrases gleaned from Williams' work, from other writers and practitioners of mountain speech, and from the editors' retentive memories. The book also includes a bibliography and several photos of Williams.

Paper, 133 pages. ($8.95)