I was raised on the ridge where this book takes place. These people were always real to me, and the way Mr. Stuart describes them is as true to form as possible. I read the book when I was a little girl and then again when I was in my teens, and for the last few years I have not been able to find it. I am happy to have the opportunity to let my kids read this treasured book. My son has actually been in the play that was adapted from the book. This book has been a part of my family's history since it was written, and being from the same places as the characters, and knowing the people of this community I am proud to say that I am a raised in the hills of East Tennessee, Newman's ridge runner.

This book was so great that my 4 sisters read it and we talked about it all the time. My nieces heard so much about it they have read it as well. We talked like the Huntoons and picked out their strange names to call ourselves. I've looked for it for years but I was spelling Stuart wrong so I couldn't find it on the library shelves. Now I can sign it out again and read it and relive my childhood. I also want to read more about the Melungeons.

It's hard for me to emphasize what a good book this is. It has everything one could want: a compelling, well-told story, finely drawn characters, a wonderfully evoked setting, and a literate style. A winner.

When Burrison University English Department shut down his folklore section, Dr. "Fever" Devilin knew it was time to go home to the Georgia Appalachian Mountains. Fever figures that the time is right to write about his home lore yet also put to rest the past that he fled when he first went off to college.

He moves back into his family's cabin on Blue Mountain where Fever plans to reacclimatize from the academia think tank world to the more mellow isolated environs. His best friend from childhood, now Deputy Sheriff Skidmore Needle, arrives at the cabin to greet his old buddy, but finds a corpse just outside the edifice prior to the professor's arrival. They quickly learn that the deceased is Fever's half-brother, a blood relative he never knew he had. Fever wonders if perhaps he was the intended victim and if so why. Unable to heed Skidmore's advice, Fever begins making inquiries into who would want either he or his sibling dead.

THE DEVIL'S HEARTH is a discerningly written regional amateur sleuth that employs some police procedural elements to enhance the feeling of realism. Fever is a delightful lead protagonist who keeps the story line focused. The secondary cast including his buddy, a university colleague, and locals embellishes a powerful plot that delivers a wonderful look at Appalachia folklore interwoven within well designed who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

This book will make you look at your Appalachian surroundings like you never have before. With some information about the broad mountain vistas(forest canopy, common large animal species, etc), this book specializes on intimate looks at the amazing flora and fauna details of the woods (Jack in the Pulpits, wild Orchids, Salamanders, Fireflies, etc.) It is an interesting and itriguing study of Appalachian ecology. This isn't a textbook, but it does involve a bit of scientific jargon, some detailed scientific concepts, and a rather impressive vocabulary. However, each chapter is a short vinette and the author is careful to summarize major themes in the final paragraph of each story. You are gaureeted to take away some new concept and to look at the world around you a bit more carefully.

After reading this book, I had a new appreciation for the Appalachian ecosystem. Every tree, every bird, every insect holds secrets of its adaptation within this ecosystem. Every chapter of this book summarizes studies pertaining to a topic, such as the politics of mixed-species bird flocks or the demographics of box turtles. Everyone who lives in, visits, or conducts business in the Appalachian system should read this book.

Set in rural Kentucky around WWII, this book is so good, it should replace Huckelberry Finn as "the great american novel". It is ashamed that it isn't better known, but unfortunately Arnow-Simpson is thought of as a regional writer. This is a very deep book, but it also has some very funny parts. Her description of pre-consumerism country life is very detailed and insightful. She saw how the world was changing, and captured a piece of it that is now long gone. I'm not even an hunting type, and I wanted to go out and get a couple of hounds after reading this. Better even than The Dollmaker, and not half as sad. Highly Recommended!

This book captures the spirit, character, and complexities of the mountain people of eastern Kentucky better than any other I have read. The individuals are simple, strong-willed, and proud like many of the people I grew up with. The descriptions of the landscape are detailed, accurate, and compelling as I remember them. For anyone interested in a better understanding of the depth of human character explained in a very readable way, this is a terrific book

Though the Jewish population of Westmoreland County is spread more thinly than it would be in Brooklyn or Miami Beach, anthropologist Mark Gruber sees the same themes repeated here he would associate with large Jewish settlements in urban areas -- themes that include "skills on how to live as a minority and how to do so with a dignified and decent kind of life. How to cope with the pressures of people who are anti-Semitic or who are ignorant. I just see such a marvelous ethnic heritage being passed on," he said. "I am strangely proud to be a son of the soil from which these storytelles have come," writes Gruber, a Benedictine monk, in his introductory notes to the book. "My people also figure in this narrative: we are `bit players' in their drama."

The subjects of the book range in age from their 50s to their 90s, representing the collective experience of several generations who arrived in Westmoreland County in three distinct waves: during the Civil War, at the turn of the 20th century and as mid-century refugees. Mostly of Russian and Lithuanian descent, they built several communities clustered around synagogues in Greensburg, Jeannette, Latrobe and Mount Pleasant. Many of the original settlers were Pittsburgh based peddlers who sought customers among the county's coal miners and farmers. They went on to develop a number of well-known mercantile fortunes. They took active roles in the civic organizations of the wider community. Most individual accounts reflect a common lifestyle built around Judaic law and tradition: the temple as central institution; the family name as sacrosanct; the male as leader and provider. Education, often not far below having food on the table and clothes to wear, was a paramount goal.----Diane McMullin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh East, Wednesday, November 12, 1997

Fun, serious, and thoroughly readable. Chris Bolgiano weaves grounded environmentalism and ecological awareness with history and stories/case studies to bring our awareness to a complex subject. This book presents solid Appalachian forest information to the reader in a manner that keeps one reading. Forests are complex, there are many approaches and techniques to sustainability, and Ms. Bolgiano seems to get to most. Simply, I found this book a delight to read and I learned so much from it.

Those of us who own and/or treasure portions of Appalachia's forest will find in Chris Bolgiano's concise 200 pages a wealth of useful information. She interviews a wide spectrum of foresters, loggers, strip-miners, nature lovers, and other "shareholders"---bringing us up-to-date about the use (and too often the abuse) of what might be the most diverse temperate forest in the world. When Bolgiano visited mountaintop- removal stripmine sites, she found that over 99 percent of the natural diversity had been destroyed---but that western elk had been imported to the stripmined land as a sort of fig leaf to cover the devastation. She describes ways that land can be put in trust and legally protected against such abuse--including against abuse by future owners. One of the book's main themes is sustainable logging---which can best be done with horses rather than machines, and which increasingly now rejects the "high-grading" system of timber selection in favor of "low-grading"---thereby leaving the best trees in place to reproduce. These practices are spreading fast in Appalachia with the help of Smartwood certification and also thanks to professional forestry consultants such as Appalachian Sustainable Development, based in southwestern Virginia. In first-person prose that often sparkles, Bolgiano relates her adventures while visiting all sorts of people whose lives and livelihoods revolve around the forest. She embeds a major delivery of crucial history and current facts in a light-hearted telling of her personal adventures. Her book is not only a pleasure to read but highly informative. It's a major resource for anyone who wants to pitch in and try to save some special part of the Appalachian region from becoming a national sacrifice area. -Paul Salstrom

Great book, well written, easy to read, good humor.
Smart layout enables you to xerox the two facing pages to have a complete map and guide for each ride.
The reference section at the end of the book gives you phone number and other info for hotels, restaurants, dealerships, chamber of commerce, etc.; very convenient.

Highly recommended.

I first read about this book in an article in the Atlanta Journal/Constitution and had to buy a copy. It was a little hard to find. After reading and taking in many of the adventures listed in the book by Hawk Hagebak, I must say that it is the most insightful and intelligent Motorcycle Guidebook I've ever read. The author uses his experience as a former motorcycle cop to give practical (and humorous!) advice for everything between avoiding a ticket to handling a breakdown. He's really funny! The book is broken into 20+ chapters, each chapter is a ride. The rides include restaurant recommmendations, road descriptions, a map and often some interesting information about the area. My favorite quote from the book is on page 9 where the author is telling the reader how to embellish a "road lie". "I was riding Mile High and the abominable snowman came out of one of the scenic overlooks and chased me all the way into Robbinsville!" The author continues, "Lesson learned? Other than the obvious hazard of a slick road, there's an abominable snowman to contend with, and who wants that?" Another funny quote is in Ridge and Valley Chapter. That ride cuts through a town named, "Sublinga". The author pokes fun at the name by saying, "No, not the medical word- Doctor, my Sublinga is swollen!" The maps are great and they're next to written directions to the right of the maps. I found the rides easy to find and easy to follow. He even includes the mileage from point to point (you can reset your odometer at the start of the ride to keep up with the map mileage). If you are new to the area or have been living in the region for several years (myself for 7 years). I thought I knew all the mountain roads, I do know a lot of them, but not with the detail provided in the book. Very handy, if only the area for the book were larger..... Maybe he will put out another motorcycle guide book? A great buy, even if you are not a biker like me. Just stick your head out the window to act like you're on a bike.... Enjoy...I sure did.

I found myself laughing while reading this book, and crying, at times, too. Jean has a style of writing that makes the reader feel like he/she's there. The people come to life, and you find yourself living with them in the Kentucky Cumberlands. I don't think I've ever even been there, and this book made me homesick.

Of course, if you're looking for crime and action, this isn't the book for you. This book is about 'down home' living when chores were really chores and food was home grown. In ways, it was a simpler kind of life, but in other ways, it was a lot harder.

You won't find this information in a history book. History books always put a tint on the past, leaving out peoples' mistakes and their imperfections. This is a real family story told by a real family person. It's evident that the two most important things in the writer's life were her family and their musical life together.

On a different level, I can't tell you, as an amateur genealogist, how valuable this book is to me. Every page has stories about the people who grew up in the time and place of my kin, many of them even mentioned by name. The next time I read it, I will be gleaning information for my tree! And this is one of the few books that I will read again and again.

Good job, Jean Ritchie. Thank you for bringing the Cumberlands of Kentucky to life for your readers.

The book is absolutely beautiful. It makes Jean Ritchie's songs more relevant, to read the words and the stories she associates with them. The mention of mining in the last chapter saddens me because I know what happened to all such communitites when the coal ran out. The book is beautiful.

Having hiked over 650 A.T. miles, this book's predecessor has been a great help in planning my hikes and shuttles. I was hoping to get the new 2000 version of "Wingfoot's" book. My 1995 version has provided details about motels, restaurants, shuttles, hiking break points and things to ponder on The Trail. If you are going to hike any distance on The A.T., you need this book. Happy Trails, JASH

Just want to put in my two cents about what Dan has done here. This book contains vital information to hiking the Appalachian Trail. Everything from which shop ownwers are the friendy ones, the which laundromats have dryers big enough for your sleeping bag. I highly recommend buying two copies of this book though. You'll obvoiusly want one copy while you're hiking, but the other should be left at home for your "support team". Additionally, the 2000 edition should be releases sometime in February.

The subtitle to this book is "Railroads, Deforestation, and Social Change in West Virginia 1880 - 1920." The principle reason for the deeply-embedded poverty in Central Appalachia is the fact that the region continues to be a colony of industrial powers. Beginning in the mid-19th century, iron, coal, railroad, and timber companies teamed with national, state, and local politicians to exploit the natural resources -- coal and timber -- and the people of Central Appalachia. The result was devastation of a culture, destruction of a people, and destruction of the environment. And, I am incorrect to use the past tense -- clear-cutting of forests continues and "mountain-top removal" mining continue to destroy the culture, communities, and landscape of Central Appalachia. Lewis' book is an excellent description of what happens when politicians and industrial leaders join in league to exploit a region.

Note that this book deals with events of 1880 - 1920 -- so why is it important today? Because what was done to Central Appalachia in that period is being done to the rest of us today under the guise of "economic globalization." For example, the people of McDowell County, WV, are powerless in the face of Norfolk Southern (railroad company) because NS owns 85 percent of the land in the county. Just exactly what do you think will happen when "global" corporations own the factories, the minerals, and the workers? The experience of Appalachia with industrial and political exploitation is the same experience that awaits all of us under "economic globalization."

I enjoy historical narratives about turn of the century logging in West Virginia. Many texts cover the economic aspects of logging in terms of the timber processed. Other books detail the milling process or the lifestyle of the lumberjack in the WV wilderness. However, this is the first book I have encountered that describes the social ramifications of the logging industry in defining the WV culture. Ronald Lewis has opened up new discussions of how early steam technology impacted the remote lifestyles of West Virginia. This book gives a fresh viewpoint that is needed in re-evaluating the romanticized description of Appalachian lumbering in the last century.