Mary Lee Settle: Searching For The Roots of Freedom.

The recent date of July 29 marks the birthday of distinguished West Virginia novelist Mary Lee Settle. Although she wrote numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, she is probably best known for her cycle of novels known as the “Beulah Quintet,” which trace the histories of several West Virginia families from their origins in the…

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Sugar-Boy

“He always sat up front with Sugar-Boy and looked at the speedometer and down the road and grinned to Sugar-Boy after they got through between the mule’s nose and the gasoline truck. And Sugar-Boy’s head would twitch, the way it always did when the words were piling up inside of him and couldn’t get out,…

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Robert Penn Warren: Born April 24, 1905.

The distinguished novelist, poet, critic and man of letters Robert Penn Warren, best known to many readers for his novel All The King’s Men, was born on this date in 1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky. Robert Penn Warren is the only writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for both fiction and poetry. He was also the…

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Winter: Hail and Farewell

“Farewell to winter’s frozen water-weeds. Farewell to dark hills and clouds that foul the sky; Farewell to snowbirds eating ragweed seeds And winds that blow dead leaves across the rye. And shake old sparrow nests among the eaves; Farewell to daisies under pasture stumps; Farewell warm rabbit blood upon dead leaves And greenbriar thickets where…

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Works by Ohio Valley writers adapted into Oscar-nominated films.

In honor of the Academy Awards this evening, I’ve got an overview here of some of the Academy Award-nominated movies based on books by Ohio valley authors. All of these writers will eventually be profiled here at Buckeyemuse. The man who dominates the list here with two film adaptations is Indiana novelist Booth Tarkington. What…

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The Long Journey of Thomas Merton

He was born in France and died in Thailand. But when he was laid to rest it was in the soil of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky where he had lived for 27 years as a monk of the Trappist order, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. Thomas…

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