By John W. McCauley, Lexington
Kentucky has been blessed to have known several great writers, but perhaps, none quite like Jesse Stuart. The man with the bull-tongue plow captivated a nation and the world with his novels, poetry and short stories. He was a pure and unfiltered artist of the written word. In 1954, he was named Kentucky’s second Poet Laureate, along with Edwin Carlile Litsey, by the Kentucky General Assembly.
Jesse Hilton Stuart was born on Aug. 8, 1906, in Greenup County. His parents were Mitchell and Martha Stuart. He was the second of seven children and lived in a one-room log cabin. His father was a coal miner and tenant farmer. He attended a one-room school for a couple of years before dropping out to help his father farm. His mother had scant schooling, and his father was illiterate but wanted Jesse to become a school teacher.
At 15, Stuart was eager to continue his education, so he passed an entrance exam to return to school. In high school, he was introduced to writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and Henry David Thoreau. After graduating from Greenup High School, Stuart held several jobs before attending college.
College admission proved to be a bit of a challenge, but Stuart was accepted at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. As a student, he had no success in getting his early poems published. He became editor of the college newspaper and was the first to publish his own poetry. This hard-working and determined young man worked his way through college and graduated in 1929. Stuart returned home, where he taught for one year at a one-room high school with 14 students. The following year, he became principal of Greenup High School.
Stuart had done summer graduate work at Peabody College in Nashville, and he was eager to formally continue his education. He returned as principal of Greenup High School for another year before his acceptance into graduate school at Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, Stuart wrote an autobiography, Beyond Dark Hills, that he submitted as a term paper, all while working his way through school. This was exceptional and certainly not the norm for a graduate student. His writing was influenced by his Appalachian roots and sometimes considered homespun. Stuart was always direct and welcomed a good debate, especially with Robert Penn Warren, a fellow Kentuckian who became a Pulitzer Prize winning author and United States poet laureate.
Stuart remained at Vanderbilt for one school year before returning home as a school administrator and to continue his writing. As head of the Greenup County schools, he became the youngest superintendent in the state.
Back in W-Hollow, while plowing the fields, Stuart began to write 703 sonnets. Published in 1934, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow was considered to be one of the best works in American poetry since Walt Whitman’s works. Stuart’s next book was a collection of short stories, Head o’ W-Hollow, published in 1936, and his first novel, Trees of Heaven, was published in 1940.
In 1939, he married Naomi Deane Norris, a schoolteacher, and they made their home in Stuart’s beloved W-Hollow. They had one daughter, Jessica Jane, who became an author.
During World War II, Stuart served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy. Being the consummate writer, he penned the novel Foretaste of Glory, and a poetry collection, Album of Destiny, was published, all while he was in the service.
In 1954, Stuart suffered the first of several heart attacks and escaped a near-death experience. A long recovery followed, which would pave the way for his third autobiography, The Year of My Rebirth, published in 1956.
His books are too numerous to mention, but some of my favorites are Daughter of the Legend, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow, Kentucky Is My Land, Hold April, The Year of My Rebirth, Plowshare in Heaven and 32 Votes Before Breakfast.
During his lifetime, Stuart published more than 60 books, which included 460 short stories and 2,000 poems. The prolific writer won numerous awards and traveled and lectured around the globe, but he never lost touch with his home and roots back in W-Hollow.
Stuart died on Feb. 17, 1984, at the age of 77. He is buried near W-Hollow at Plum Grove Cemetery in Greenup County. He was survived by his wife, Naomi, who passed on June 22, 1993.
My mother, Jeanette Gilliam McCauley, served on the Kentucky affiliate of the American Heart Board and got to know Jesse while he served as state chairman. She loved his writing, and his books were always prevalent in our home. On Sept.2, 2014, she passed just days before her 96th birthday. At her graveside service on a tree-covered hillside in Harlan County, I read Stuart’s poem, “Her Work is Done.”
Almost 40 years after his death, the great work of Jesse Stuart carries on through the Jessie Stuart Foundation in Ashland, which promotes his literary legacy and Appalachian way of life.