Black Days, Black Dust
by Robert Armstead as told to
S.L. Gardner University of Tennessee Press, 2002
Black Days is a memoir of a black coal miner in West Virginia as told by S.L. Gardner, a former teacher and librarian.
Armstead
remembers his childhood, growing up in a segregated coal camp
during the Great Depression, and he recalls his family's efforts
to confront economic challenges while dealing with the reality
of racism. His father worked grueling twelve and fourteen hour
days in dangerous conditions in order to provide for his wife
and children. Even though Armstead as a child decided he did
not want to work in the mines, he began to do so in 1947.
From his first day on the job, coal mining fascinated him. He initially worked in a timber crew then shored up mine roofs. Then, after many moves to find work after mine closings and layoffs, he eventually became a mining machine operator, a foreman over predominantly white crews, and finally a safety inspector. He relates his enthusiasm for mining and the work ethic that earned him those responsible positions.
Bob Armstead interweaves stories of family and community with a broad history of underground mining to paint an engrossing picture of their work, the dangers, and the drama of that industry.
Oakhurst: The Birth and Rebirth
of America's First Golf Course
by Paula Diperna and Vikki Keller
Walker Publishing Company Inc., 2002
In 1884
golf came to America in a most unlikely place. Russell Montague,
a thirty-two-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer, had moved to White
Sulphur Springs in the hills of West Virginia to improve his
health. His Scottish neighbors, George Grant and Alexander and
Roderick MacLeod, were men of leisure. When Grant's golf-obsessed
cousin arrived from Ceylon, these five built, purely for their
own pleasure, a nine-hole course on Montague's land—unaware
that their Oakhurst Links was the first formal golf course in
America.
Oakhurst chronicles the untold story of this historic course, from its brief first life of 15 years to its restoration 110 years later. The story tells of the evolution of golf equipment, colorful stories of matches, and how legendary local golfer Sam Snead persuaded a friend to buy the land to restore it. Today, Oakhurst is the only place where you can experience the game the way it was first played.
New Books from the WVU Press
Blackwater Chronicle
by Philip Pendleton Kennedy
Blackwater Chronicle is the story of five men who venture
into the Canaan Valley before the Civil War. As they move closer
to the yet uninhabited Canaan, these men, unaccustomed to rugged
outdoor life, chronicle their struggle with nature, hunger, and
the undeveloped terrain. The five travelers begin their journey
in Winchester, Va., and travel through Romney on their way to
the unexplored Blackwater River. Kennedy chronicles not only
the hardship experienced as a result of the rugged terrain, but
also the magnificent beauty of the landscape.
This new edition of Blackwater Chronicle is volume two
in the series "West Virginia and Appalachia."
Pinnick Kinnick Hill
by Gavin Gonzalez
This is a lightly fictionalized account
of one Spanish family's experience in West Virginia following
the emigration of Spanish zinc workers to the industrial hub
of north central West Virginia shortly after 1900.
A couple of decades later, the decline in the zinc industry led
to the slow dilution of this ethnic enclave. Though many Spanish-surnamed
people still live in the region, few know the details about the
community that once thrived there.
Heliand: Text and Commentary
Edited by James E. Cathey
This is a 1,200-year-old
book available for the first time in an English edition. Heliand:
Text and Commentary, edited by University of Massachusetts
Professor James E. Cathey, represents the first edition of this
early ninth-century life of Christ published for English-speaking
students.
The volume contains a compact grammar of Old Saxon and an appended
glossary that defines all vocabulary found in the edited version
of the book.