By John A. Cuthbert and Jessie Poesch
West Virginia University Press, 1997
168 pp.
ISBN: 0-937058-39-4
Reviewed by Elsa Nadler, WVU Sponsored Programs Representative.
In 1985, the Strother family presented to the WVU Libraries
West Virginia and Regional History Collection several paintings,
personal papers, and a portfolio of drawings that had 
been
David Hunter Strother's. D. H. Strother's nom de plume, Porte
Crayon, had been a household word in the mid-nineteenth century
when Strother's short stories and woodcuts graced the pages of
Harper's New Monthly Magazine. At the time of his death in 1888,
however, his name had slipped into oblivion.
By 1985, few but art historians and American history scholars who concentrated on the nineteenth century had ever heard of David Hunter Strother, once described by the leading art journal of the nation as "one of the best draughtsmen the country possesses." Strother's oeuvre is important for the insight it provides into the everyday world-people, characters, places, things, forests, industry, landscape.
With the gift of this historically and artistically important collection to WVU, John Cuthbert, then curator of the arts for the West Virginia and Regional History Collection and now director of the WVU Permanent Art Collection, began to dream of an exhibit and catalog that would once again bring the technical skill and artistic vision of Strother to the attention of the art-loving public.
Funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, and the WVU Faculty Senate Public Service Committee allowed Cuthbert and Jessie Poesch, professor emerita of Art at Tulane University, to realize Cuthbert's dream. Together they mounted an exhibit of 42 of Strother's drawings and compiled and wrote a comprehensive catalog. Anyone who saw the exhibit surely was impressed with Strother's ability to capture personality and character in both his "formal" and informal portraits. The details of the landscapes, street scenes, workplaces, and homes provide invaluable insight into the appurtenances of the lives of people from all walks of life.
But perhaps more impressive even than the exhibit itself is the catalog for it. This volume begins with a biography of David Hunter Strother written by John Cuthbert. The biographical sketch, brief though it is at only 48 pages, is lucid and elegant and replete with scholarly annotations and notes (182 in all). The section is lavishly illustrated and includes more than 40 photographs and reproductions of the works of Strother, his contemporaries, and his teacher Samuel F.B. Morse.
Jessie Poesch's catalog of the exhibition is complete and well written, clearly stated without being condescending to the nonspecia. Poesch explains how Strother's artistic vision allows us to understand the people, the culture, and the customs. She often includes interesting anecdotes that help in this understanding. Each plate in the exhibition catalog has its own complete discussion and its own set of references.
Whereas the texts by Cuthbert and Poesch set the catalog apart, the design of the volume and the reproduction of the plates give the reader that first, important visual impression of quality. The design by WVU's Gloria Cordoba is open, clean, and simple. Each plate in the catalog is given its own page, and the colors of the papers that Strother used are faithfully reproduced. The photographs and reproductions and their full, explanatory captions in the biographical section have their own space that sets them off from the rest of the text.
As a whole, this exhibit catalog is an impressive effort and, in this reviewer's opinion, a credit to the scholarship and attention to detail of those responsible for it. Anyone wishing to learn more about mid-nineteenth century art, about Appalachian society, and of course about Strother would do well to obtain this book. It is a worthy addition to any library, bound to impress those who see it or read it.
By Michael A. Sawyers
McClain Publishing, 1996
150 pp.
ISBN: 0-87012-560-5
Reviewed by Tony Cook, University Editor.
Weston native Mike Sawyers is one of those West Virginians —and there are many—who has spent much of his life in the woods and on the waters of the Mountain State. West Virginia is one of those few places where it remains possible to find solitude in nature. Three-fourths of the land in the state is forested, and of course there are hundreds of secluded rivers, lakes, and streams here.
These natural resources provide ample opportunity for those who hunt and fish, whether for food or sport. And today, sport is a major reason why West Virginians and visitors to the state engage in these activities. Whatever the reason, hunting and fishing are a major factor in the state's economic well-being. In 1997, deer hunters alone spent more than $120 million in West Virginia.
But the economic effects of people's desire to go into the
woods in search of game are not a concern of Mike Sawyers in his
book Native Queen. A journa who has written hundreds of what
he calls "how-to" and "where-to" articles,
Sawyers maintains that his favorite pieces are those "about
life as it takes place through hunting and fishing." Native
Queen is a collection of 31 such stories. Most of these, he claims,
are true. The rest are "almost true" or "certainly
possible."
As one reads the stories, which meander from subject to subject, place to place, and character to character like one of the mountain streams for which the author has such deep affection, it is instantly clear that Sawyers is a fine storyteller. The WVU graduate has honed his writing skills for more than 25 years as West Virginia state editor for Outdoor Life magazine, as outdoors editor of the Cumberland, Md., Times-News, and as a freelance writer.
In "A Day with the Natives," Sawyers offers this highly original description of a Hampshire County fishing companion: "If one of General Motors' engineers could figure a way to hook a tachometer to [Jay] Kidwell's larynx it would invariably be red-lining. The man lives his life over the speed limit." Describing a church the man attended, Sawyer performs a smooth chronological fast-forward: "A few years later, my father and I would be in the church once again. This time to be pallbearers and to help carry Jay to his ridgetop resting spot."
This is a book that is unabashedly sentimental and politically incorrect. But neither of these characteristics, verboten in academic literary circles, detracts from Sawyer's presentation of the lifestyle of rural West Virginians who feel a deep affection for the waters and forests and the creatures that inhabit them. In the lives of such characters as June Metz, Bill Gordon, and Tom Mathews, Sawyer perceives and presents to the reader a way of life that is rustic, agrarian, and unsophisticated-yet admirable for its simplicity.
Many of his observations are quite enjoyable. For example: "When the Good Lord made West Virginians, He instilled something in them that only comes alive when they're there." Or this one: "Sophisticated West Virginians resent the hillbilly image. Smart ones capitalize on it. Sentimental ones cling to it. Some just live it." There are few such comments in the book, though. Sawyers prefers to make his points and tell his stories by vividly describing people, places, and events, and by recreating West Virginia people's talk.
For many readers, Native Queen will be an intriguing interpretation of life as experienced by an accomplished writer who gives the date of his birth as "the opening day of squirrel season in 1946." While not quite in the league of natura, regiona authors such as South Carolina's Havilah Babcock or upstate New York's William Chapman White, his is a voice that beckons us into the forests, fields, and streams to better know and understand ourselves.
(Note: Native Queen is available only by mail. To order, send $10.95 plus $3 for shipping and handling per copy to: Michael A. Sawyers, P.O. Box 326, Rawlings, MD 21557. Maryland residents must include 55 cents sales tax per copy.)