Understanding Ron Rash

Acknowledgments

aCknowLedgments The initial research for this book was undertaken with the assistance of funding and released time provided by Emory & Henry College through the Henry Carter Stuart Chair in its English Department. I am grateful for that institution ’s support and encouragement over the twenty-nine years (1983–2012) I taught there. I would also like to thank Jane Caldwell and Patty Greany of the college’s Kelly Library for their help in locating elusive materials about Ron Rash and his work. Special thanks to my wife, Esther, whose love and understanding have helped to sustain my academic career for more than forty years, although during the past fifteen months she has wondered aloud more than once, “When is your retirement really going to begin?” My principal indebtedness, however, is to the subject of this study, Ron Rash, whose fiction and poetry have earned my respect and admiration for nearly two decades. During the writing of this monograph, he promptly answered every question I sent to him and insured that I received an advance reading copy of his latest book, Nothing Gold Can Stay, well before it was released by HarperCollins. He spent time with me answering additional queries at the 2013 meeting of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, an organization into which he was inducted in 2011. He also agreed to read the final draft of this book’s opening chapter to verify the accuracy of its biographical information. It has been a great pleasure to see his publications receive wider and wider acclaim over the past decade, including international recognition. I can only hope that this volume will generate further interest in his achievements as a poet, novelist, and short story writer. For permission to quote extensively from Rash’s poetry, acknowledgment is made to the publishers and individuals listed below: From Eureka Mill by Ron Rash. Copyright © 1998 by Ron Rash. Used by permission of Ron Rash and Hub City Press. From Among the Believers by Ron Rash. Copyright © 2000 by Ron Rash. Used by permission of Ron Rash. xii aCknowLedgments From Raising the Dead by Ron Rash. Copyright © 2002 by Ron Rash. Used by permission of Ron Rash. From Waking by Ron Rash. Copyright © by Ron Rash. Used by permission of Hub City Press. ...