Come a Tide (review)

body not born in the South is a foreigner .) Smith's characters and her stories are regional in the best sense of the word, but they are rendered universal in the hands of a first-rate artist. -Joanne Brannon Aldridge Caskey, Jefferson D. Appalachian Authors : A Selected Bibliography. West Corwall, Connecticut: Locust Hill Press, 1990. 191 pages, $25.00. This book is mistitled. The only ApBalachian writers included are Eastern Kentucky ones. Beyond that at least eight of the seventeen writers are neither from mountains nor have they written primarily about Appalachian subjects. Among them are Joseph Alexander AItsheler (Civil War novelist), Irvin S. Cobb (from Paducah!), Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice (Mrs. Wiggs ofthe Cabbage Patch) and her poet husband Cale Young Rice. Others who are marginal to ApEalachia are James Lane Allen, Ruby»ell Baugher, and Hollis Summers. Two frequently listed as Appalachian writers, although most of their works are set elsewhere, are Wendell Berry, whose The Unforseen Wilderness is about East Kentucky's Red River Gorge and who has written several essays touching on mountain strip mining and other environmental and human problems in the mountains, and Elizabeth Madox Roberts, whose early novels and poetry depict life on the frontier in the Appalachians and Kentucky. The bibliographer doesn't give a clear reason for his selection of these authors. He writes in his introduction: In limiting this bibliography to the seventeen authors included, a great deal of selectivity was necessary. Each was finally chosen for the reason that he or she is distinctive and has a unique place in Appalachian literature. While one might claim that each is "distinctive and has a unique place" in Kentucky literature, the claim would not hold for all of the writers in Appalachian literature. Having presented these negative views, let me hasten to say that Mr. Caskey has done a great service in presenting the works by or about the writers who are native to or have primarily written about the region: Harriette Simpson Arnow, Harry M. Caudill, Rebecca Caudill, John Fox, Jr. (curiously listed as John William Fox), Lucy Furman, Janice Holt Giles, Jim Wayne Miller, and James Still. Depending on the writer, the bibliography lists books of fiction, books of nonfiction , books of poetry, books of short stories and poems and articles published in journals or anthologies. It also lists biographical and critical literature about the authors in journals, theses and dissertations and includes a useful index. The length of the material ranges from four pages on Harriette Simpson Arnow to twenty-three pages on Jim Wayne Miller (the most prolific of the lot). This bibliography should have been entitled Kentucky Authors: A Selected Bibliography. -Loyal Jones Lyon, George Ella. Come a Tide. Pictures by Stephen Gammell. New York: Orchard Books, 1990. 30 pages, $14.95. George Ella Lyon is a name familiar to those who read, teach, and love Appalachian literature. My students and I know her as a poet, a literary advocate, and a fiction writer, but what I didn't know until recently was that she has written several exquisite "picture books" for children, the latest of which is Come a Tide. In this story for young readers, Lyon tells of a flood in Harlan, Kentucky , a true experience, that "washed 70 away little naked gardens on Clover Fork, pigs and chickens on Martins Fork, and a whole front porch on Poor Fork." Stephen Gammell s unusual splattered and colorful illustrations portray these events and many others in lovely, realistic detail that demands careful viewing —so careful that your child may urge you to "turn the page" before you've soaked it all in, and you'll have to sneak a second and third look later. Children will love the characters in this story; adults will appreciate the skill with which they are rendered. Floods are a harsh reality in many mountain communities, yet Lyon makes the catastrophe more benign by creating a warmth of community and family, a coming together of people and spirit in the face of natural disaster and property loss. "It'll come a tide," says Grandma when the rains begin. And afterwards, when asked for advice, she replies, "If it was me...