GURNEY NORMAN

by Anne Caudill

Gurney Norman's writing is contemporary writing. His subjects, as well as his writing style, are current and abreast of the times. Yet, his works remain true to their roots. He tackles modern day issues with a foundation built upon the morals, beliefs, and values that are his heritage. The contemporary reader can not only identify with his characters and plots, but also the depths he reaches in creating them. His strong connection with his culture perpetuates and resolves the conflicts in his works. The events in his life leading up to his career as a writer have obviously manifested themselves in his writing.

Gurney Norman was born July 22, 1937, in Grundy, Virginia. He grew up in the community of Allais near Hazard in Perry County, Kentucky. At the age of nine he enrolled in Stuart Robinson School, a boarding school in nearby Letcher County, where he stayed until his graduation in 1955. He went on to study journalism at the University of Kentucky. In 1960, after a year of graduate school, he won a Stegner Fellowship and studied at Stanford University. Some of his teachers included Frank O'Connor, Malcolm Cowley, and Wallace Stegner. Ken Kesey and Larry McMurtry were two of his classmates. After leaving Stanford, he spent two years in the Army. Then, in 1963, he moved back to Hazard and worked as the editor of The Hazard Herald until 1965. At that time he moved back to California where he stayed until 1980.

It was in California, during those fifteen years, that he wrote his two published books, Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks. The first one, Divine Right's Trip, was originally published in The Last Whole Earth Catalog and later as a book. It tells the story of a young man's journey from California to his home in eastern Kentucky. Jim Wayne Miller had this to say about it in the July 31, 1972, issue of The Courier Journal: "The amazing thing is how this unlikely mix of California freaks and East Kentucky mountain people inhabit the same book without destroying its credibility . . . It works because Gurney Norman may be the only person on the planet who genuinely belongs to both scenes."

The Prologue of Divine Right's Trip is "written" by Urge, the Volkswagen van that Divine Right drives out from California. He sums up D.R. in one sentence. "He was the kind of guy who never had the faintest idea how he affected things(4)." In an interview with Shirley Williams in The Courier Journal & Times in 1972, Norman calls Divine Right ""a modern frontiersman."" Gurney Norman was a frontiersman himself. He was the first to combine the trends of the 60's with the steadfast heritage of the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Divine Right's Trip is unique because it dares to blend two opposing forces and make them real to both worlds.

Norman's second book, Kinfolks, published in 1977, is a collection of interrelated short stories about the life of Wilgus Collier and his rite of passage. One could easily assume that the events in Wilgus's life were patterned after Gurney Norman's. William S. Ward points this out in A Literary History of Kentucky. "One familiar with Norman's history will see many reflections and parallels between the events of his life and those of the character in his stories...(251)" Perhaps that is what makes identifying with these characters so natural. Each one has a lasting effect on Wilgus, the author, and consequently, the reader as well.

"Fat Monroe," the first story, is about an eight year old boy hitchhiking home from the movies on a Saturday afternoon when a truck stops to give him a ride. The man driving the truck is Fat Monroe Short who commences to tease Wilgus about everything from his age to his father's work ethic. The story establishes Wilgus's loyalty to his family and the close ties between the members of the community which go on to become more and more apparent throughout the book.

The last story in Kinfolks, "A Correspondence," ends the book with a powerful statement about the condition of the once untouched mountains. It is a series of letters between a brother and sister who haven"t seen each other for nearly fifty years. The sister wants to leave Arizona, where she has live for most of her adult life, and move back to Kentucky. Her brother writes to her that the mountains are not what they were when she left. He wants to come live with her in Arizona. Neither of them ends up leaving their homes, and the book ends in a stalemate. It is representative of the current state of the mountain region.

Chris Holbrook, a former student of Gurney Norman's at the University of Kentucky in the 1980's and a resident of eastern Kentucky, wrote a review of Kinfolks for the Lexington Herald-Leader. He called it " . . . an honest representation of a period of Appalachian life by an author of considerable talent, skill and compassion . . ."-- a simple explanation for a complex undertaking.

Divine Right's Trip and Kinfolks are similar inasmuch as their main characters are young men struggling to find their way into manhood and their place in life by way of their mountain roots. However, Wilgus and D.R. take very different routes in getting there.

Although Kinfolks and Divine Right's Trip are Gurney Norman's only published books, he is constantly producing new pieces of literature, most of which are short stories. "Ancient Creek" is a modern version of a Jack tale using Wilgus Collier as one of the trouble shooters. It has been recorded on June Appal Records. "The Wreck" is another Wilgus story-- this one a detailed description of Wilgus's first attempt at driving. It has been published in A Gathering at the Forks, a collection of different works from writers gathered at the Appalachian Writers Workshop.

Recently, Norman has been working on two new novels. The first one, according to A Literary History of Kentucky, is about Daniel Boone, and the second one is Crazy Quilt, which is a continuation of the stories of the Collier family in Kinfolks (251). Both novels promise to continue in the Gurney Norman tradition of writing style. Meanwhile, Gurney is teaching at the University of Kentucky and living in Lexington. He makes frequent trips back to Eastern Kentucky where he grew up, visiting the places that have been the settings for most all of his works. Two of his short stories from Kinfolks have been made into films by Appalshop, Inc.

Gurney Norman is still writing, teaching, and living in Kentucky and, for that reason, has not been honored, imitated, or eulogized like the late, great writers of the past. He still has much to learn and much to teach. James Still and Frank O'Connor are no longer just his influences. He has taken what they have to offer and used it to reach their level of writing. He has made his mark on the literary world and a particularly distinct mark on Appalachia.

Holbrook, Chris. "Gurney Norman Remembers his 'Kinfolks'." Lexington Herald-Leader, 26 April 1992.

Miller, Jim Wayne. "Counter-Culture Freaks Meet Mountain Folk." Courier Journal, 31 July 1972.

Norman, Gurney. Divine Right's Trip. New York: Dial Press, 1972. 1-5.

Norman, Gurney. "The Wreck" in Lyon, George Ella, Jim Wayne Miller, and Gurney Norman, eds. A Gathering at the Forks. Wise, Va.: Vision Books, 1993. 292-93.

Norman, Gurney. Kinfolks. Frankfort, Ky. Gnomon: 1977.

Ward, William S. A Literary History of Kentucky. Knoxville. The University of Tennessee Press: 1988. 249-50.

Williams, Shirley. ""Catalog" Success Story." Courier-Journal & Times, 20 Aug. 1972.

by Anne Caudill

Works by Gurney Norman:

Divine Right's Trip. New York: Dial Press, 1972. The story of a young man's journey from California to his home in easter Kentucky. 302 pages.

Kinfolks. Frankfort, Gnomon Press, 1977. A collection of interrelated short stories about the life of Wilgus Collier and his rite of passage. 118 pages.

Works about Gurney Norman:

Holbrook, Chris. "Gurney Norman Remembers his Kinfolks." Lexington Herald-Leader, April 26, 1992. A review of Kinfolks.

Miller, Jim Wayne. "Counter-Culture Freaks Meet Mountain Folk." Courier-Journal, July 31, 1972. A review of Divine Right's Trip.

Ward, William S. A Literary History of Kentucky. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1988. 249-250. A summarization of his two novels and a biographical sketch.

Williams, Shirley. ""Catalog" Success Story." Courier-Journal & Times, August 20, 1972. Article written after publication of Divine Right's Trip-- interview with Norman.