JANICE HOLT GILES

by Anne Caudill

Readers of the works of Janice Holt Giles might automatically assume that she was a Kentuckian born and raised. More than half of her published novels are based in Kentucky. However, Ms. Giles did not become a Kentuckian until she was a grown woman of thirty years old. She began the second half of her life as well as her career as a writer in Kentucky, and it is there that her transplanted roots remained.

Janice Holt Giles was born on March 28, 1905, in Altus, Arkansas, to John and Lucy Holt. After living in Oklahoma for a few years of her childhood, she was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She received her formal education from Little Rock Junior College and the University of Arkansas. After working in various positions related to the church, she moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1941 to work for Dr. Lewis J. Sherrill at the Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. Little did she know that this move to Kentucky would spawn a successful career as well as a successful second marriage.

In 1943, while riding a bus to Texas to see her daughter, she met Henry Giles, a soldier on his way to Camp Swift. In her autobiographical book, Forty Acres and No Mule, Janice said of their first meeting, "when we said good- bye in Dallas, I felt as if I were leaving a very old and dear friend" (Giles, 9). Two years later they were married. After living in Louisville for the first four years of their marriage, the Giles's moved to Henry Giles's home in Adair County in 1949. It was at their farm at Giles ridge that Janice Holt Giles wrote her famous works. In an autobiographical sketch written for the Kentucky Library Association Bulletin in 1959, she spoke of her writing as "simple." "I write nine months of the year, during the winter, five days a week, from three to five hours a day, usually in the morning." She also said that her surroundings influenced her writing more than the reading of any one author did (13). Perhaps it was the simplicity of her surroundings that inspired the simplicity of her writing habits. Ten of her seventeen novels were based in Kentucky, particularly the Green River area near her home. In fact, she and Henry lived a life much like that of the characters in her novels. The house they built on their farm at Giles Ridge did not utilized modern conveniences.

In Forty Acres and No Mule, she explained why she and Henry chose to live the way they did. "I do believe, and believe it strongly, that if you are hardy enough to strip life down to its simplicities you may be able to create and environment in which you gain perspective." (214) This situation apparently provided a good writing environment for Janice Holt Giles.

Her first novel, The Enduring Hills reflects her appreciation of her surroundings. Its setting and plot parallel the life of Henry and Janice Holt Giles. It takes place in Piney Ridge-- much like Giles Ridge, the Giles's' home. The characters are Hod Pierce and his wife, who go off to Louisville to pursue a richer life and discover that Piney Ridge is the only place they can be truly happy.

The Enduring Hills was followed by Miss Willie, a sequel which takes the story in a different direction chronicling the life of Mary Pierce's aunt, Miss Willie Payne. Finally, the trilogy concludes with Tara's Healing, the story of a doctor who suffers a nervous breakdown and comes to Piney Ridge to convalesce.

One of Giles' many interests was history which, following the success of her first three novels, spurred the writing of several historical novels based in Kentucky. In 1953, The Kentuckians was published. This novel, according to Ish Richey in Kentucky Literature, is an account of the first settlers in Kentucky who, led by Daniel Boone, came through the Cumberland Gap. "The novel depicts the pioneer dialect, colorful frontier life, and the struggle of these brave people." (177) Giles was obviously able to focus on the Kentucky culture of the past as easily as the present.

Later in her writing career she wrote Shady Grove, the creative answer to all the attention focused on Appalachia in the early 1960s. Its main character, Sudley Fowler, gets all of his relatives on the draw or gets them a job with the state or local government. He makes sure they all get commodities. In short, he looks out for his kin. He is good to his women and loves his children and is considered a good man by most everyone except the "educated" preacher from "off." Frony is the narrator of the story and the moral voice. She is Sudley's cousin and the matriarch of the family, always trying to meet everyone's needs. Neither Sudley nor Frony have a great deal of respect for the preacher. They don't have a grudge against him. He is just an outsider and is ignorant about the simplest things. Shady Grove is a social commentary as well as a warm, funny book.

Giles wrote many other works, two of which were written with the help of her husband. Henry and Janice Holt Giles lived happily together on Giles Ridge for nearly thirty-five years. In the closing statements of Forty Acres and No Mule, Janice had this to say of her transplanted home: "The ridge has given us new faith and heart and hope. And we know that if civilization wrecks itself into ashes, out of the ashes a man with a plow will rise and lift the yoke onto his own shoulders and walk steadfastly down a new furrow." (215) Her career as a writer and her life as a Kentuckian were, of course, parallel, and it is obvious that one inspired the other.

On June 1, 1979, Janice Holt Giles died of congestive heart failure, leaving behind a daughter, three grandchildren, and her devoted husband, Henry Giles. And to us, the generations of readers who have enjoyed her work, she left a legacy of literary treasures. She never received adequate recognition for her efforts from anyone other than her avid readers and perhaps that was enough. Kentucky Encyclopedia said, Giles has been critically overlooked, perhaps because of her prolific output, as well as her appeal to popular tastes (374). This sums up the irony of Janice Holt Giles' effect on the literary world.

Not a lot has been written about Janice Holt Giles. She didn't win any awards. But it was her work itself that was rewarding and gave us the insight needed to know the woman behind the words. She came to Kentucky not to become a writer, not to get married and settle down. She was merely following an interest in church work. It was this move, though, that became the turning point in her life. She became a Kentucky author in every sense. She made Kentucky her home and , consequently, the inspiration for her many published works. It was this deep emotional connection and true devotion that made Janice Holt Giles and her work so appealing to reader-- especially Kentuckians. A debt of gratitude is owed to her for her realization of the gifts Kentucky has to offer and her ability to a shed a brilliant light on it.

Her work is both enlightening and reassuring. Capitalizing on the beauty, honesty, and humor of Kentucky and its people, Janice Holt giles refreshes her readers and reminds them of Kentucky's rich heritage that natives often overlook or forget. Janice Holt Giles had the power to bring to light the unique heritage of a region not often recognized for its strengths rather than weaknesses. Her work serves as an eye-opener for native Kentuckians and outsiders alike.

Giles, Janice Holt. "Autobiographical Sketch." Kentucky Library Association Bulletin. 23 Jan. 1959: 12-13.

Giles, Janice Holt. Forty Acres and No Mule. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1952.

Kleber, John E., ed. Kentucky Encyclopedia. The University of Kentucky Press, 1992.

Richey, Ish. Kentucky Literature: 1784-1963. Tompkinsville, KY: Monroe County Press, 1963.

by Anne Caudill

Around Our House. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1971. A compilation of articles written for newspaper publication. 358 pages.

The Believers. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1957. This novel takes place in the Shaker community in South Union, Kentucky. It tells the story of one couple's conversion to the Shaker faith after the death of their newborn child. 302 pages.

The Damned Engineers. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1970. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Enduring Hills. New York: Westminster Press, 1950. The story of a man and his wife who come home to Piney ridge after realizing they can't be happy in Louisville. 256 pages.

Forty Acres and No Mule. New York: Westminster Press, 1952. An autobiographical book about Henry and Janice's life at Giles Ridge. 215 pages.

The G.I. Journal of Sgt. Giles. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1965. A nonfiction book co-written with Henry Giles. 399 pages.

The Great Adventure. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1966. One of Giles' many historical, Western novels. 370 pages.

Hannah Fowler. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1956. A historical novel set on the Kentucky river. 312 pages.

Harbin's Ridge. 1951. A novel co-written with Henry Giles. It is named after Henry's childhood home which later came to be called Giles Ridge.

Hill Man. New York: Pyramid Books, 1954. Written under the pen name John Garth.

Johnny Osage. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1960. A novel set in the Oklahoma Territory telling the story of the first white settlement. 313 pages.

The Kentuckians. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1953. A novel recounting Daniel Boone's arrival in Kentucky. 272 pages.

The Kinta Years. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1973. A somewhat autobiographical novel set in Oklahoma. 337 pages.

The Land Beyond the Mountains. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1958. A historical novel about a group of settlers' struggle for statehood. 308 pages.

A Little Better Than Plumb. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1963. Another non-fiction book about the Giles' life on Giles Ridge. 265 pages.

Miss Willie. New York: Westminster Press, 1951. A sequel to The Enduring Hills, this novel takes the story in a different direction chronicling the life of Mary Pierce's aunt, Miss Willie Payne. 268 pages.

The Plum Thicket. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1954. A historical, Western novel. 284 pages.

Run Me a River. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1964. This novel takes place on the Green River during the Civil War in September of 1861. 337 pages.

Savanna. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1961. A historical novel set in Arkansas. 397 pages.

Shady Grove. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1967. A humorous novel about an Appalachian family. 260 pages.

Six Horse Hitch. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1968. A novel set in the West. 436 pages.

Tara's Healing. New York: Westminster Press, 1951. The story of a doctor who suffers a nervous breakdown and comes to Piney Ridge to convalesce. 253 pages.

Voyage to Santa Fe. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962. The Fowler family moves to Santa Fe.

Wellspring. New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1975. A collection of essays. 263 pp.