JESSE STUART

by Melissa Turner

Jesse Stuart is perhaps the most prolific writer ever to have come from Kentucky. Not only is he famous for writing poetry but novels, short stories, and children's stories as well. During his lifetime, Stuart experienced worldwide fame. He had a passion for the hills of Kentucky where he grew up. The love of the land and those surrounding it has shone through his work time and time again.

Jesse Hilton Stuart, the second child in a family of seven, was born August 8, 1906. The Stuart family lived on a farm in Greenup County, Kentucky, overlooking W-Hollow. From the time each of the Stuart children were old enough to understand, they were encouraged to read and write (Louis, 412).

Jesse Stuart attended Plum Grove Elementary School for approximately twenty-two months (Louis, 413). He later attended Greenup County High School where a teacher, Mrs. Robert E. "Hattie" Hatton, introduced him to the poetry of Robert Burns (Kimbel, 284). From that point on, Burns became a significant influence throughout Stuart's life.

Jesse Stuart was a very well-educated man. He first received a bachelors degree from Lincoln Memorial University. During the next few years he did some graduate work at Vanderbilt University and Peabody College. After one term at Peabody, Stuart declared his higher education was over and he never entered a classroom as a student again (Louis, 48).

Stuart then began his career as an educator. He loved children and believed everyone should be entitled to a good education. He worked in a one-room schoolhouse and made an overwhelming difference in his pupils' lives. Stuart was revered as a teacher and was thereby made principal and later promoted to superintendent of the Greenup County School System.

Following these events, Jesse Stuart married his former classmate and friend Naomi Deane Harris. She was also a fellow educator in the Greenup County School System. Stuart and Harris were united in marriage on the 14th day of October, 1939. Together they had on daughter, Jessica Jane.

Jesse Stuart wrote thousands of poems and over sixty books. Even though he loved poetry, turmoil, tension, and release are basically what poetry meant to him (Foster, 52). Throughout many of Stuart's poems he wrote about W-Hollow, it's land, the people, and the dangers which surround it.

Stuart wrote five major books of poetry, Harvest of Youth, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow, Album of Destiny, Kentucky Is My Land, and Hold April. The first three published books gained little recognition. They were hardly noticed. Many did not like these books of poetry because they took on a very gloomy, dismal, negative viewpoint. They portrayed life to be boring and dull. For example, on page 144 of Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow, Stuart writes:
Why don't you kill this scum, this country devil,
and stretch me on a high hill slope of fern?
Kill me for crows to eat my flesh and eyes
and bare my carcass to the wind and sun
and leave it shining under the white sky.

He wrote his poems in moods and many of them are autobiographical. Poetry was his way of expressing his true feelings. It sounds as if Stuart was depressed during the earlier portion of his life. However, this is not exactly true. He did enjoy some more happier times. For example, on page nine of Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow, Stuart writes:
Now look, my friends: look to the east and west.
Look anywhere on land I love the best,
Look on this April land I love the best
And you will see the men behind their plows,
And you will see them turn the rugged soil.
Oh, watch them turn the land, these sons of toil!

Jesse Stuart truly loved the land of which he was raised to respect and appreciate. Participating in life's natural wonders and farming the land gave him true happiness. In his poetry he writes about the hardships of farming and his feelings about it. Stuart's poems tended to have a strong preoccupation with death and gloom. He rarely let the lighter side of his life shine through his work. Stuart's early writings were intense and complex.

Jesse Stuart's fourth book of poetry, Kentucky Is My Land helped to change his reputation for being careless and boring. It was a change from the dramatic poems of his earlier works. Kentucky Is My Land contained less perverse poetry. It also took on a whole new writing style. At first, it was written in prose (like the previous books of poetry) but was later changed to free-verse paragraphs. Many of the poems in this book were very beautifully written. Most people perceive this collection of poetry to be a tribute to Kentucky, Stuart's native state. The poems describe the beauty of the land, the wonders of nature, and takes on a happier more jovial mood. The title poem, Kentucky Is My Land is possibly Stuart's most famous. Many Kentuckians today have copies of this poem framed and hanging in their homes, classrooms, and offices.

In 1954, two years after the publication of Kentucky Is My Land, Jesse Stuart suffered the first in a series of heart attacks. This near-death incident had a dramatic impact in his life. Stuart felt as if he was given a second chance and often referred to this period of his life as a "rebirth." Following this event, Stuart's attitudes toward writing changed tremendously. He went from writing about death and pain to spring, rejuvenation, religion, and the innocence of youth.

Hold April, Jesse Stuart's last major volume of poems, was published in 1962. It gave evidence of the marked influence the heart attack had on his thinking and on his attitude toward religion in particular (Foster, 71). This collection of poetry contained very positive and inspirational poems. It is a celebration of life, love, children, nature, and religion.

"Back Where I Belong" was one of Stuart's more serious poems in this volume. In it, he is very thankful and tends to be praising God for converting him into a Christian and giving him a second chance at life: Death held me prisoner til God stepped in
And took me by the hand and gave me breath,
And I was glad this heart was cleansed of sin
And that I followed him from arms of death.
Back to my valley for the blooming spring,
Back to my garden and the wild bird's song,
To shadow, sun and multicolored wind,
The land, God must believe, where I belong.

"My Love Must Learn," and "Ballad of the Bride" are two of the less serious poems in this collection. They do in fact deliver a strong message. Even though a person moves away, they should never forget their heritage and the things they once took for granted because these things that seem so simple can be easily taken away never to be seen again. More importantly, people should never try to forget who they are and where they came from because without these things that person could not be the per they are today.

In "My Love Must Learn," a man's young wife wants a new modern home. Her husband loves the house because it has been in his family for generations and he does not want to tear it down for a new one. After the constant nagging of the wife the man regretfully tears it apart:
I hate to tear it down with my own hands,
I'd rather leave it for the bird's and mice;
But I must act since present time commands,
My young wife wants a home that's new and nice.

"Ballad of the Bride" is a sort of conversation (so to speak) between a mother and her son who has just married a "city" girl. The girl does not appreciate her husband's simple mountainous way of life. She manipulates and encourages her husband to move to the city. All the while his mother is reminding her son that moving will be a big mistake and he will not be happy. Two years later, longing for happiness, the son returns home to the mountains:
I want to sickle slopes of grain
And walk on paths of mud,
I want to live my life again
And be my father's blood.
My second bride a mountain girl,
My first true love will be,
Then I can sing and I can shout
The world belongs to me!

Hold April was possibly Stuart's most personal volume of poetry. It is highly autobiographical and portrays a lighter more gentle side of his world. At times he is overjoyed with happiness and then he changes into a more oppressed mood; for example, "Desolation," "Unforgotten," and "Of Dead Leaves." The spirit of the book of poetry is that of simple pleasures and unforgotten youth.

Jesse Stuart died from a severe stroke in February of 1984. Throughout his lifetime he has accomplished many enormous feats. Some of his greatest accomplishments were staying true to his heritage, being an educator, writer, and a loving husband and father. Receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship to travel abroad, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, being named Poet Laureate of Kentucky, and having a book, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow listed as one of the world's best one thousand, he was awarded several times over.

Jesse Stuart always stayed true to his heritage. He traveled around the world and he never forgot who he was and where he came from. His devotion to his family and work are his greatest attributes. The poetry, short stories, fiction, and non-fiction of Jesse Stuart will always hold a place in the literary world. It is to his credit he remained as he was, a true Kentuckian.

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Blair, Everetta Love. Jesse Stuart His Life and Works. University of South Carolina, 1967.

Browning, Mary Carmel. Kentucky Authors A History of Kentucky Literature. Evansville, Indiana: 1968.

Commire, Ann. Something About the Author Volume Two. Detroit, Michigan: 1971.

Foster, Ruel E. Jesse Stuart. New York: 1968.

Kimbel, Bobby E. American Short Story Writers 1910-1945. Detroit, Michigan: 1991.

Kleber, John E. The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Lexington, Kentucky: 1992.

Stuart, Jesse. Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow. New York: 1934.

Stuart, Jesse. Hold April. New York: 1962.