Includes a CD with the voice of the farmer telling parts of his story

In contrast to the generally negative view of Appalachia as a subculture of hopeless poverty and deprivation, this book shows a very different picture. Roy Anderson was a resourceful, though poor, farmer, but also a talented cabinetmaker, musical instrument maker, and lay preacher. At age eighty he tells with modesty the story of his life. Roy’s words are accompanied by evocative black-and-white photographs—descriptive of his life with his sister on the farm, his cabinet shop, the community, and his church life. They give a pictorial dimension to a hard but enterprising life lived with dignity on one of the few remaining small farms in a particular community in southwestern Virginia. In this life spanning nearly a century, from birth in the log house beside which he lived his whole life, Roy and his sister Patsey always found new ways to increase the productivity of their small farm and add to their earnings. Their enterprise and Roy’s talent led him to become a skilled craftsman of furniture, clocks, and Appalachian mountain dulcimers. In books borrowed from the local library, they learned how to build greenhouses that led to a word-of-mouth, thriving business in flower and vegetable seedlings.
Roy begins by telling of his earliest memories, the family history, home chores, medical treatments, early farming, preserving foods, community collaboration in many chores, and his religious life. As these are becoming things of the past, we can all learn a great deal about life in Roy’s time and place while gaining insight into an inspiring life in a rich American culture most of us would like to know more about.


DIANE ASSEO GRILICHES was a director of community musical theatre before working in photography. She has had many solo exhibitions, with work in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Boston Athenaeum, and Tanglewood Music Center, among others. Her photography book, Library: The Drama Within, was published in 1996 by the University of New Mexico Press.

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