Fable in the Blood: The Selected Poems of Byron Herbert Reece edited by Jim Clark

It’s about time we got a paperback edition of this crucial book! During the 1940s there were four Appalachian poets who had national reputations. All four published books with New York publishers and published poems in national magazines, and all four had strong rural roots. They were Jesse Stuart (1906-1984) of Kentucky, James Still (1906-2001) of Alabama and Kentucky, Byron Herbert Reece (1917-1958) of Georgia, and George Scarbrough (1915-2008) of Tennessee. Byron Herbert Reece maintained throughout his life even closer ties to the day-to-day life of poor mountain people than any of them. He was born in the Chestoe Valley of Union County, Georgia.  The valley's name comes from the Cherokee word for "place of dancing rabbits." It lies in the shadow of Blood Mountain and Slaughter Mountain. Reece was named after an insurance salesman and a butcher, not famous poets. The small farm where he was raised was served only by a path. There were no roads to it. It is now covered by Lake Trahly