Harriette Arnow

Harriette Arnow

Harriette Arnow remains one of America’s greatest writers. Her Appalachian roots surely formed her and gave her work an authenticity and grounding that only the deep connection to place can bring. Yet, as with all great fiction, her novels transcend the time and place of their settings and speak to wider nuances of the human spirit. Her biographer Sandra Ballard describes her work in this way: “She was interested in the edges and people who live on the edges. She offers visions of heaven and hell.” Ballard thinks of Arnow as “Appalachia’s Dickens.”

Harriette Simpson Arnow was born in 1908 in the Kentucky town of Burnsville on the Cumberland River. Her parents had been schoolteachers and were determined that their children would be educated, in spite of the prevailing view that it was a “waste” to educate girls. All five of the Simpson girls finished high school, and all but one went to college, as did their brother. 

Arnow knew from early childhood that she wanted to be a writer.  She earned her teacher’s certificate at Berea College in 1926 and taught for two years in a one-room schoolhouse in rural Kentucky. When she had saved sufficient money, she went on to attend the University of Louisville where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in education. She subsequently taught in the city schools for a year and hated it. 

Years later she would remember the mountain children she had taught with fondness, their eagerness to learn, their respect for her. She contrasted that experience with the one in Louisville where the city children were unruly and disrespectful.  She wrote that she would rather starve as a writer than as a teacher.

Arnow moved on her own to Cincinnati in 1934. Determined to work as a waitress to keep herself housed and fed, she embarked on her own self-education program to become a writer. She would later say that a young writer should “get work in a place with bus boys. You’ll get better tips.” She read every novel she could get her hands on, intent on learning from the greatest writers. Soon she had published several short stories, and by 1936, her first novel Mountain Path had appeared. In 1939, she married a handsome young newspaper man named Harold Arnow, and they decided to buy a farm in Kentucky and “live simply.” 

The Arnows soon learned that idealism was not enough. With characteristic irony, they referred to their home as the “submarginal manor.” Later, Arnow would remember the unremitting labor, almost no time for writing, and the fact that her mountain neighbors seemed to get twice as much done as she did in half the time. In spite of all the obstacles, Arnow continued to work on another novel. The couple farmed until 1944, having three of their four children during that time (though they lost two of them as babies). They moved into wartime housing in Detroit, Mich., and Harold Arnow went back to work as a reporter. Although another child had arrived and she had to stay awake after the 3 a.m. feedings in order to have time to write, Harriette Arnow soon completed Hunter’s Horn which was a national best seller in 1949. 

The move to the city provided the material for her third, and probably best-known novel The Dollmaker, which was later made into a movie for television starring actress Jane Fonda.  Arnow subsequently published two additional novels, Weedkiller’s Daughter and The Kentucky Trace. Another called Between the Flowers was published in 1999 more than 10 years after her death. She also published three works of non-fiction: Old Burnside, Flowering of the Cumberland, Seedtime on the Cumberland. 

A few years before Arnow’s death, Herb Smith, a film maker and one of the original members of Appalshop, filmed the author talking about her history and her approach to writing. The film, available from Appalshop, brings this tiny (4’9”tall) vivid, brilliant woman to life as she speaks eloquently to writers about her writing techniques, her struggles to balance the demands of writing with her life, and about her way of seeing the world.  She shares with Gertie, the main character in The Dollmaker, a totally unsentimental perspective combined with a determination to keep on in spite of whatever obstacles might arise. 

Arnow’s chiseled prose and deftly handled dialect bring her Appalachian people to life. The reader can see them at every moment, as if in a play.  She spares no detail, even unflattering ones, yet the dignity and power of her characters shine through, and the world enlarges as you see it through their eyes.

Harriette Arnow taught emerging writers at the Appalachian Writer’s Workshop in Hindman, Ky.. from 1978 until the summer before she died.  She died in the spring of 1986. 

Sandra Ballard    

Sandra Ballard was working toward her PhD in English at the University of Tennessee when she decided to make Harriette Arnow’s work the topic of her dissertation. In 1984 when Arnow spoke at Morehead State University in Morehead, Ky., Ballard came to hear her, never dreaming they would actually meet. At the dinner before the speech, Ballard and a friend sat across from friends of Arnow’s who invited the couple to come to the author’s room after the program. Ballard was overwhelmed, but managed to tell Arnow that she wanted to write about her work, to which the feisty author responded: “What do you want to write a book about me for?” The exchanges were made more difficult by the author’s hearing difficulties. However, once Arnow heard a question, she would turn it around and ask what the others thought, for instance about the ending of The Dollmaker which the movie version had changed.  Though she wouldn’t admit to having a favorite among her novels, Arnow clearly loved hearing Ballard discuss Hunter’s Horn.  Harriette Arnow died the following year, but Ballard had managed to tape the speech which she later transcribed. That was the beginning of her journey toward becoming Arnow’s official biographer. Over the years, she has come to know Harriette Arnow’s family well, and they have been immensely supportive as the biography has come together, offering memories,  pictures, and other documents.

Ballard is a member of the English Department at Appalachian State University and a member of the faculty of the Center for Appalachian Studies there which offers the only Master’s Degree in Appalachian Studies in the country. The Center was founded in 1978 and is headed by anthropology professor Patricia Beaver. They now offer an undergraduate program as well.

In addition to editing Appalachian Journal and a collection of Harriette Arnow’s short stories, Ballard, along with colleague Patricia Hudson, published a magnificent anthology called Listen Here; Women Writing in Appalachia. The collection includes well-known writers such as Barbara Kingsolver, Lee Smith, Sharyn McCrumb, Wilma Dykeman, Annie Dillard, Nikki Giovanni, and Gail Godwin, as well as a host of talented writers from the region who may not be as widely known. The collection is a treasure of great writing.

Related reading

Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review    

A recent conversation about the Appalachian Journal elicited the comment, “But I thought it was an academic journal.” And it is that, but it invites a much wider readership than such a description might imply. Under the direction of skilled editor Sandra Ballard since 2000, it includes poetry, book and music reviews, and interviews, as well as informative (and yes, scholarly) articles related to all aspects of the culture and history of the Appalachian mountains and its people. The journal opens with a section called “Signs of the Times” which Ballard describes as “a collection of what the media is saying about Appalachia, with headlines to highlight where they hit or miss the mark.” She writes: “We cast our net wide and gather up articles from all over the country and all over the world.”

“Signs of the Times” also includes updates on the environmental devastation visited upon the region by the practice known as “mountain-top removal” and on efforts by citizens’ groups and legislatures to reign in the coal companies before the mountains and streams disappear altogether. Each issue of the Appalachian Journal ends with “Chronicle,” which lists important events in the region and “Appalachia by the Numbers” listing statistics about pollution, mining violations, diseases, and other concerns.

Missing Mountains: We Went To The Mountaintop, But It Wasn’t There

Edited by Kristin Johannsen, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Mary Ann Taylor-Hall with introduction by Silas House and afterword by Wendell Berry.  Nicholasville, KY: Wind Publications, 2005.

Missing Mountains documents in text and in photographs a widely practiced mining method known as “mountaintop removal.” Entire sections of the ancient Appalachian mountain range are literally being blasted into oblivion. The resulting refuse of dirt, rock, and sediment is simply left in enormous mounds known as “valley fill.” The run-off causes flooding and has obliterated innumerable streams throughout the mountains. The cost to the people of this region in emotional, physical and spiritual terms is incalculable, and they have been left behind economically as well. Most Americans, even those who consider themselves attuned to environmental concerns, have not personally observed the systematic destruction of an entire geography. Although the essays in Missing Mountains relate to mountaintop removal in Eastern Kentucky, the practice is going on in every mining region of the Appalachians. The loss of these mountains and the resulting devastation is an irredeemable mistake and one that affects us all. Every American citizen needs to read this book and consider long and hard what is to be found there.