Drawing upon the rural landscape and folkways of her beloved Kentucky, Elizabeth Madox Roberts earned a national reputation in 1926 when her first novel, The Time of Man, launched her into a popularity that was to last until 1935, when, with her declining health and productivity, her fame plummeted. She was born in Perryville, Kentucky, a small town on the banks of the Salt River, the second of eight children of Simpson and Mary Elizabeth Brent Roberts, a surveyor, farmer, schoolmaster, and Confederate soldier. In 1887 her family moved to Springfield, Kentucky, where she was to spend nearly all her life listening to the pioneer tales narrated by her family and friends and observing rural life--the material for her novels and short stories.

In September 1900, she began studies at State College of Kentucky (now the University of Kentucky) but the poor health that was to plague her for the rest of...