SOURCE: "The Short Story," in Jesse Stuart: His Life and Works. University of South Carolina Press, 1967, pp. 82-129.

In the following excerpt, Blair provides a thematic and stylistic analysis of Stuart's short stories.

In 1936, the first of Jesse Stuart's collection of short stories was published. That collection was Head o' W-Hollow.

When Head o' W-Hollow made its appearance, Ralph Thompson, of The New York Times, wrote: "What Brete Harte was to the outcasts of Poker Flat, and Joel Chandler Harris to the plantation negro, Jesse Stuart is to the folk of the Kentucky mountains. There aren't many originals among American writers of the past few years; it is hard to think of one who can beat Stuart at his best." [New York Times Book Review, March 21, 1936].

[In the New York Herald-Tribune Books, March 21, 1936] Lewis Gannett was equally enthusiastic in his estimate of the Stuart collection. He said: "There...