David Peyton

Jim Comstock, editor of The West Virginia Hillbilly, sits in the second-floor workroom of his Richwood, W. Va., offices, watching the traffic move slowly through the main street. The line of passenger cars and pickup trucks is broken occasionally by a logging truck moving hardwood from the surrounding mountains to a mill where it will be processed for furniture or paneling. It is a sunny day in late April. The lower river valleys display spring blossoms and greenery. But in Richwood, a town of about 4,000 on the Cherry River, cold mountain air keeps most buds in their winter cocoons. Richwood is a mountain town filled with mountain people and mountain memories. Comstock, who was born on nearby Hinkle Mountain, is the editor of a weekly newspaper that has chronicled events in West Virginia for nearly 30 years. The Hillbilly has become a new tradition. Nearly everyone in the state has heard of it and it’s quoted often. But its sagging circulation proves more people quote it than subscribe to it. Those who follow The

Near Greenup, Ky., where the Appalachian foothills meet the broad Ohio River bottomland, the subject was heritage, but the country under discussion at the moment was Greece. “Now you take Greece for example. Sure, the Greeks have their world of science and knowledge. But the Greeks have another world, too. It’s a world of imagination, superstition, folklore, tradition. Well, we’ve got the same thing here in Appalachia.” Jesse Stuart, a man not known for theories and philosophy, leaned back in his chair and reflected on what he had just said. “The real world and the world of imagination,” mused the Eastern Kentucky poet, novelist, storyteller and teacher. “We live in two worlds here in Appalachia, just like they do in Greece,” he said chomping his battered cigar. “I guess the Greeks and the Appalachians are a whole lot alike. That’d be a good book for someone. It’s not my book, but it’s a book.” Although he has become a symbol of Appalachia to many who have read his works, the 67-year-old writer is not one