Letters of Jesse Stuart to Roland D. Carter,
Carnegie-Vincent Library - Archives and Special Collections
Accession extent: 17 folders arranged chronologically + 1 oversize folder
Processed (completion date): June 2000, Archivist/Librarian
Provenance: Dr. Roland D. Carter
Access: open for research
Spanning: 1910 - 1979
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Introduction
Introduction: The content of this collection consists primarily of incoming correspondence that Jesse Stuart wrote to Dr. Roland D. Carter. Both men were distinguished alumni of the Class of 1929, Lincoln Memorial University. The letters of the internationally renown author reflect a friendship and shared love for literature and education that spanned more than thirty years. Their enduring friendship began when they both attended Lincoln Memorial University together and became close personal friends. This collection was donated to the University by Dr. Roland D. Carter, a very active member of the Alumni Association.
The Class of 1929, of Lincoln Memorial University, produced several distinguished writers, renown for their scholarship and published writings: Jesse Stuart, James Still, Dr. Roland D. Carter, and Don West. Those scholars, and other Lincoln Memorial University authors, are represented in the library's literary collection.
Biography of Dr. Roland D.
Carter
Dr. Roland D. Carter, a distinguished American scholar, was a member of the graduating Class of 1929 of Lincoln Memorial University. He further acquired the Master of Arts from Duke University in 1935 and Lincoln Memorial University conferred the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 1968.
In the field of education, his extensive career included increasing levels of achievement: teacher and principal in the secondary schools of Murray County, Georgia, 1930-36; Instructor in English, Jacksonville (Alabama) Teachers College; Head, Department of English, Hiwassee College, 1937-42; faculty member of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, Department of English, retiring with the rank of Associate Professor of English in 1972.
His writings include professional articles in CEA Critic, College English, The Physical Educator, Poetry Digest, Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, Collegiate News and Views, Harvest Years, Word Studies and a continuing series of book reviews for The Christian Advocate. He arranged a workbook for freshmen entitled “Grammatical Functions in English,” Forms A and B, which was copyrighted in 1941 and 1942. Other original work includes several unpublished manuscripts penned by Dr. Carter.
Dr. Carter, a resident of Chattanooga, Tennessee, received honorary awards from the City of Chattanooga for his service in the Glenwood Neighborhood Association.
Source: A Jesse Stuart
Chronology by Jerry A. Herndon and George Brosi
1906 August 8: Birth of Jesse Hilton Stuart, the second of Mitchell and
Martha Hilton Stuart’s seven children, in a one-room log cabin in
Greenup County, Kentucky.
1912 Began the first grade at Plum Grove School in Greenup County.
1917 Moved with his family to the first property they had ever owned—a
fifty acre farm.
1921 Took his first regular job for wages, laying concrete streets in Greenup,
Kentucky.
1922 Enrolled at Greenup High School.
1924 Taught at Cane Creek Elementary School, Greenup County.
1926 Graduated from Greenup High School and enrolled at Lincoln Memorial
University at Harrogate, Tennessee, near Cumberland Gap.
1927 Began publishing poems in a variety of small magazines.
1929 Graduated from Lincoln Memorial University with a Bachelor of Arts
degree.
1929-30 Became the Teacher/Principal at Warnock High School in Greenup
County.
1930 Published his first book, Harvest of Youth, a collection of poems, at his
own expense.
1930-31 Served as Principal of Greenup High School, only four years after his
own graduation from the school.
1931-32 Did graduate work at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
1932-33 Served as Superintendent of Schools for Greenup County. At the age
of 26, he was the youngest superintendent in the state of Kentucky.
1933 Attracted national attention with the publication of his poems in such
respected magazine as The American Mercury and The Virginia
Quarterly Review.
1933-37 Served as Principal of McKell High School at South Shore, Kentucky, in
Greenup County.
1934 Published a short story, “Kentucky Hill Dance,” in The New Republic.
This was the first Stuart story published in a major national magazine.
1934 Saw the appearance of his first
commercially published book, Man with
a Bull-Tongue Plow, brought out by the E. P. Dutton Company of New
York City and remarkably well received by critics and the public alike.
This book established Stuart’s reputation as a serious poet.
1936 Published Head o’ W-Hollow, his first collection of short stories.
1936 Published his first short story in Esquire. Eventually 56 of his stories
would appear in this magazine.
1937-38 Spent a year in Scotland supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Traveled extensively in Europe.
1938 Published his first autobiographical work, Beyond Dark Hills.
1938-39 Taught Remedial English at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth,
Ohio, across the Ohio River from Greenup County.
1939 October 14: Married Naomi Deane Norris.
1939-40 Embarked on his career as a public speaker, making appearances in
the Midwest and on both coasts.
1940 Published his first novel, Trees of Heaven.
1940 November: Moved, with his wife, to the farm in W-Hollow where they
would remain throughout their active life together.
1942 August 20: Jessica Jane, the Stuarts’ only child, born.
1942-44 Served as Superintendent of the Greenup City Schools.
1943 Published Taps for Private Tussie, a novel which sold more copies
than any of his other books. It was a Book-of-the-Month Club
selection and received the Thomas Jefferson Southern Award as the
finest Southern book of that year.
1944 Inducted into the United States Navy, serving primarily as a writer in
Washington, D.C.
1944 Received the first of many honorary degrees, this one a Doctor of
Literature from the University of Kentucky.
1944 Published another book of poetry, Album of Destiny, on which he had
worked for eleven years.
1945 December 31: Discharged from the United States Navy.
1946 Published Foretaste of Glory, one of his most respected novels, and
Tales from the Plum Grove Hills, one of his best-loved collections of
short stories.
1949 Published The Thread That Runs So True, based on his experiences
as a teacher in Greenup County’s one-room schools and as County
School Superintendent and high school Principal. This autobiographical
Novel was selected as the best book of the year by the National
Education Association, and the NEA President called it “the best book on
education written in the last fifty years.” The original publisher,
Charles Scribner’s, still keeps the book in print to meet a steady
demand.
1950 Published Hie to the Hunters, the first of 29 Stuart titles which
McGraw-Hill of New York City released during his lifetime.
1951 May 11: Death of Martha Hilton Stuart.
1952
Published the last of his eleven E.P. Dutton books, Kentucky Is
My
Land, a poetry collection.
1953 Published The Beatinest Boy, his first juvenile book.
1954 Designated Poet Laureate of Kentucky.
1954 Published A Penny’s Worth of Character, his best-known children’s
book.
1954 October 8: Suffered a severe heart attack at Murray State College in
Murray, Kentucky.
1954 December 23: Death of Mitchell Stuart.
1955 October 15: Governor Lawrence Wetherby declared this day, “Jesse
Stuart Day,” and a bust of Stuart was placed on the grounds of the
Greenup County Courthouse.
1956-57 Served for the second time as Principal of McKell High School. He
had been Principal there from 1933-37.
1956 Published The Year of My Rebirth, a journal of his convalescence
after his 1954 heart attack.
1958 Honored as the featured guest on the popular network TV show,
“This is Your Life.”
1958 Taught for the summer in the Graduate College of Education at
the University of Nevada, Reno.
1960 Deposited the bulk of his papers and manuscripts at Murray State
College in Murray, Kentucky. The Jesse Stuart Collection is housed
in the Forrest C. Pogue Special Collections Library.
1960-61 Taught at the American University, Cairo, Egypt.
1960 Published God’s Oddling, a biography of Mitchell Stuart, his
father.
1961 Received the $5,000 Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets,
in recognition of his poetic achievement.
1962-63 Toured the Near, Middle, and Far East for the United States
Information Service, U. S. State Department.
1963 Published A Jesse Stuart Reader, designed for use in the secondary
schools.
1963 August 20: Celebrated the wedding of his daughter, Jane Stuart, to
Julian Juergensmeyer.
1964 Served as Chairman of the Kentucky Heart Association Fund Drive.
1964 Co-edited Outlooks Through Literature, a textbook which the Scott,
Foresman Publishing Company has kept continuously in print ever
since.
1965 Published Daughter of the Legend, his only novel set in Tennessee,
the state where he attended college and graduate school.
1966-68 Served as “Author in Residence” at Eastern Kentucky University,
Richmond, Kentucky, for two academic years.
1967 July 21: Birth of Conrad Stuart Bagner Juergensmeyer, his first
grandchild.
1969 Toured southern Europe and the African continent.
1969-75 Taught at summer creative writing workshops named in his honor
and held at Murray State University.
1970 November 5: Birth of Erik Markstrom Norris Juergensmeyer, his
second grandchild.
1971 Published Come to My Tomorrowland, the eighth and last of his
children’s books to be published during his lifetime.
1972 August: Dedication of the Jesse Stuart Lodge at Greenbo Lake
State Park in Greenup County.
1976 Saw the
publication of The Seasons of Jesse Stuart: An
Autobiography in Poetry, the eighth and last volume of poetry to
be published during his lifetime.
1978 Suffered a disabling stroke which kept him essentially bedridden
throughout the rest of his life.
1978 Published Dandelion on the Acropolis: A Journal of Greece, based
on the journal he kept during his tour of Greece in 1962.
1979 Published The Kingdom Within: A Spiritual Autobiography, the last
novel to be published during his lifetime.
1979 Created the Jesse Stuart Foundation to administer his literary legacy.
1980 Published If I Were Seventeen Again and Other Essays, the last book
he was actively involved in preparing for publication.
1980 The Stuart farm in W-Hollow, less the home place, was presented to
the Commonwealth of Kentucky as part of the Kentucky Nature
Preserves System.
1981 Saw the appearance of the first book to be published by The Jesse
Stuart Foundation, Land of The Honey-Colored Wind, a collection
of stories and poems intended for use in secondary and middle
schools.
1981 August 20: Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. presented Stuart with the
Governor’s Distinguished Service Medallion.
1982 Saw the publication of The Best-Loved Short Stories of Jesse Stuart,
selected and edited by Harold E. Richardson and with an introduction
by Robert Penn Warren. This was the 17th collection of Stuart short
stories and the last book to be published during his lifetime.
1982 May: Rendered comatose by another stroke.
1982 June: Stuart’s home in W-Hollow placed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
1984 February 17: Stuart’s life ends at the Jo-Lin Health Care Center
in Ironton, Ohio.
I. CORRESPONDENCE & NEWSCLIPPINGS
f.1 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1943-1959) 32
letters
Contains personal
letters to his friend and LMU classmate, Roland “Nick” Carter. The personal letters discuss a variety
of topics. A few letters originated
during WWII when Stuart served in the Navy. Additional letters were written from his
Kentucky residence, or, while he was traveling on speaking
tours.
f.2 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1961-1963) 20 letters
Several letters
discuss teaching, speaking tours, baseball, and writing. The literary and personal attributes of
novelist and illustrator Mr. Harrison Kroll, a former teacher of both Jesse
Stuart and Roland Carter at LMU are reflected in several letters. Some of the letters were written near
the time of Stuart’s admittance to the hospital for a heart
ailment.
f.3 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1964) 25
letters
Contains letters
about politics, poetry, education, his daughter Jessica Jane’s scholastic and
literary achievements, and travels.
f.4 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1965) 34 letters
Several letters
refer to novelist and illustrator Mr. Harrison Kroll, his first mentor and
teacher, originally of the LMU English Department in the school years that
Stuart and Carter attended. Other
letters are philosophical and discuss issues about “Life”and “the Gate.” Aspects of Daughter of the
Legend, published in 1965, and other categories of writing are discussed.
f.5 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1966) 21
letters
Includes letters
about published books and reviews, politics, and his writing efforts during his
“Author in Residence” at Eastern Kentucky University. In a Sept. 2, 1966 letter he refers to
his 29 years of traveling to Europe “when an American was worshipped all over
Europe—now, an American is hated … and hated violently. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
f.6 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1967) 33
letters
Topics include
Melungeons, the birth of his grandson, lecturing, and his concerns for a new
position and what his future might be.
He discusses keeping scrapbooks, autographing books, and publishing. Responses to the fact of his former
teacher’s death, Mr. Harrison Kroll, are cited in several
letters.
f.7 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1968) 10
letters
Several letters are relative to the LMU Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities that was bestowed in June 1968 to Dr. Roland C. Carter. Some letters pertain to family and travel.
f.8 Incoming Correspondence—Jesse Stuart (1971-1973) 12 letters
Some of the topics include reminiscences about Prof. Kroll’s classes, his daughter’s achievements, book signing events, and he writes in reference to “Daughter of the Legend.”
f.9 Correspondence—Roland Carter’s Letter 1 letter
The letter to Jesse Stuart is about Professor Carter’s then-upcoming retirement from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga English Department.
f.10 Miscellaneous Correspondence 1965-1968 5 letters
Includes copies of two letters that Jesse Stuart wrote to his “dear teacher,” Harrison Kroll.
f.11 Christmas Cards (1959-1967) (5)
Consists of five cards from the Stuarts to Mr. & Mrs. Roland C. Carter.
f.12 Jesse & Naomi Deane Stuart’s Marriage Announcement
& WWII Photograph 1939-ca.
1945 (2)
f. 13-14 Illustrated Envelopes
Comprised of commemorative, anniversary, and special illustrated envelopes.
f.15 Newsclippings, 1961-1967
The biographical clippings about the Kentucky novelist, Jesse Stuart, chiefly originate from various Kentucky and Tennessee newspapers.
II. Journal, Magazine Publications & Programs, Flyers
f.16 Journal and Magazine Publications of Jesse Stuart (1958-1968) 17
items
(additional publications are available in other Stuart collections & “Oversize”)
Contains journal and magazine publications, as well as “Rebels With a Cause,” the publication by Murray State University, of Jesse Stuart’s presentation to the graduating class of 1967.
f.17 Oversize Journal and Magazine Publications of
Jesse Stuart
Several articles originate from various publications:
Courier-Journal Magazine, the Berea Citizen, Progressive
Farmer, and Greenup News, Esquire “The Crazy Professor” article,
West Virginia Hillbilly, and Household Magazine.
f.18 Programs and Flyers (1958-1968) 14 items
Includes programs not only of the following, but additional programs and flyers: Wise County Education Association Spring Meeting, and the Jesse Stuart High School dedication.