Hardly working in the hills

"It's about the same either way you look at it, starve to death or die workin yourself to death. We have these two kinds of people among these hills."

Jesse Stuart, Trees of Heaven

Are you working hard or hardly working?

To most of us, that is just a lame joke, but to Jesse Stuart (1906-1984), once the poet laureate of Kentucky, it was a literary theme that ran through his novels, from his first, Trees of Heaven (1940), to his last, The Land Beyond the River (1973), including his classic Taps for Private Tussie (1943).

Some folks struggle every day to scrape a living in those Kentucky hills, while others do just enough to get by. We find both kinds in Trees of Heaven.

Anse Bushman, although 70 years old, still prides himself on working harder than any other man in Greenwood County (stand-in for Stuart's Greenup County, where I bought this book). He lives humbly, forcing his family to do the same, so he can save money to buy even more land. Trouble comes, however, when he buys land occupied by squatters, the Tussies, known for their laziness, beautiful women and love of moonshine.

The trees of heaven of the title are among the few trees left in this part of Kentucky, the rest having fallen either to loggers or farmers like Anse. Under these trees is where generations of Tussies are buried, and Boliver Tussie, head of the clan, isn't about to leave, never mind who owns the land and pays taxes on it.

Boliver is capable of hard work, and Anse even marvels that Boliver's tobacco crop looks better than his own, but he would much rather make moonshine and then enjoy the fruits of his labor. Anse knows that any moonshine still found on his property could lead to the loss of his land. So we have a conflict that could easily turn violent.

All of Anse's many children have fled the endless work required on the farm except for Tarvin, the youngest, who works hard while admiring the carefree lifestyle of the Tussies. He is also hopelessly in love with Subrinea, Boliver's daughter and the hardest working member of the clan. Theirs may be a match made in the trees of heaven and the hope for a new tomorrow.

Jesse Stuart already had a literary reputation before Trees of Heaven, thanks to his poetry and his memoir Beyond Dark Hills. But with his first novel, written in just 72 days, he expanded his audience and became a significant American writer in the middle of the 20th century. Like Tarvin, Stuart worked hard but seemed to prefer the Tussies.