Billy C. Clark
Encyclopedia
Billy Curtis Clark December 19, 1928 – March 15, 2009) was an American
author of 11 books and many poems and short stories, heavily influenced by his childhood growing up in poverty in Kentucky
.
in Eastern Kentucky during the Great Depression
; He was a second cousin of writer Jesse Stuart
. He had four brothers and four sisters, and was born to a mother who would wash clothes for extra income, while his father was a shoemaker who bragged of having made it to the second grade. He was living on his own by the time he was 11 years old, doing work to pay for high school, while living in a courthouse building. He would put out miles of trotline
s and set traps to catch animals, drying the skins of the animals he caught on the courthouse's clock and selling the furs to make a living.
He enlisted in the military and served during the Korean War
following his graduation from high school. After completing military service, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky
, becoming the first member of his family to earn a college degree.
and Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Reviewer Hal Borland
in The New York Times
describes the "ballad-like quality" of his 1960 autobiographical book A Long Row to Hoe, that tells the story of his life up to age 19, growing up in a community that "had more than its share of 'river trash', drunks [and] derelicts" in which the developments of electric lights and indoor plumbing did not "put an end to frontier crudeness and backwater characters". The review laments the structure of the book, but describes it as a "good story, rich in character and details, larded with anecdote and legend". The book was selected by Time
magazine as one of its best books of that year, describing it "as authentically American as Huckleberry Finn
". Many colleges and universities use the book to introduce students to the culture of Appalachia
and its culture and the Library of Congress
selected it to be recorded on a talking record for the blind. Mark Daniel Merritt
composed the score of River Dreams a musical adaptation of A Long Road to Hoe. The play was written by Betty Peterson, an English professor who had been a student of Clark's.
Platt and Monk included his Trail of the Hunter's Horn in a 1964 anthology of 30 Greatest Dog Stories that also included Call of the Wild by Jack London
as well as John Steinbeck
's Travels With Charley
. The Book of the Month Club
offered as a selection his book The Champion of Sourwood Mountain.
A mule named Kate would follow Clark and his friends to school. After the mule was arrested for trespassing, he and his classmates collected enough money to get the animal released on bail. Walt Disney Studios
purchased the rights to his book about the mule, titled Goodbye Kate, which has yet to be made into a film by the time of Clark's death.
The University of Tennessee Press
published his novel By Way of the Forked Stick in September 2000.
Clark was selected as writer-in-residence at Longwood University
, after spending 18 years at the University of Kentucky
in that role as a full professor. He was the founder and editor of Virginia Writing.
on U.S. Route 60
to connect Kentucky and Kenova, West Virginia
, was named for him in 1992.
Clark died at age 80 on March 15, 2009 at his home in Farmville, Virginia
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author of 11 books and many poems and short stories, heavily influenced by his childhood growing up in poverty in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
.
Biography
Clark was born June 26, 1928 and grew up in CatlettsburgCatlettsburg, Kentucky
Catlettsburg is a city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States and is the county seat of Boyd County. The city population was 1,960 at the 2000 census. The city's postal ZIP code serves a greater population of 10,029, which is a better reflection of the community's size. Catlettsburg is a part of...
in Eastern Kentucky during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
; He was a second cousin of writer Jesse Stuart
Jesse Stuart
Jesse Hilton Stuart was an American writer who is known for writing short stories, poetry, and novels about Southern Appalachia. Born and raised in Greenup County, Kentucky, Stuart relied heavily on the rural locale of Northeastern Kentucky for his writings. Stuart was named the Poet Laureate of...
. He had four brothers and four sisters, and was born to a mother who would wash clothes for extra income, while his father was a shoemaker who bragged of having made it to the second grade. He was living on his own by the time he was 11 years old, doing work to pay for high school, while living in a courthouse building. He would put out miles of trotline
Trotline
A trotline is a heavy fishing line with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called snoods. A snood is a short length of line which is attached to the main line using a clip or swivel, with the hook at the other end. A trotline can be set so it covers the width of a channel,...
s and set traps to catch animals, drying the skins of the animals he caught on the courthouse's clock and selling the furs to make a living.
He enlisted in the military and served during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
following his graduation from high school. After completing military service, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
, becoming the first member of his family to earn a college degree.
Writing
Clark claimed to have his first work published when he was 14-years old and a collaborative effort was underway at the time of his death to publish pieces he had written while in college together with the Jesse Stuart Foundation, to be called A Heap of Hills. The foundation has reissued eight of Clark's books that had been originally published by G. P. Putnam's SonsG. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
and Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Thomas Y. Crowell Co. was a publishing company founded by Thomas Y. Crowell in 1834 in the United States.-History:The company began publishing books in 1876, and in 1882 T. Irving Crowell joined his father in the business. Jeremiah Osborne Crowell became the sales manager.In 1909, after Thomas Y....
Reviewer Hal Borland
Hal Borland
Hal Borland was a well-known American author and journalist. In addition to writing several novels and books about the outdoors, he wrote "outdoor editorials" for The New York Times for more than 30 years, from 1941 to 1978.-Early life and education:Hal Borland was born on the plains in Sterling,...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
describes the "ballad-like quality" of his 1960 autobiographical book A Long Row to Hoe, that tells the story of his life up to age 19, growing up in a community that "had more than its share of 'river trash', drunks [and] derelicts" in which the developments of electric lights and indoor plumbing did not "put an end to frontier crudeness and backwater characters". The review laments the structure of the book, but describes it as a "good story, rich in character and details, larded with anecdote and legend". The book was selected by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine as one of its best books of that year, describing it "as authentically American as Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written in the vernacular, characterized by...
". Many colleges and universities use the book to introduce students to the culture of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
and its culture and the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
selected it to be recorded on a talking record for the blind. Mark Daniel Merritt
Mark Daniel Merritt
Mark Daniel Merritt is an American composer and arranger with published choral works mostly for church choirs. Merritt's recent commissions, include a commission in 2007 partially funded by the Kentucky Arts Council, to compose the score to the musical River Dreams, which had its world premiere...
composed the score of River Dreams a musical adaptation of A Long Road to Hoe. The play was written by Betty Peterson, an English professor who had been a student of Clark's.
Platt and Monk included his Trail of the Hunter's Horn in a 1964 anthology of 30 Greatest Dog Stories that also included Call of the Wild by Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
as well as John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
's Travels With Charley
Travels With Charley: In Search of America
Travels with Charley: In Search of America is a travelogue written by American author John Steinbeck. It recounts tales of a 1960 road trip with his French standard poodle, Charley, around the United States. He wrote that he was moved by a desire to see his country on a personal level, since he...
. The Book of the Month Club
Book of the Month Club
The Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order book sales club that offers a new book each month to customers.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
offered as a selection his book The Champion of Sourwood Mountain.
A mule named Kate would follow Clark and his friends to school. After the mule was arrested for trespassing, he and his classmates collected enough money to get the animal released on bail. Walt Disney Studios
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
purchased the rights to his book about the mule, titled Goodbye Kate, which has yet to be made into a film by the time of Clark's death.
The University of Tennessee Press
University of Tennessee Press
The University of Tennessee Press is a university press associated with the University of Tennessee.UT Press was established in 1940 by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees.The University of Tennessee Press issues about 35 books each year...
published his novel By Way of the Forked Stick in September 2000.
Clark was selected as writer-in-residence at Longwood University
Longwood University
Longwood University is a four-year public, liberal-arts university located in Farmville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1839 and became a university on July 1, 2002...
, after spending 18 years at the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
in that role as a full professor. He was the founder and editor of Virginia Writing.
Personal
The Billy C. Clark Bridge, which crosses the Big Sandy RiverBig Sandy River (Ohio River)
The Big Sandy River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in western West Virginia and northeastern Kentucky in the United States. The river forms part of the boundary between the two states along its entire course...
on U.S. Route 60
U.S. Route 60
U.S. Route 60 is an east–west United States highway, running from the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast in Virginia to western Arizona. Despite the final "0" in its number, indicating a transcontinental designation, the 1926 route formerly ended in Springfield, Missouri, at its intersection...
to connect Kentucky and Kenova, West Virginia
Kenova, West Virginia
Kenova is a city in Wayne County, West Virginia, at the confluence of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers. The name of the town comes from its unique position where the borders of Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia meet. Founded in 1859 but not incorporated until 1894, the town's early history and...
, was named for him in 1992.
Clark died at age 80 on March 15, 2009 at his home in Farmville, Virginia
Farmville, Virginia
Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. The population was 6,845 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County....
.