Despite having been born and raised in Chambers County, Alabama, in the southernmost foothills of Appalachia, James Still is generally considered one of the finest writers to have lived and worked in Kentucky. Most of Still's writings – including his acclaimed novel River of Earth (1940), award-winning short stories, poetry, children's literature, and folklore collections – are set in the eastern Kentucky hills, where he lived from 1931 to his death on April 28, 2001.

Both sides of Still's family could trace their ancestry to Appalachian Virginia. His father J. Alex Still, a self-educated farmer and horse trader, married James's mother Lonie Lindsey in 1893; the union produced ten children. The sixth child overall and th

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First published 21 March 2002

Citation: Olson, Ted. "James Still". The Literary Encyclopedia. 21 March 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4949, accessed 20 November 2009.]