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K E N T U C K Y I S M Y L A N D
E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City,
New York, 1952. 95 pp.
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Kentucky Is My Land was Jesse
Stuart’s fourth book
of poetry. The image above is
scanned from the E. P. Dutton first
edition; Marshall University’s
Jesse Stuart Collection also includes a facsimile edition,
including the same dust jacket design,
published in 1967 by Economy
Printers of Ashland, Kentucky—both of
which are signed by Jesse Stuart.
The book’s
dust-jacket states that it “is Jesse
Stuart’s reaffirmation of his
passionate love for Kentucky in which he
grew up, with its flowers and trees and
weathers, and its infinite seasonal
variety.” H. Edward Richardson, Stuart’s
biographer, wrote that the “reviews of
this pencil-thin volume pointed up the
regional richness of his work” (Jesse, p. 344).
In a contest between Stuart and Edwin Carlisle Litsey,
to see who would be Kentucky’s 1954 poet
laureate, Stuart read the poem from
which the title of the book is taken
before the state legislature; the
legislature chose both men. Stuart, who
participated with reluctance in the
whole affair, wrote
with irony that “Kentucky I suppose [is
the] only state in the Union with two
poet laureates” (Richardson,
Jesse, p. 353).
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