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L A N
D B E Y O N D
T H E R I V E R
McGraw-Hill,
New York City, New York, 1973.
380 pp.
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Jesse Stuart’s last novel to be
published during his lifetime, The Land Beyond the River, describes the experience
of the poverty stricken Perkins family,
who are convinced by a wealthy uncle to
move over the river and work one of his
farms. When the father, Poppie, is
incapacitated by a snake bite, the
family reluctantly falls for their
uncle’s cajolling
and goes on welfare. With the uncle’s help
the family succumbs to the blandishments
of the dole, milking a corrupt system,
while ever moving ever upward in
prosperity,
reaping the benefits of loopholes in welfare
system.
The novel is Stuart’s indictment of the
modern government welfare program, which
he sees as a corrupting influence on the
American values of self-reliance,
honesty and hard work. He tracts how is
easy it is for well-meaning people, such
as the Perkins family, to be enticed
into a system that destroys their
individual worth.
Dorothy Townsend was the wife of Stuart’s
close friend and Kentucky writer, John
Wilson Townsend. Dorothy’s biography
about her husband is entitled, The
Life and Works of John Wilson Townsend,
Kentucky Author and Historian, 1885-1968,
self-published published in 1972.
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