Songs of Bloody Harlan

Arts & Photography

Pennington, Lee

Music

Westburg Asso Pub

What the Critics Say of I KNEW A WOMAN- An original, intense exploration of the multifaceted phenomenon we vaguely refer to as love. This is his best, purest poetry to date. --Bill Patterson He turns it (the world) inside out. Love, in romance and friendship, at morning and midnight, in April and autumn; earth things large and small, wild and delicate: these are the interior messages the poet brings forth for a larger sharing. --Wilma Dykeman He has carefully observed the world, finding the essence of woman, the eternally feminine, life-giving power. -Jim Wayne Miller The analogy is to D. H. Lawrence. If we clubbed to death the dark force that reveals the mystery of life, that is not Lawrence's fault. -Nor is it Pennington's. A woman is Woman. And Pennington leaves little doubt concerning her function in the larger scheme of love. Every woman is Frigga or Flicka, Mother Earth, the source and sustainer of life. --J. R. Le Master This is one of those exceptional examples of Lee Pennington's creative talent; it is filled with something extra--a quality of beauty. feminine beauty-with a delicacy seldom reached by the masculine gender. It takes great talent to create love poems with such depth of takes great comprehension. A beautiful book through- out. -Claire Emerson The literary horizon of Lee Pennington is expanding and one can only wonder how long it will be before his talent explodes to send vibrations to the outer parts of the world. --G. Sam Piatt If one word could be used to describe Lee Pennington that would be "uniqueness". His poetry is so different that once you read it, you cannot forget it. His style of writing is simple, yet complicated and hauntingly beautiful." --Paul Salyers

I knew a woman

Love Street Books

Thigmotropism (Green River Writers - Poetry Series)

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Green River Writers/Grex Pr

Thigmotropism (Green River Writers/Grex Press Poetry Series ; V 1)

Appalachian Newground

Appalachian Newground is Lee Pennington's twentieth book and the first book he has published after a 23-year hiatus. His books of poetry, essays and short stories have won two nominations for Pulitzer Prizes, earned him the title of Poet Laureate of Kentucky in 1984, and the prices of his former titles have "gone through the roof," as they have been small editions and have never been reprinted. In this book, as he did in his former publications, Lee Pennington addresses the world of nature and spirit in a unique way, born in him and nurtured by his Eastern Kentucky birthplace among the hills and "hollers" of a mountainside farm. With no running water or electricity, he found the beauty and wisdom of his environment inspiring him to write poems on birch bark and leaves before finally publishing books on paper. His close friend, Jesse Stuart, was his best critic and inspiration throughout the years of Jesse's life. Pennington's 39 years of teaching Creative Writing in colleges brought him not only masterful skill, but thousands of adoring students, many of whom have become well-known writers themselves. In this volume you will find the distillation of Pennington's creative genius in his poems in their quiet, passionate intensity, as well as a treatise on his childhood and a screenplay contemplating the past, present and future as seen by humanity and all-pervasive nature in the form of "Ragweed."

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Winchester Cottage Print

Lee Pennington was born and grew to manhood in Appalachia in a small hillside community called "White Oak" located in western end of Greenup County, Kentucky. He attended the same one room school his parents attended. Later he went to McKell High School where he met and became close friends with the writer Jesse Stuart. The author of 19 other books, Pennington was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his I Knew a Woman and Thigmotropism. He was named Poetry Laureate of Kentucky by the State Legislature in 1984. He says, "Appalachian Newground is, in some small way, my recognizing and honoring the land of my birth." Appalachian Newground is his first book in 23 years.

Short Stories & Anthologies

In the 1960's, after graduation from Berea, Lee Pennington went to Harlan County to teach poetry to Kentucky Community College students. Under his tutelage, they published four books of poetry, Spirit Hollow, Thirteen, The Long Way Home and Tomorrow's People. It was this last book that got him in trouble, as the students were honest and frank about their locale, religion and relationships, and local authorities took offense. So much so that a price was put on Pennington's head and he had to leave with armed guards to protect him. This, of course, made national news and he was asked to speak all over the United States. 
It was not the students or the population of Harlan County who hated Pennington, but the establishment, the executives, the law-enforcers and managers who disapproved of his freedom and honesty. As Jean W. Ross writes in the DLB Yearbook, "the students' work was in part critical of strip-mining, traditional religious teaching, and the hypocrisy of authority." She writes of Lee's subsequent book on the subject, 
Songs of Bloody Harlan, , published first in North American Mentor (Summer 1971), and in book form in 1975, is Pennington's toughly realistic but ultimately loving tribute to the region that had driven him out in 1967. He wrote of the poetry's genesis, "For two years following my experience in Harlan County, I didn't say anything. But a poet doesn't have that choice either. . . . Songs of Bloody Harlan is my comment." (Jean W. Ross, Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook 1982, p. 335) 
Pennington's book, Songs of Bloody Harlan was one of his early publications, with a small edition of 100 printed, in 1975. Its popularity grew until it became very valuable, with a high price of $2,500 listed for one available on Amazon in 2018. This edition fulfills many people's desire to own a copy of this rare book, and it deserves reprinting so that all may partake of the experience Pennington lived, with all of it beauty, love and agony.

Lee Pennington has published 20 books, most of them poetry, as he is a Poet Laureate of Kentucky. This new book, with new poems written since 2011, is filled with the wonder of love and admiration for his lover. His words shine with light and drip with eroticism. The illustrations by Jill Baker bring out the visual in his words, adding to and complementing the overall intimacy of this small treasure of a book.

Daughters of Leda

Lee Pennington's first Pulitzer Prize Nominated work, I Knew A Woman is a beautiful exploration of love, the land, and the power of the feminine.

I Knew A Woman

Arterial Poetry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pennington, Lee. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pennington, Lee

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pennington, Lee. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Songs of Bloody Harlan

I knew a woman

Thigmotropism (Green River Writers - Poetry Series)

Thigmotropism (Green River Writers/Grex Press Poetry Series ; V 1)

Appalachian Newground

Appalachian Newground

Songs of Bloody Harlan

Daughters of Leda

I Knew A Woman