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George Spain is the author of
The Last Giant Come Sit with Me..., Lost Cove, Our People: Stories of the South, and Delightful Suthun Madnesses XIII. A native Tennessean, he is a direct-line descendent of James Vann, Cherokee Chief of the Upper Towns. Now retired from his work in mental health, he lives in Nashville. George and Jackie Spain were married fifty-four years, until her death in May 2009. To purchase George's books, visit his page on Amazon.com. |
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About the Book: Come Sit with Me... and listen to stories I want you to hear...
Come sit with me and let me share some tales about:
Five boys who find a lost pony and learn a lesson from an artist who paints naked women;
A sheriff who tries to save a boy’s soul before he hangs him;
A southern aristocrat whose pet owl flew freely through his antebellum mansion;
A turkey buzzard named “Damnit” who makes a great contribution to science;
The earth’s last giant in whose hair and beard live orphaned and homeless animals;
A mentally ill and dangerous boy who witnessed a terrifying scene during the Civil War;
A spirit who quotes scripture and warns a young girl against impending danger;
And about bootleggers, cock fighters, rattlesnakes, a gentleman Devil, a hill lady of ill-fame, and other animals and humans well worth knowing.
Five boys who find a lost pony and learn a lesson from an artist who paints naked women;
A sheriff who tries to save a boy’s soul before he hangs him;
A southern aristocrat whose pet owl flew freely through his antebellum mansion;
A turkey buzzard named “Damnit” who makes a great contribution to science;
The earth’s last giant in whose hair and beard live orphaned and homeless animals;
A mentally ill and dangerous boy who witnessed a terrifying scene during the Civil War;
A spirit who quotes scripture and warns a young girl against impending danger;
And about bootleggers, cock fighters, rattlesnakes, a gentleman Devil, a hill lady of ill-fame, and other animals and humans well worth knowing.
About the Book: Lost Cove
Cover photo by Stephen Alvarez; © 2013 Alvarez Photography
Four weeks after my mother’s death in 1992, I discovered a charred sea chest in her attic. In it was a dove-gray logbook that contained the journal of Jeremiah Vann. Lost Cove is his story of five generations of two families: the Vanns and Pearsons. From the days of the Cherokee, through slavery and the Civil War, to the 1950s, they lived and died in a Tennessee valley - Lost Cove - completely surrounded by mountains. The following is an excerpt from Jeremiah’s journal in April 1942 –
Even though I was a boy when it all happened, and even though I loved my mother dearly, there was a long time in my life when I believed what she had done with Captain Taggert was wrong, and that she was partly to blame for his death – but as I grew older and committed my own sins I began to think, who am I to stand in judgment of my mother who had loved me and cared for me without anyone’s help, and who am I to judge anyone, even the Taggerts, for I have done terrible things in my life: I have been a drunkard and been lascivious, and I have cursed God, and I have killed three people – so who am I to judge anyone?
Jeremiah Vann
Four weeks after my mother’s death in 1992, I discovered a charred sea chest in her attic. In it was a dove-gray logbook that contained the journal of Jeremiah Vann. Lost Cove is his story of five generations of two families: the Vanns and Pearsons. From the days of the Cherokee, through slavery and the Civil War, to the 1950s, they lived and died in a Tennessee valley - Lost Cove - completely surrounded by mountains. The following is an excerpt from Jeremiah’s journal in April 1942 –
Even though I was a boy when it all happened, and even though I loved my mother dearly, there was a long time in my life when I believed what she had done with Captain Taggert was wrong, and that she was partly to blame for his death – but as I grew older and committed my own sins I began to think, who am I to stand in judgment of my mother who had loved me and cared for me without anyone’s help, and who am I to judge anyone, even the Taggerts, for I have done terrible things in my life: I have been a drunkard and been lascivious, and I have cursed God, and I have killed three people – so who am I to judge anyone?
Jeremiah Vann
About the Book: Our People: Stories of the South
These stories span more than two hundred years in the South. They tell of: a Confederate Captain whose son is killed by his side in battle; a white woman searching for her black lover on the battlefield in Nashville; a slave who is almost killed at birth by her mother; a woman captured by Indians; two boys who hunt a 'man-killer' bear; a former slave and former Confederate Colonel riding in a wagon, drinking hard-cider and talking about the past; a fox hunter converted by the conquest of a great hound; and others that tell of good people and of some who are just awful. Most of all, these stories are about all kinds of love.
About the Book: The Last Giant by George Spain,
Illustrated by Peg Fredi
There once was a time
when giants and fantastic beasts
and strange two-legged beings
roamed the earth,
a time when myths and legends were created.
In some places, in fabulous form,
life from those ancient times
continued to exist after the great Ice Age.
Such a place was the land of Kituhwa -
the home of the last giant -
the greatest of all the giants.
So begins our story...
About the Book: The Last Giant by George Spain,
Illustrated by Peg Fredi
There once was a time
when giants and fantastic beasts
and strange two-legged beings
roamed the earth,
a time when myths and legends were created.
In some places, in fabulous form,
life from those ancient times
continued to exist after the great Ice Age.
Such a place was the land of Kituhwa -
the home of the last giant -
the greatest of all the giants.
So begins our story...