A mere 73 days after a ragtag South Carolina militia attacked Fort Sumter launching the War Between the States, a band of railroad executives and politicians from 27 Virginia counties met in Wheeling, then Virginia's third largest city, and laid the foundation for our nation's 35th state, West Virginia. Born amidst the Sturm und Drang of our nation's most tragic and disruptive event, West Virginia is the first and only state created from another state without the parent state's consent. The lore which emerged was purposefully designed to imbue its citizens with pride and righteous purpose. The border is as craggy and haphazard as the topography upon which it was superimposed, a beautiful, tragic, and widely misunderstood swath of the central Appalachia. Michael Abraham was raised as a member of an ethnic minority by a Northern father and a Southern mother in a small southwest Virginia town. With Blue Bloods to the east, hillbillies to the west, and evangelical Christians everywhere, he forged an egalitarian ethos and a kinship with those who tied their fortunes, sensibilities, and affections to rugged, isolated areas. In The Spine of the Virginias, Abraham chips away at the West Virginia formation myth. He follows with a collection of contemporary vignettes of people and places on both sides of the border of Virginia and West Virginia, in revealing looks at the interaction between a landscape and its people. Inspired by the quote, "Culture is something we think other people have," Abraham profiles doctors, lawyers, journalists, miners, and businesspeople; senators, mayors, and gubernatorial candidates; filmmakers, musicians, and artists; beekeepers, maple syrup producers, brick sculptors, and barbarians. This palette is infused with green and brown earthtones, the canvas is a richly corrugated and rugged parchment, and the patina is a pall of resentment, resignation, affection, divided loyalties, and constitutional ambiguities.

The Spine of the Virginias

Biographies & Memoirs

Abraham, Michael

Historical

Pileated Press

Wayne Derek Quarles wins no sainthood awards. A resident of bustling, polyglot Northern Virginia, Quarles is self-centered, egotistical, and cantankerous - an equal opportunity bigot. Within the span of a week, his malevolence causes him to lose everything that has ever been important. But his life seemingly turns even more wretched when, on a visit to tiny Union, West Virginia, he becomes an accidental long-term visitor. Through family lore, Quarles finds that his troubles, as well as his recovery process, mirror those of his ancestor, Confederate veteran Andrew Jackson McGranahan, whose likeness was memorialized in a statue in a cow pasture at the end of Main Street. Union, WV is a novel of loss, healing, and redemption in contemporary Appalachia.

Union, WV

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Southwest Virginia is the fertile crescent of Appalachian heritage music, known as bluegrass and old time music. The idea began in 2003 in a brainstorming session of area planners, visionaries, and musicians to link a series of music venues on a continuous trail to generate economic development and tourism by focusing on the unique musical heritage. It was to be called the Virginia Heritage Music Trail. Joe Wilson, generally accepted as the godfather of the project, nicknamed it The Crooked Road. The response was immediately and resoundingly positive. While the bane to many automobile drivers, crooked roads are universally loved by motorcyclists. A product of the area and a lifelong motorcyclist, I found the idea of riding it irresistible. In the spirit of Bill Bryson, Paul Theroux, and Tim Cahill, I rode The Crooked Road from the East terminus to the West, stopping to meet and interview musicians, luthiers, and promoters. But I also met coal miners, moonshiners, athletes, businessmen, preachers, and entrepreneurs to give readers a well-rounded look at what makes the culture and region so special and unique.

Harmonic Highways

Sammy Reisinger is a 17-year old violin prodigy from a wealthy New Jersey family. She has inherited a priceless Cremonese violin from her grandfather and is schooled in the classics. Becoming enamored with traditional Appalachian music, she decides to visit the venerable Old Fiddlers Convention in Southwest Virginia. While there performing, tragedy strikes, leaving her seemingly trapped and orphaned. Providence, VA is the story of how she and her tiny host community deal with an epic disaster.

Providence, VA

Tragedy strikes often in the coal country of Southern West Virginia, one of America's poorest places. Too often the tragedies are caused by corporate malevolence. When a coal impoundment dam upstream of War, West Virginia, collapses, sending a raging black torrent of death through the hollow, Lucas "Pug" Graham and a band of survivors decide that justice must be done.

War, WV

Contemporary

When Marjorie Taliaferro's beloved twin sister Sally Taliaferro Bradley is stricken with breast cancer, it's tragic enough. But when the governorship of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a position she rightfully deserves, is wrested from her during her infirmity, it is an action that cannot stand. Marjorie and her life partner Anne Randolph, along with a cadre of supporters, lay forth plans to recapture Sally's lawful position and along with it a measure of fair governance to the state.

Orange, VA

Free men, real men: A novel of American masculinity

Dougherty, R. Duke

My sister, Lynn Schockner, opened her front door to a pair of Long Beach police officers who reported a neighbor had seen a prowler vault over her back fence and enter the yard. They asked permission to search her property but she deferred, telling them she would open the back gate and allow them access to the yard. Four more Long Beach police officers arrived, effectively surrounding the Bixby Knolls house, but none ever saw Lynn alive again. Leaving Long Beach, an intimate account of my sister's murder, is a true crime behind-the-scenes story of a horrifying crime, a true sense of real courtroom drama and the triumph of a family working in partnership with the criminal justice system. Compelling and heart-wrenching, the author also uncovers the ravages of domestic abuse and the resilience of his adopted son who survived the tragedy.

Leaving Long Beach: An Intimate Account Of My Sister's Murder

Jicha, Mr. Mark A.

True Crime

From its inception in the 1880s, The Norfolk &amp; Western Railway primarily carried freight but as a sideline, it always provided passenger service. A profitable, well-run company, N&amp;W only accepted the very best. As World War II ended, N&amp;W offered several named trains along its main line, including the Cavalier, the Pocahontas, and its daytime flagship the Powhatan Arrow. Pulled initially by the magnificent Class J steam locomotives that N&amp;W manufactured at its Roanoke Shops, the Powhatan Arrow provided fast, luxurious, and memorable service for three decades before passenger service was discontinued, giving way to automobile and airplane travel nationwide. The corridor traversed by the Powhatan Arrow is a wonderfully complex, geographically fascinating, socially diverse, and economically mixed path through Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio. The vicissitudes of time have endowed the communities along the way with a broad spectrum of fortunes, branching from prosperity to failure. With railroads no longer carrying passengers, Michael Abraham duplicated the route as closely as possible by car, motorcycle, bicycle, and even canoe, gathering each area's history and culture and profiling entrepreneurs, historians, railfans, and everyday people in this enlightening, humorous look at a swath of America's past, present, and future.

Chasing the Powhatan Arrow: A Travelogue in Economic Geography

History

Michael Abraham

Americas

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

Books by Pileated Press