Books published by publisher Jesse Stuart Foundation

Stuart's autobiographical account of much of his educational career. This great Kentucky novelist, short story writer, poet, and teacher writes about his boyhood, his elementary school and high school experiences, and his days at Lincoln Memorial University. He tells of teaching in a one room rural schoolhouse, his experiences as a county school superintendent, and his stay as a teacher at American University in Cairo, Egypt. He explains what classroom methods worked best, and why, and speculates on what has gone wrong with American schools.

In The Rightful Owner Jesse Stuart tells the story of Mike Richards, who befriends a hound dog that had been mistreated. He names the dog Speckles and the two become inseparable friends. Then, another boy of a nearby family claims the dog, setting up a number of dramatic encounters, as each makes a claim on the hound. In the end the hound decides who is his rightful owner.

Taps for Private Tussie remains Jesse Stuart’s most well-known novel. Soldier Kim Tussie’s death brings his widow, Vittie, $10,000 in insurance money. Innocent young Sid Tussie describes what happens when a poor mountain clan comes into sudden wealth and their antics become a tale of high comedy, as forty-six Tussies pack themselves into their new “mansion” and proceed to live the good life—until something unexpected ended it all.

The year is 1948. Geneva Haw, fourteen, is a fun-loving colt of a girl whose galloping gait, mischievous spirit and love for a secret game of marbles with her boy cousings constantly frustrates her mother's attempts at molding Geneva into a young lady. Geneva lives with her mother and father, neighbors and kin in Kentucky's Cumberland River Valley, where Haws have lived "since Daniel Boone showed them the way." But Geneva's father and uncle know they will be working the soil there for the last time in the spring of 1948. The regular flooding of the Cumberland, which before has always left them "new treasures for the earth," will soon, with the completion of the Wolf Creek Dam, give way to a tide that eventally rises "almost to the top of the mountains," covering forever the homeplaces and gardens, roads and paths, church an burying ground they have known. Geneva has heard that a "final tide" is coming with the completion of the dam at Wolf Creek, where folks say "gov-ment men filled a place between two mountains full of concrete an' dirt," but that's something she has trouble imagining. She sees the shadow of the final tide on her father's spirit, but understands little of the loss he already feels at the thought of leaving the land that is his legacy. Geneva wistfully longs to go to high school like the city kids, to wear the brown and white saddle shoes she's seen in the catalog, to get her hair cut and "curled up with a permanent" like her cousing Alice plans to do when her family moves to town. Her Granny Haw, however, is determined to keep a promise to her departed husband to be buried beside him, and insists that she will neither permit his remains to be moved nor leave her beloved homeplace and her mysterious "treasures in blue jars." Only after the grave movers leave the churchyard and burying ground in chaos does Geneva begin to realize the extent of the changes to come and the losses her family faces-and to fully understand that she must help her Granny bow to the inevitable final tide and find a new home and happiness elsewhere.96

Jesse Stuart's strong views on teaching, delinquency, and parental responibilities, as well as his sharp assessment of boards of education, are more than a novelist's imagination. Mr. Gallion's School is based on Jesse Stuart's years of personal experience as a principal and teacher. As one of America's most popular writers, Stuart makes teaching and high school administration come alive in a moving and impassioned novel. Mr. Gallion's School is an enjoyable read that's great for high school students and out-of-school adults. A powerful reminder of the sacrifices that earlier generations made in order to get an education, it's a book with a great character education message in every chapter.

Blue Jacket (ca. 1743-ca. 1808), or Waweyapiersenwaw, was the galvanizing force behind an intertribal confederacy of unparalleled scope that fought a long and bloody war against white encroachments into the Shawnees homeland in the Ohio River Valley. Blue Jacket was an astute strategist and diplomat who, though courted by American and British leaders, remained a staunch defender of the Shawnees independence and territory. In this arresting and controversial account, John Sugden depicts the most influential Native American leader of his time. John Sugden is an independent scholar and a former associate editor of Oxford University Presss American National Biography project. His books include Tecumseh: A Life, winner of the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award.

In Red Mule Jesse Stuart tells the story of a boy called, Scrappie, who develops a friendship with an old man, called Red Mule. Red Mule cared for mules all his life, and continued to do so, even as farming became mechanized with tractors, trucks, etc. Even as town’s people began to ridicule Red Mule for his eccentric devotion to the animals, Scrappie, stood by him. Then suddenly events changed, and Red’s lowly mules came to the rescue.

Adventure story, biography, western history -- Simon Kenton, Kentucky Scout fits all these descriptions. While still in his teens, Kenton explored Kentucky and became an expert woodsman. His daring rescue of Daniel Boone during an Indian attack on Boonsborough and his assistance to George Rogers Clark are prime examples of his skill and heroism. No frontiersman showed more bravery than Kenton. When he was captured following a raid on the Indians' horses at Chillicothe, he exhibited almost superhuman endurance as he ran the dreaded gauntlet, and withstood numerous other tortures. He eventually escaped and returned to Kentucky. In the mid-1780's, Kenton brought his family from Virginia and settled them in present day Mason County. By then, the primary Indian threat was over. However Kenton's role as Indian scout during the previous decade had been so important that his memory remains forever a part of Kentucky's history. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.