Overview

Published in 1999 by Gnomon Press In The Balm of Gilead Tree, acclaimed author and poet Robert Morgan presents a masterful collection of seventeen short stories-ten new and seven selected from earlier volumes-that illuminate the lives of working-class people in the American South, particularly in the Appalachian region. With lyrical precision and deep empathy, Morgan explores themes of hardship, resilience, and transformation across generations. From the haunting historical imagination of “The Tracks of Chief de Soto” to the visceral immediacy of “The Ratchet,” where a truck driver faces a terrifying descent with failed brakes, Morgan’s stories are rich in sensory detail and emotional depth. Characters grapple with environmental peril, economic uncertainty, and the quiet dramas of rural life, all rendered with Morgan’s signature clarity and reverence for the natural world. This collection affirms Morgan’s place as a vital voice in Southern literature, offering readers both the balm of storytelling and the grit of lived experience.

Full Product Details

9780917788734

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Robert Morgan displays an impressive command of American history and of language in this collection of new and selected stories. Arranged chronologically, from the 16th century to the present, each tale embraces a strong, authentic voice; Morgan's narrative range is remarkable."" – Publishers Weekly ""There's a certain inevitability to Robert Morgan's fiction, as if the people and situations he portrays are not so much as written as hewn from blocks of Blue Ridge Mountain stone. Partly, that's a function of landscape, which even more than language seems to motivate Morgan's writing. At the same time, Morgan brings to his efforts a timeless sensibility, a perspective bound up less with fleeting fashions than the belief that there may be something universal about the human condition after all. . . . What's remarkable about The Balm of Gilead Tree is not just the sweep and scope of Morgan's stories, but his ability to write about individuals in a wide variety of circumstances."" – The New York Times ""Robert Morgan's lyric mountain language is equal to the epic sweep of history, to the grandeur of the land itself."" - Lee Smith, author of Fair and Tender Ladies

Author Information

Robert Morgan grew up on a small farm in the Green River Valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the setting of almost all his creative work. He has had four National Endowment for the Arts fellowships as well as Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships. He has also received the North Carolina Award for Literature, as well as the James B. Hanes Poetry Prize from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He is the author of ten volumes of poetry as well as his three well-received novels: The Hinterlands, The Truest Pleasure, and Gap Creek.

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