Singing Family of the Cumberlands

University Press of Kentucky, 1988-09-13. Paperback. Like New. 5x0x8. Maurice Sendak. [Appalachia] Softcover. Good binding and cover. Clean, unmarked pages. <br> "The "singing family" of which Jean Ritchie writes is that of her parents, Balis and Abigail Ritchie, and their fourteen children, all born and reared in Viper, Kentucky, deep in the Cumberland Mountains. Jean, the youngest of the clan, grew up to be a world renowned folksinger. But she was hardly unique in the family. All the Ritchies sang - when they worked, when they prayed, when they rejoiced, even when tragedy struck. Singing Family of the Cumberlands is both an appealing account of family life and a treasury of American folklore and folksong. In the deceptively simple but picturesque language of rural Kentucky, Jean Ritchie tells of a way of life now nearly vanished and of a gentle, upright people shielded from the outside world by forbidding mountain ranges, preserving the traditions of their forebears.