Two classic books together in one volume!

Two of Verna Mae Slone's most beloved books How We Talked and Common Folks' are now available in a single edition. How We Talked is a timeless piece of literature, a free-form combination of glossary and memoir, using expressions to depict everyday life in Caney Creek, Kentucky. In addition to phrases and their meanings, the book contains a section on behavior in Slone's community, a collection of children's rhymes, and other stories unique to Appalachia. More than just a dictionary of words, How We Talked tells of Slone's life and the lives of those around her, understood through their distinctive speech.

Originally published in 1979, Common Folks documents Slone's way of life in Pippa Passes, Kentucky, and expands on such diverse topics as family pets, coal mining, education, and marriage. Slone's first hand account of this unique way of life draws readers into her hill-circled community and allows them to experience an almost forgotten lifestyle. Whether she is writing on a truly Appalachian subject such as folk medicine or on a mother's yearning for the little girl she never had, her instinctive sense of rhythm in words makes Common Folks a compelling meditation on a vanishing way of life. Published together for the first time, How We Talked and Common Folks showcase the voice of a uniquely Appalachian writer at the height of her abilities.

Verna Mae Slone, a native of Knott County, Kentucky, is the author of several books, including the best-selling memoir, What My Heart Wants to Tell, and the novel, Rennie's Way.

Reviews:

"Those with an appreciation of oral history or the folkways, folk medicine, and other aspects of life in Appalachia will find in Common Folks a rich first-person account that is difficult to put down."-Sidney Saylor Farr, author of My Appalachia: Memoir

"How We Talked and Common Folks is a tribute to the richness, creativity and wisdom inherent in the language of the mountain people who were for so long isolated from the rest of the world."-Ina Hughs, Knoxville News-Sentinel

"These two works published together provide an excellent resource for learning more about the culture and daily lives of Kentuckians in the eastern part of the state."-Kentucky Ancestors

"Slone's works would be captivating enough for her storytelling prowess, but the care with which she has artfully assembled the details of her life breathes into her words the very essence of her people."-Marshall Myers, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society