The Wormlips Scrapbook

In his youth, Dad was six feet, eight inches tall. In this teeny picture, he’s dwarfed by one of his nemeses: star thistle. Dad was an exceptionally active and self-reliant guy. Even in his sixties when his left leg started to get weak he didn’t slow down, though little by little a limp crept into [...]

In a remote West Virginia town there’s an abandoned railroad tunnel. People say it was here that the legendary John Henry raced the stream drill, won, and then died. This part of the country is a topography of hollows and steep ridges that, in the words of Appalachian singer Jean Ritchie, “unfold, one after the [...]