In the early 1900s, the advent of coal and the resulting industrialization of the isolated Cumberland Mountain region of Kentucky and Virginia bring many changes to the feuding Tolliver and Fallin clans. Engineer Jack Hale comes to the region to make his fortune, but stays when he falls in love with the mountains and with a simple mountain girl.

The bestselling turn-of-the-century classic. A novel that “makes one realize as never before the agonizing effects of the Civil War in a border state” (The New York Times). First serialized in Scribner’s Magazine in 1903, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come is the rags-to-respectability saga of Chad Buford, an orphan of questionable parentage from the Cumberland Mountains. He is befriended first by the kind and generous Turner family in the valley of Kingdom Come Creek in Southeastern Kentucky and then by the aristocratic Major Calvin Buford in the “settlemints” of the Bluegrass. Convinced that Chad is a kinsman, the major discovers the poor boy’s blueblood pedigree and persuades him to pursue a proper education in Lexington. Before, however, he can settle down with an appropriate wife and begin to live the life of “Chadwick Buford, Gentleman,” the Civil War intervenes to separate him from his newfound status, family, and friends. In The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, “the war and its conflicts set an epic stage for the novel’s main business, the testing and maturation of a hero” (Kentucky Living).

An inspiring true story about losing your place, finding your purpose, and building a community one book at a time. Wendy Welch and her husband had always dreamed of owning a bookstore, so when they left their high-octane jobs for a simpler life in an Appalachian coal town, they seized an unexpected opportunity to pursue thier dream. The only problems? A declining U.S. economy, a small town with no industry, and the advent of the e-book. They also had no idea how to run a bookstore. Against all odds, but with optimism, the help of their Virginian mountain community, and an abiding love for books, they succeeded in establishing more than a thriving business - they built a community. The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap is the little bookstore that could: how two people, two cats, two dogs, and thirty-eight thousand books helped a small town find its heart. It is a story about people and books, and how together they create community.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.