Old Burnside

By Harriette Simpson Arnow

Book Overview

In the early years of this century, Burnside, Kentucky, was a bustling community perched on and above the floodplain formed by the Cumberland River and the South Fork. It was a center for shipping by rail and steamboat packet, and its lumber mills sent their products all over the world. The lower part of the town--once the heart of its economic being--now lies beneath the waters of Lake Cumberland, and the remaining streets above no longer resound with the clatter and roar of older and busier times.

Harriet Simpson Arnow moved to Burnside with her parents and sisters in 1913, a few months before her fifth birthday. She recreates for us the sights and sounds of the town as she sets her childhood memories against the history of the region from the days of early settlers until Wolfe Creek Dam was built, creating the hundred-mile-long Lake Cumberland. Arnow charms the reader with her account of what it was like to be child in such a place and time, describing the fascination of the general stores of the town, the grand sight of the Seven Gables Hotel, the excitement of school, and the ever-interesting river and railroad traffic, all of which lent diversion to a life that sometimes seemed overburdened with household chores and errand running.

Though much of old Burnside has disappeared, the way of life Arnow describes is an important part of the fabric of the history of Kentucky and the nation. Evoking vivid scenes of river and railroad, lumber mill and country store, Arnow recreates for us with great artistry a long-vanished place and time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813108608
• ISBN13: 9780813108605
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 8.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

My Nana's childhood

My Grandmother, Emma Bell (Vaughn) grew up in this town before it was intentionally flooded over. She is mentioned as the author's classmate and the daughter of my great grandfather, Reverand Bell (the author describes sitting distractedly trying to listento his sermons)...she doesn't mention his firey red hair or quote any of his sermons, but even though he had died before my birth in the late fifties, she gave me a true glimpse of my sweet Nana's childhood and her staunch but loving mountain country upbringing. She makes me think my great grandfather was kind but serious, thus backing up Nana's stories of a great man! It is from the pages of this well written and easy to read book that I can envision my gently used old victorian furniture being donated to my great grandmother's household since she was the preacher's wife of The Christian Church in Burnside, Kentucky. I can imagine the hardships of moving all of their belongings out of the mountain town to dry land and a new house somewhere nearby.