Hunter's Horn [Hardcover]

Harriette Simpson Arnow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1986

Michigan State University Press is proud to announce the re-release of Harriette Simpson Arnow's 1949 novel Hunter's Horn, a work that Joyce Carol Oates called "our most unpretentious American masterpiece."  
     In Hunter's Horn, Arnow has written the quintessential account of Kentucky hill people--the quintessential novel of Southern Appalachian farmers, foxhunters, foxhounds, women, and children. New York Times reviewer Hirschel Brickell declared that Arnow "writes...as effortlessly as a bird sings, and the warmth, beauty, the sadness and the ache of life itself are not even once absent from her pages."  
     Arnow writes about Kentucky in the way that William Faulkner writes about Mississippi, that Flannery O'Connor writes about Georgia, or that Willa Cather writes about Nebraska--with studied realism, with landscapes and characters that take on mythic proportions, with humor, and with memorable and remarkable attention to details of the human heart that motivate literature.  
 

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in Wayne County, Kentucky on July 7, 1908, Arnow lived on a farm near Ann Arbor, Michigan for most of her life. Arnow attended Berea College for two years (1926 - 1928) before completing her degree in sciences at the University of Louisville (1930). She then taught school in both Louisville and in Pulaski County, Kentucky before moving to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1934 in order to concentrate on her writing. 
     Supporting herself at various times as a waitress, a library clerk, and as an assistant for the Federal Writers\' Project, Arnow produced several essays and her first novel, Mountain Path, which she published as Harriette Simpson in 1936. In 1939, she married Harold Arnow; they purchased a farm in the Daniel Boone Forest where they lived as writers and farmers. 
     By 1944, the Arnows had moved to Michigan where Harold was a reporter for The Detroit News. In 1949 Hunter\'s Horn was published, followed by The Dollmaker (1954), Seed Time on the Cumberland (1960), Flowering of the Cumberland (1963), The Weedkiller\'s Daughter (1970), The Kentucky Trace (1974), and Old Burnside (1977). 
     Arnow also published numerous articles and pamphlets and was an active instructor in the Appalachian Writers Workshop held annually at the Hindman Settlement School. Arnow died on March 21, 1986 and was buried at her farm at Keno in Pulaski County, Kentucky.
- Courtesy, Kentucky Konnections

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 412 pages
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky (August 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813116007
• ISBN-13: 978-0813116006
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,955,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong characters and detailed descriptions of Ky people, March 8, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunter's Horn (Paperback)

This book captures the spirit, character, and complexities of the mountain people of eastern Kentucky better than any other I have read. The individuals are simple, strong-willed, and proud like many of the people I grew up with. The descriptions of the landscape are detailed, accurate, and compelling as I remember them. For anyone interested in a better understanding of the depth of human character explained in a very readable way, this is a terrific book

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Great American Novel of the 20th Century!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, March 25, 2002

By 

David J. Batten (South of Mayberry, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hunter's Horn (Paperback)

Set in rural Kentucky around WWII, this book is so good, it should replace Huckelberry Finn as "the great american novel". It is a shame that it isn't better known, but unfortunately Arnow-Simpson is thought of as a regional writer. This is a very deep book, but it also has some very funny parts. Her description of pre-consumerism country life is very detailed and insightful. She saw how the world was changing, and captured a piece of it that is now long gone. I'm not even an hunting type, and I wanted to go out and get a couple of hounds after reading this. Better even than The Dollmaker, and not half as sad. Highly Recommended!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The great American novel, April 19, 2006

By 

Hoosier Girl (Indianapolis IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hunter's Horn (Paperback)

If you've never read Harriette Arnow, or only know her through The Dollmaker, you'll be shocked at how stunning this novel is. Beautiful written, with some of the most complex and moving characters in literature.