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F O R
E T A S T E O F
G L O R Y
E. P. Dutton & Co., New York City,
New York, 1946. 256 pp.
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Foretaste of Glory was Jesse Stuart’s fourth
novel. The story is settle in mythical,
rural Blakesburg, Kentucky. After a
fiery atmospheric display engulfs the
town, its inhabitants take it as a
heavenly portent. Raised on the fire-and-brimstone
brand of Christianity, the people are convinced
that they will either be snatched up to
heaven or dispatched to hell. The story
tells of their frantic rush to
repent or about their fearful acceptance of
their fate. The book is both comic and
tragic in its depiction of the
towns people as they prepare for judgment day
(Taken from book’s dust jacket).
The book’s publication caused a furor
among Jesse’s neighbors, some of whom
felt the book demeaned Kentuckians. On
one occasion he was accosted by three
women in an Ashland department store,
who pointed to him as “the man who
destroyed Kentucky” (Richardson,
Jesse, 324). He grew so tried of
the petty harassment that he wrote a
humorous piece about it, entitled “My
Book Made My Town Mad,” which was
published in Author and Journalist
in 1951 (Copy in Jesse Stuart collection).
Henry Lee Shattuck was a prominent
Boston lawyer who was a close friend of
Jesse Stuart.
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