A P P L K 1' O N S ' SPRING BULLETIN 



peculiar zest. As a story pure and simple his novel is distinguished by originality 

 in motive, by a succession of striking and dramatic scenes, and by an understand- 

 ing of the motives of the characters, and a justness and sympathy in their pres- 

 entation which imparts a constant glow of human interest to the tale. The au- 

 thor has a quaint and delightful humor which will be relished by every reader. 

 While his story deals with actualities, it is neither depressing nor unpleasantly 

 realistic, like many "stories of low Hfe," and the reader gains a vivid impression 

 of the sunnier aspects of life in the ItaHan quarter. The book will contain a 

 series of well-studied and effective illustrations by Mr. Emil Pollak. In order to 

 obtain accurate material for the illustrations the artist and author together have 

 visited the scenes of the novel in the neighborhood of Mulberry Park, formerly 

 known as Mulberry Bend, where they obtained photographs and sketches which 

 Mr. Pollak has consulted judiciously with a view to the interpretation of the 

 actual atmosphere of the scenes described. 



Three years ago a brilliant and already distinguished clergyman, then of 

 Boston, published "A Hero in Homespun," a romance of unknown types and 

 phases of life in the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky during the civil war. 

 The success of this fresh and vigorous romance, of which a new edition is to be 

 published by D. Appleton and Company, has not induced the author. Dr. William 

 E. Barton, to sacrifice anything to hasty production. He has written no other 

 novel until the present time, when Messrs. D. Appleton and Company are able 

 to announce his new romance. Pine Knot, a Story of Kentucky Life, which will 

 appear in April. Dr. Barton was born in Sublette, Illinois, where he spent his 

 first twenty years, but he gained his knowledge of the mountain folk of Kentucky 

 and Tennessee by immediate association, first as a student at Berea College in 

 Kentucky and afterward as a missionary in the mountains, and later as a visitor 

 and traveler through the most unfrequented parts. Another journey m the 

 mountains was made especially in the interests of Pi/ie Knot. The story is flill 

 of the atmosphere of the quaint mountain hfe with its wealth of amusing 

 peculiarities, and it also has a historical value, since it pictures conditions attend- 

 ant upon the antislavery movement and the days of the war. The interest of a 

 treasure search runs through the tale, since the author has adroitly utihzed a 

 mountain legend of a lost mine. Pine Knot is a romance "racy of the soil" in 

 a true sense, a story fresh, strong, and absorbing in its interest throughout. Of 

 the scenes of this novel the author has said : "A region so beautiful in its scenery 

 and romantic in its traditions as that which surrounds the Falls of the Cumberland 

 River deserves to be represented in literature. The plan of a story embodying 

 these traditions and dealing with the lives of the people in the heroic period of 

 their history has been maturing in my mind for many years, during which time 

 material for the work has been accumulating. The legend of the Swift Silver 

 Mine is in itself so interesting as to require little shaping at the hands of the story- 

 teller ; and the scheme for its development just before the war, with the brilliant 

 visions of enormous wealth and the result, are matters of record." 



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