MILDRED HAUN was born in Hamblen County, Tennessee in 1911. She grew up in Haun Hollow, Hoot Owl District, Cocke County, in a big family of hardy, independent mountain kin, most of them hillside farmers. She grew up hearing the proverbs and rich lore of the mountains; she was early taught to read the signs that nature provides the wary and discerning eye. She began writing fiction as an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University. After a distinguished career at the Department of Agriculture, she died in 1966.HERSCHEL GOWER, the editor of the volume, was a friend of the late Mildred Haun. Name as her literary executor, he is Associate Professor of English at Vanderbilt University where he teaches courses in the ballad, the lyric, and American literature. A native of Nashville, Professor Gower was graduated from Cumberland University and received the master’s degree and the doctorate from Vanderbilt University. He spent 1954-56 in Scotland doing postgraduate study at the University of Edinburgh and has recently returned from a sabbatical year spent at the School of Scottish Studies. The winner of an Award of Merit from the American Association for the State and Local History for Pen and Sword: The Life and Journals of Randal W. McGavock, Professor Gower is co-editor of The Sense of Fiction, and a contributor to Reality and Myth. His articles and poems have appeared in several journals.
