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Before Sister

by Wade Gilley

181 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0855; ISBN 1-55395-141-7; US$20.50, C$24.50, EUR17.00, £12.00

A mother's love makes all things possible for a son of the Appalachias.

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about the book      praise for BEFORE SISTER      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book This is a story of how a mother's early ambition and intense love shaped the future of her son in Virginia's Appalachian Mountains in the early 1940s as America survived an economic depression and fought a war. In a series of short stories it describes a unique time, place and relationship between an ambitious and loving mother and her first born. The focus of this relationship is Before Sister after which Momma turned her attention to a new addition to the family and depended on what she had taught her son to carry him through life. The place was Hilltown which was founded by the Hill family in 1869 at the great bend in the New River in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. In the 1840s it was a community of some 200 souls all of whom were related through the John and Martha Hill family. That family orientation made Hilltown a unique place to grow up. The time was was the the early 1940s as America emerged from the Great Depression and entered the greatest war of all time. It was a turning point for America and a shaping time for Americans everywhere, particularly in those Virginia mountains. The relationship was between an ambitious, driving and intense mother and her first born, a son. This relationship took place within the context of a unique place at a unique time in history. The result is history. This is the story of that time, that place and that relationship.

Praise for BEFORE SISTER "I have a love for history--not the what-happened-on-this-spot-on-such-and-such-date history but the real history of life and those living it. I'd beg my grandparents for stories of their lives when I was little and now that I live in rural Virginia, I often wonder what things used to be like here, how the people lived day to day and what their stories are. While I don't live in Hilltown, I am now looking forward to visiting, and I can better imagine the past lives of those that lived all around me. Thank you Wade Gilley, for that gift. For everyone who didn't grow up in a small rural town, this book is a true glimpse at what you've missed, and for those who did, it is a reminder of what you likely are missing today." Heather Froewschl bookreview.com March 2003 Historical Novel of the Month

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About the Author Wade Gilley, who grew up in Hilltown near the New River in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, responded to an intense, inspiring and education-loving mother to become one of the first in his community to go to college and graduate. Though educated as an engineer, he found a career in education, including becoming America's youngest college president at age 29 in 1967 just ten years after graduating from high school. He went on to become president of five colleges and universities and secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Virginia before retiring in 2001. In Wade Gilley's words, "Momma's commitment to education made it all possible."

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Sample Excerpt

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Catalogue Information

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