Sitting on the Courthouse Bench

Book excerpt: When Lee Smith, one of the country's preeminent authors, learned that the only salvation for her rural Virginia hometown meant, in a sense, it destruction, she was compelled to tell the story. Working with Debbie Raines, an English teacher at Grundy High School, and students from the school's Oral Communication Seminar, she has produced a rich oral history. Archival and contemporary photographs depict a small town ravaged by decades of flooding. In this volume, we journey with Lee Smith and the townspeople of Grundy, in a literal and figurative sense, as they anchor their town on higher ground to begin anew.