Heartwarming, tragic, whimsical … a delightfully told range of stories.
From the real-life widow whose world was shattered by the massive 1906 mine explosion in Monongah, to the real-life lovers who lived out their eighty-three-year marriage in the place now known as Hundred, An Act of Remembrance & Other Mostly True Historical West Virginia Stories invites readers to experience history as it really happens-through the human experience of those who live it.
A wonderful series of intriguing reads. … As a native West Virginian and devotee of Appalachian fiction, I devoured each of these stories. Randy Safford … depicts dignified characters, many with flaws, in difficult or peculiar situations ranging from George Washington in the eighteenth century to a nursing student facing the twenty-first century coronavirus pandemic. A set of historical notes tells where the known facts end and the author’s imagination begins. -Mary Lucille DeBerry Author, Bertha Butcher’s Coat
A compelling collection of short stories … describing ordinary people in extraordinary moments of local history that are also pivotal events in American history. A country girl moves to bustling Fairmont during Prohibition, an old ferryman on the Cheat River meets George Washington again after the Revolution, mummified ladies wait their turn in a small-town beauty parlor, and an old man and his granddaughter find an heirloom tomato after a flood. … While this work is fiction, its base is history and its core concern is the lives of ordinary men and women caught in the currents of a particular time. -Marie Tyler-McGraw
Author, In Bondage and Freedom
Every state should have collections like this! … An imaginative honoring of West Virginia history. Safford brings to life little-known historical events and quirky true stories with empathetic insight into the minds and hearts of his memorable characters. An entertaining and enlightening read. -Stephanie Kadel Taras Author, Mountain Girls
