Berea Beloved

(Jackson) French approaches Berea College to ask for their support in publication of her ballads. Eleanor Frost is enthused, and President William Goodell Frost promises help. French prematurely shares her ballads with Hubert Shearin and Josiah Combs, and they eclipse her as the claimants to primacy of Kentucky ballads. She continues to wait on Frost to seek a publisher for her, knowing she must depend on a male champion, but five years go by and the ballads are never published. Meanwhile, the Ballad Wars are raging, and others vie for the title of Appalachian Ballad Authority. The web of intrigue, jealousies, delays, miscommunications, and ruthlessness is explored in detail. Elizabeth Peck, college historian, finds Jackson’s ballads 42 years later and engineers the reconciliation of Berea and Jackson, and the founding of the Katherine Jackson French Collection at Berea College.