The Blackwater Chronicle
West Virginia University English Professor Timothy Sweet edited the second volume in our West Virginia and Appalachia series. The Blackwater Chronicle by Philip Pendleton Kennedy was originally published in 1853, but this wilderness travelogue about the exploration of Canaan Valley has appeal far beyond that time and region. In fact, it was originally published in New York and London, and even in a German edition. This often humorous and always fascinating story, told by Kennedy about the journey he and his colleagues took into yet unexplored territory, will make the reader long for days when there was still wilderness on this continent. It will also be of interest to the outdoorsman and should be viewed as an environmental cautionary tale.
Philip Pendleton Kennedy’s account of this adventure makes for enjoyable reading today. More than this, however, the book provides both an interesting glimpse into antebellum American literary culture and an important record of the Canaan wilderness before it was despoiled by economic exploitation. These qualities make The Blackwater Chronicle a work of lasting value.' Timothy Sweet, Professor of English, West Virginia University
Philip Pendleton Kennedy resided, for most of his life, in the present-day eastern panhandle of West Virginia, where he socialized, hunted and fished, and dabbled at writing. The Blackwater Chronicle is his only major published work.
•Introduction
•Getting under Way
•In which the Expedition dances a Hornpipe on the Top of a Mountain
•The Coxkneys explained by the Prior of St. Philips, from the Top of the Allegany
•Winston and its Catellan—Mr. Edward Towers
•The Blackwater Invasion determined upon
•The Dale on the Potomac—and a Somewhat particular Description of the Array
•The March into the Canaan
•The Lodge in the Wilderness
•The Blackwater Founr—A Great Number of Trout taken—Mr. Butcut fries some Fish
•The Blackwater Villa
•The Falls of the Blackwater
•How we got out of the Canaan—and in Spite of our Teeth
•The Return to Winston—"Bootless Home and Weather-beaten Back."
