The Thread That Runs So True: A Mountain School Teacher Tells His Story

First published in 1949, Jesse Stuart’s now classic personal account of his twenty years of teaching in the mountain region of Kentucky has enchanted and inspired generations of students and teachers.

With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools. The road was not smooth, however, and Stuart faced many challenges, from students who were considerably older—and bigger—than he to well-meaning but distrustful parents, uncooperative administrators and, most daunting, his own fear of failure. Through it all, Stuart never lost his abiding faith in the power of education. A graceful ode to what he considered the greatest profession there is, Jesse Stuart’s The Thread That Runs So True is timeless proof that “good teaching is forever and the teacher is immortal.”

Jesse Stuart worked his way through Lincoln Memorial and Vanderbilt Universities, and taught school in his native Kentucky. He lectured at various colleges and universities until 1954, when he suffered a near-fatal heart attack. After his recovery, he returned to writing, lecturing, and farming. As a specialist for the U.S. Department of State, he traveled around the world, and he served as a visiting lecturer and professor at the American University in Cairo in 1960-61. His work includes nearly thirty books, ranging from poetry to biography, autobiography, novels, and short stories. Jesse Stuart died in 1984.