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Lee Smith

Born

in Grundy, Virginia, The United States

November 01, 1944

Website

http://www.leesmith.com/

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories, Historical Fiction

Influences

William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Virginia Woolf ...more

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Growing up in the Appalachian mountains of southwestern Virginia, nine-year-old Lee Smith was already writing--and selling, for a nickel apiece--stories about her neighbors in the coal boomtown of Grundy and the nearby isolated "hollers." Since 1968, she has published eleven novels, as well as three collections of short stories, and has received many writing awards.

The sense of place infusing her novels reveals her insight into and empathy for the people and culture of Appalachia. Lee Smith was born in 1944 in Grundy, Virginia, a small coal-mining town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, not 10 miles from the Kentucky border. The Smith home sat on Main Street, and the Levisa River ran just behind it. Her mother, Virginia, was a college graduate wh ...more

Combine Editions
Lee Smith’s books

Average rating: 3.77 · 52,400 ratings · 5,743 reviews · 43 distinct works • Similar authors

	Fair and Tender Ladies 4.19 avg rating — 8,206 ratings — published 1988 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Girls 3.28 avg rating — 7,538 ratings — published 2002 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Guests on Earth 3.63 avg rating — 6,787 ratings — published 2013 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Oral History 4.04 avg rating — 4,341 ratings — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Agate Hill 3.77 avg rating — 3,969 ratings — published 2006 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dimestore: A Writer's Life 3.87 avg rating — 3,483 ratings — published 2016 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Saving Grace 3.92 avg rating — 2,637 ratings — published 1995 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Silver Alert 3.23 avg rating — 2,658 ratings — published 2023	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Christmas Letters 3.54 avg rating — 2,340 ratings — published 1996 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Family Linen 3.75 avg rating — 1,899 ratings — published 1985 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Lee Smith…

Quotes by Lee Smith (?)

“And are we not all “mere guests” upon this whirling earth?”
― Lee Smith, Guests on Earth

tags: life-philosophy

31 likes

“What I didn't understand, all those years when I was waiting for my life to start, was that it had already started. I was already living it! Those were the most important years, and I didn't even know it.”
― Lee Smith

28 likes

“But I would do it all again, every bit of it, I would lose him again just to have him again for an hour, for a minute, for even a second. I would do it all again just to see his face.”
― Lee Smith, On Agate Hill

tags: eternal-love, love-after-death, lovers-sadness, molly-n-jacky, on-agate-hill

18 likes

See all Lee Smith's quotes »

Polls

What shall we read in November, 2021? Books published after 1980.

Oral History, by Lee Smith

8 votes 28.6%

Simon the Fiddler, by Paulette Jiles

7 votes 25.0%

When Ghosts Come Home, by Wiley Cash

6 votes 21.4%

Bewilderness, by Karen Tucker

5 votes 17.9%

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

1 vote 3.6%

The Patron Saint of Red Chevys: A Novel, by Kay Sloan

1 vote 3.6%

28 total votes

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Lee Smith’s Followers (1,027)

Lee Smith

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Lee Smith’s books