Charles Neville Buck's The Call of the Cumberlands throws us into the life of Samson South, a boy born into the harsh beauty and even harsher rules of the Kentucky mountains around 1900. His world is defined by a bitter, generations-old feud with the neighboring Hollman clan. Raised by his stern, tradition-bound grandfather, Samson learns to survive in the wilderness and to see the Hollmans as his sworn enemies.

The Story

Everything changes when Samson, now a young man, has a chance encounter with the world outside the Cumberlands. He discovers he has a natural gift for art, a talent completely foreign to his mountain life. He leaves for New York City to study painting, trading his rifle for a brush. Success finds him there, along with a sophisticated woman from a wealthy family. But the mountains, and the feud, won't let him go. When violence erupts back home, Samson is pulled into the conflict he thought he'd escaped. The book becomes a tense back-and-forth: Can the artist survive in the world of the feud? And can the man from the feud find peace in the world of art?

Why You Should Read It

What grabbed me wasn't just the plot, but Samson himself. He's stuck in the middle, and you feel that struggle. Buck makes you understand the powerful pull of home—the loyalty, the land, the family name—even when that home is flawed and violent. At the same time, you root for Samson to embrace his new self. The book is a window into a time and place that felt remote even a century ago, but the central question is timeless: How much of our past do we carry with us, and what do we leave behind when we change?

Final Verdict

This is a great pick for anyone who loves a solid, character-driven drama with a strong sense of place. If you enjoy stories about American regional life, family sagas, or internal conflict, you'll find a lot here. It's also a fascinating look at early 20th-century ideas about art, class, and progress. Fair warning: it's a product of its time in some of its attitudes, but that also makes it a interesting historical snapshot. Ultimately, it's for the reader who likes to see a character tested, not just by outside forces, but by the two different people living inside them.