GALION — In 1972, William Trent Pancoast took his grandmother to her childhood home of Tug County, West Virginia.
In turn, she gave him a short paperback book about the area’s history. As he read, he learned about the Matewan Massacre of May, 1920. He imagined what life was like for his grandmother and the history of Tug Valley. Then, he picked up a pen and began writing.
The result is the Galion native had the impetus for a new book titled, ‘The Road to Matewan,’ which was finally published this winter. He categorized his novel is a hybrid between literary fiction and history.
“The story is a tragedy. It’s about how people were cheated and robbed out of their land,” he said. “They basically stole land and enslaved the people.”
The novel depicts a fictitious Thomas Greene, who lives along the Tug River. Greene is forced to deal with swindlers looking to take the land for the coal companies. The story, Pancoast said, reflects an important history to those who uprooted and the descendants who remained during the mining of Appalachia.
Pancoast has had five novels published, but his newest is selling best.
“It’s an important story and the writing is important,” he said. “If only 12 people read it — the story needs to be told.”
His first draft was finished in 1975, but he kept at his labor of love.
“People say you should throw your first one in the trash, but the story is important to me and to the people in that area,” Pancoast said. “It was a story worth telling. Every few years I would work on it some more. Finally, I deduced to get it out this winter.”
His friend, Amy Greene, summarized the work as written with spare, but lyrical prose. She wrote a blurb for the book’s back cover:
“Pancoast tells the story Thomas Greene, one man confronted with the destructive forces of modernization and industrialization…” she said. “The Road to Matewan is a historical novel that resonates with present-day political relevance, and William Trent Pancoast is an emerging writer to watch”
Pancoast conceded he was a fanatic of history because, “History is where the truth lies.”
“Our ignorance of history has gotten this country into trouble at times,” he said.
Pancoast said he likes to blur the lines between genres as often as possible. He said he writes “working class fiction for the working class” meaning it is short enough for people who work full time to be able to read.
This book is 41,000 words which is about half the size of a regular novel, he said.
The book is available for purchase at Main Street Books, Holly’s Book Rack and Amazon.com.
