Dolly
She Come By It Natural
Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs
Bold, bighearted, and culturally ground-breaking, the icon Dolly Parton comes to life in this personal, wide-ranging examination of her career as a voice for poor, working-class, and undervalued women. She Come By It Natural, originally published as a four-part series for the roots-music journal No Depression, explores Parton's trailblazing life and songs that spoke to the women in Sarah Smarsh's family - where "country music was foremost a language among women."
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular strengths and vulnerabilities of females in working poverty. She challenged a typically male vision of rural America with her first book, Heartland, starring the fiery, hard-luck women who raised her. Now, in She Come By It Natural, Smarsh reveals the overlooked contributions to social progress by such women - including those averse to the term "feminism" - as exemplified by Dolly Parton.
Parton's trajectory, from an impoverished holler in the Great Smoky Mountains to stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer' managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy, offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture. Infused with Smarsh's trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, She Come By It Natural is a tribute to Dolly Parton and - call it whatever you like - the organic feminism she embodies.
Bold, bighearted, and culturally ground-breaking, the icon Dolly Parton comes to life in this personal, wide-ranging examination of her career as a voice for poor, working-class, and undervalued women. She Come By It Natural, originally published as a four-part series for the roots-music journal No Depression, explores Parton's trailblazing life and songs that spoke to the women in Sarah Smarsh's family - where "country music was foremost a language among women."
Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and airplane factories, Smarsh witnessed firsthand the particular strengths and vulnerabilities of females in working poverty. She challenged a typically male vision of rural America with her first book, Heartland, starring the fiery, hard-luck women who raised her. Now, in She Come By It Natural, Smarsh reveals the overlooked contributions to social progress by such women - including those averse to the term "feminism" - as exemplified by Dolly Parton.
Parton's trajectory, from an impoverished holler in the Great Smoky Mountains to stardom in Nashville and Hollywood, from "girl singer' managed by powerful men to self-made mogul of business and philanthropy, offers a springboard to examining the intersections of gender, class, and culture. Infused with Smarsh's trademark insight, intelligence, and humanity, She Come By It Natural is a tribute to Dolly Parton and - call it whatever you like - the organic feminism she embodies.
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