"On sabbatical from his professorship at the University of Pittsburgh, native West Virginian Chuck Kinder makes a midlife pilgrimage to his homeland to reimagine and reconnect with that fabled, fantastic country. Confronting the regrets and heartaches of his past, present, and future, Kinder seeks solace in the funny and bawdy family stories, lies, legends, and history that reside in West Virginia's haunted hills and the hollows of his memory. But more than anything, Kinder wants to live it up hillbilly style - and the results make this wicked Appalachian outlaw one helluva traveling companion." "Immersing himself among the lives of mountaineer characters, both the quick and the dead, the bad-boy author bears holy witness to the triumphs and misdeeds of the loafers and misfits, winos and oddball characters of his homeland. Playing story catcher and storyteller, Kinder chases down and re-tells yarns of bloody mine wars, outlaws on the run, roadhouse romance, barroom brawlers, beerjoint ballerinas, and a man who calls himself the last mountain dancer. It's Planet West Virginia - inhabited by mothmen, moonshiners, and family feudists - and as its aura envelopes Kinder, he stakes a claim to his own famous role in the outlaw state's ongoing narrative."--BOOK JACKET.