Author to Discuss and Sign Book on the Devotional Art of Ed Stilley

Photo credit: University of Arkansas Press

True Faith, True Light, published by the University of Arkansas Press.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Kelly Mulhollan, author of True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley, will discuss and sign his book at the Fayetteville Public Library as part of the library’s ongoing University of Arkansas Press Spotlight series. The free public event is from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 29.

True Faith, True Light covers the work of Ed Stilley, a farmer and singer of religious hymns in Hogscald Hollow, a tiny Ozark community south of Eureka Springs. Stilley worked for 25 years to teach himself how to make over 200 guitars, fiddles and dulcimers, using only heavy, rough-sawn wood scraps and found objects. These objects might include things like a rusty door hinge, a steak bone, a stack of dimes, springs, saw blades, pot lids, metal pipes, glass bottles, or aerosol cans. On each finished instrument Stilley inscribed “True Faith, True Light, Have Faith in God,” and he gave the instruments away to members of the community, and children in particular.

Kelly Mulhollan is a longtime musician who, with his wife Donna, performs as the award-winning folk duo Still on the Hill. He is also a journeyman-level carpenter and Ed Stilley’s friend of many years. The Mulhollans will be playing some of Mr. Stilley’s instruments at the event.

True Faith, True Light is the first book in the Arkansas Character series, published by the University of Arkansas Press. The series is jointly sponsored by the Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, both at the University of Arkansas. The series focuses on in-depth portrayals of Arkansans with unusual accomplishments in any human endeavor.

Scholar Henry Glassie said of the book, “At once deeply cultural and intensely personal, Stilley’s creations combine faith, music, and craft into a display of improvisational wit at play among limited resources. Stilley’s distorted guitars, made at God’s command, are signs of the self and emblems of the rural South.”

The book is lavishly illustrated with the photographs of Kirk Lanier, a lifelong musician and photographer, and it is introduced by Robert Cochran, professor and chair of American studies at the University of Arkansas and director of the Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies.

The Fayetteville Public Library is located at 401 W. Mountain St. The next University of Arkansas Press Spotlight event is scheduled for 6 p.m. Aug. 9 and will feature Brooks Blevins, who will discuss Back Yonder: An Ozark Chronicle, by Wayman Hogue. Then, on Oct. 18, Linda Palmer will discuss Champion Trees of Arkansas: An Artist’s Journey. On Oct. 23 at 2 p.m., author Jerry McConnell will discuss his book, The Improbable Life of the Arkansas Democrat: An Oral History, as part of the library’s True Lit festival.

About the University of Arkansas Press: The University of Arkansas Press was founded in 1980 as the book publishing division of the University of Arkansas. A member of the Association of American University Presses, it has as its central and continuing mission the publication of books that serve both the broader academic community and Arkansas and the region.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.