The Coffin Quilt

Cover of 'The Coffin Quilt' by Ann Rinaldi (1991). Cover of 'The Coffin Quilt' by Ann Rinaldi (1991).

The Coffin Quilt is a children’s book by Ann Rinaldi (1934), which was first published in 1991. The book is set in West Virginia/Kentucky (USA) and relates the story of the Hatfield-McCoy feud that actually took place in the late nineteenth century.

In Rinaldi’s book the story about the feud is narrated by Fanny McCoy (who lived from 1872 to 1929), whose four brothers are eventually killed by the Hatfields. The feud started in 1878, but when in 1882 Fanny’s sister, Roseanna McCoy (1859-1889), runs off with Johnse Hatfield (who actually lived from 1862 to 1922) violence escalates. Roseanna eventually returns home, pregnant and with a half completed coffin quilt, which she has started in order to preserve the names of the family members who died. In this manner she and Fanny trie to rise above the petty, but violent hatred of her family and neighbours.

Source: RINALDI, A. (1991). The Coffin Quilt. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Inc. 

See also the 2012 television series Hatfields & McCoys (Netflix), with Kevin Costner, Bill Paxton and Matt Barr.

Wikipedia

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 11 June 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Monday, 17 April 2017 14:13