THE BALLAD OF TRENCHMOUTH TAGGART

There's little room in this world for a moral man.Meet Early "Trenchmouth" Taggart, a man born and orphaned in 1903, a man nicknamed for his lifelong oral affliction. His boyhood is shaped by the Widow Dorsett, a strong mountain woman who teaches him to hunt and survive the taunts of others. In the hills of southern West Virginia, a boy grows up fast.

Trenchmouth sips moonshine, handles snakes, pleasures women, and masters the rifle - a skill that lands him in the middle of the West Virginia coal wars.A teenaged union sniper, Trenchmouth is exiled to the backwoods of Appalachia's foothills, where he spends his years running from the past. But trouble will sniff a man down, and an outlaw will eventually run home.Here, Trenchmouth Taggart's story, like the best ballads, etches its mark deep upon the memory.