Jessica K. Whitehead has done more than brick-and-mortar work to reconstruct the forces and personalities that shaped the life of a unique Kentuckian. She has done much more, tracing the quest of Kentucky's Thoreau for a life lived close to the bone in the natural world, a life that combines simple living with genuine creativity. The book becomes a reflection on the restlessness of the American spirit and asks what it means to pursue individual happiness free of the mania of owning things and the amassing of wealth that too single-mindedly has answered for the American dream. In a feat of research and revelation that avoids hagiography, Whitehead has made this icon fully human, examining the mythos of a legendary Kentuckian to reveal the essential Hubbard, a man we would have to invent if he had not existed.

--Richard Taylor, former Kentucky Poet Laureate and author of Elkhorn: Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape

An epic story of our conflictive American nature and the many currents that finally deposited into place one of our most authentic artists and writers.

--Morris A. Grubbs, editor of Conversations with Wendell Berry

Place Harlan Hubbard in the line of American rebel mystics--from Everett Ruess to Scott and Helen Nearing to Daniel Suelo--who marched away from the casino economy toward a life woven with nature's risks and ecstasies. Driftwood gives him the rich and wise consideration he has long deserved.

--Mark Sundeen, author of Delusions and Grandeur and The Unsettlers

Whitehead's Driftwood is a vantage point from which we may survey not only the life of Hubbard, its component circumstance, coincidence, and experience, but also the topography of symbol and meaning that Hubbard explored. The hills, hollers, creeks, and rivers of our Bluegrass are revived and sustained by Hubbard's work and Whitehead's telling of it. Hubbard is hierophant of the wild and growing world, exemplifying quiet stewardship, gentle cooperation, and an ability to express the movement of the animate wilderness while communicating our place within it. Whitehead has traced the long shadow cast by Hubbard so that we may walk in the shade with understanding, surefooted and clear-eyed in the edenic garden that is our state.

--Zack Poehlein, co-author of Kentucky Deceased and the zine Derby City Midnight

Jessica Whitehead's Driftwood: The Life of Harlan Hubbard is one of the most brilliantly written books that I have ever had the good fortune to read. Her ability to weave history into a riveting and timeless story of a Northern Kentucky artist will render this book the definitive biography of Harlan Hubbard. She paints a vivid picture of Harlan and Anna, resurrecting memories of this talented and countercultural couple whom I and so many others were honored to know.

--Paul A. Tenkotte, author of A Brief History of Northern Kentucky

Driftwood is a wonder, much like the Hubbard's themselves. Jessica K. Whitehead brings Anna and Harlan Hubbard to life with insight, creativity, and skill. For those who are already admirers of the Hubbards this book will be a treasure. For those just becoming aware of them, Driftwood will be a wonderfilled vehicle to travel through the lives of two remarkable human beings. What will readers find on board Driftwood? A love story...an adventure story...the passions and frustrations of the artist... and perhaps a guide to living fuller, richer lives.

--Morgan C. Atkinson, Producer/director of the documentary, Wonder: The Lives of Anna and Harlan Hubbard

Jessica K. Whitehead's Driftwood . . . is cause for celebration among all who cherish the art he made, and the art of how he lived.

--Northern Kentucky Tribune

The story of Harlan Hubbard, known for his simple lifestyle and his art, has been told many times before but [Driftwood] goes deeper as author Jessica Whitehead tells how 'someone so extraordinary as Harlan Hubbard became Harlan Hubbard.'

-- "Madison Courier"

Winner of the Thomas D. Clark Medallion Book Award

Finalist for the IPBA Book Award in Biographies and Autobiographies

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Pub date: 2025-02-25

Length: 408 pages