THE HATFIELDS AND THE MCCOYS

Not the first on this subject -- it was recently the background for a novel, Alberta Hannum's Roseanna McCoy (Holt), but a competent, meticulous reappraisal of the notorious feud. This is a sober record of the vendetta participated in and perpetuated by Devil Anse Hatfield, who sired twelve, and Randolph McCoy who contributed thirteen. The trouble began over a sow and some pigs, carried through the mountain Romeo and Juliet love affair of Johnse Hatfield and Rose Anne McCoy, until Rose Anne lost her boy to her cousin Nancy, and the death of Ellison Hatfield led to a three-to-one retaliation against the McCoys, to the murder and arson of the 1880's, to kidnapping, to the second ""war"" of 1896-97. This recreates an ever-fascinating story of lawless lives, of mountain desperadoes who carried on their obstinate, successful struggle up to the turn of the century. Good Americana.