"Growing Up in the Last Small Town -- A West Virginia Memoir."By Bob Barnett. Jesse Stuart Foundation. 252 pages. $15 (softbound).

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In its quest to preserve the legacy of famed Kentucky author Jesse Stuart, the foundation that carries his name regularly republishes many of his books. In addition, the Jesse Stuart Foundation from time to time also publishes new books with Appalachian themes and settings.

As a consequence -- and not surprisingly -- many writers and even more want-to-be writers seek out Jim Gifford, the foundation's CEO and chief editor, in hopes of persuading him to publish their books. More are destined to be disappointed.

"Of the many writers and would-be writers who write or call me, only a very tiny percentage end up having us publish a book by them," says Gifford.

With those odds, it takes an extra-special book to stand out from the crowd.

Gifford says "Growing Up in the Last Small Town -- A West Virginia Memoir," by retired Marshall University professor Bob Barnett, is such a book.

"When I first read Bob's manuscript, I was impressed with its interesting content and its graceful and clever style," says Gifford. "His book seemed like the Appalachian version of 'Happy Days' with Bob in the role of Richie Cunningham. His happy and normal childhood is a part of the Appalachian experience that is often omitted from our literature.

"Not all Appalachian children are raised in misery and poverty. In that regard, it is a nice balance to Jeannette Walls' portrait of her tragic childhood in her classic memoir 'The Glass Castle.' Most of all, I was captured by the honesty of the book. It takes a mature person and a mature writer to know who they are and to present themselves in an open, balanced, and engaging way."

Barnett retired in 2007 after 35 years of service to Marshall as a coach, faculty member and administrator. He received a BA in physical education from Marshall in 1965 and earned both master's and doctoral degrees from Ohio State University. He's widely known for his research, publications and teaching in the area of sports history, having written more than 300 published articles.

His book is an account of his boyhood and teenage years in Newell in the 1950s. But it is much more than that. As Barnett writes in a preface: "This book is about me, because it is a memoir; however, I also attempt to chronicle the response of people -- specifically the people of Newell -- as they tried to grasp the changing landscape of a postwar, modern America."

The U.S. map is, of course, still dotted with little towns -- those with only a handful of residents and maybe only one traffic light. But there are, Barnett argues, no more small towns.

"There are still little towns," he writes, "but they are tied to a national culture in a way that small towns never were. The world has come into today's little towns through television and the Internet, on the interstates, with McDonalds and Wal-Marts; and the unique character of each small town has vanished. ... My generation was the last to know what it meant to grow up in a small town."

Newell is perhaps best known as the home of the Homer Laughlin China Co., and so it's only natural that the world-famous china maker plays a key role in Barnett's account of his hometown. But substitute a steel mill -- or a coal mine -- for the pottery and you could easily be talking about any one of countless other small towns in 1950s America.

"Small towns in postwar America," writes Barnett, "represented family and friends, security, and a chance to work in the mill and capture a part of the American dream."

A dream, alas, that today has faded, but it is given new life in Barnett's affectionate memoir.

Retired Huntington newspaperman James E. Casto frequently reviews books for the Sunday Gazette-Mail.