The life and trials of a 1930s and 1940s Virginia mountain family through financial depression and World War II.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, during the Great Depression, the Walton family makes its small income from its sawmill on Walton's Mountain. The story is told through the eyes of eldest son John-Boy, who wants to be a novelist, goes to college, and eventually fulfills his dream. The saga follows the family through economic depression and World War II; and through growing up, school, courtship, marriage, employment, birth, aging, illness, and death.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>