This Goodly Land

Howell Vines (November 22, 1899–May 30, 1981)

Other Names Used

• Howell Hubert Vines: full name

Alabama Connections

• Short Creek, Jefferson County: birthplace, childhood residence
• Hueytown, Jefferson County: childhood residence, adult residence, place of burial
• Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County: childhood residence, education
• Montgomery, Montgomery County: adult residence
• Bessemer, Jefferson County: adult residence

Selected Works

• Vines, Howell Hubert. A River Goes with Heaven. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1930.
• Vines, Howell. This Green Thicket World. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1934.

Biographical Information

Howell Vines was born in Short Creek, Ala., and grew up there and in Hueytown, Ala., and in Tuscaloosa. He attended the University of Alabama, graduating with an AB in English in 1923. He then pursued graduate studies at Harvard University, where he earned his AM in 1925. Vines taught at William M. Rice Institute (now Rice University) from 1925 to 1927, at the University of Richmond from 1928 to 1929, and at Shorter College in Rome, Ga., from 1930 to 1931. Vines then returned to Alabama, where his wife found employment with the state government. Vines served as his wife’s driver for her trips around the state and worked on his writing. His first novel, A River Goes with Heaven, was published in 1930. He published another novel, This Green Thicket World, in 1934 and two short stories in 1935 and 1936. Although he continued to write, Vines never published again. He was living in Bessemer, Ala., at the time of his death.

Interests and Themes

The fiction of Howell Vines is set in the Warrior River basin where he grew up. It is notable for its rich descriptions of this area and of the people living there.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Articles

• Plott, Bill. "The World of the Warrior: Relative of Alabama Writer Revives Novel of River Life". Birmingham News 19 Aug. 2004: 1E.

Reference Web Sites

• "Howell Vines". Bhamwiki. 2007. www.bhamwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Howell_Vines.
• Ross, Joe. "Howell Hubert Vines". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. 2009. Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2439.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.