She Come by it Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs, Sarah Smarsh

Description

She Come By It Natural
by Sarah Smarsh
Paperback | September 7, 2021

What if feminism’s most enduring voice wasn’t born in a lecture hall—but on a front porch, carried by a country song?

In She Come By It Natural, Sarah Smarsh offers a powerful, deeply personal exploration of how Dolly Parton and the women who lived her songs shaped a form of feminism rooted in working-class survival. Growing up amid Kansas wheat fields and factory towns, Smarsh learned that country music—especially by women—was more than entertainment. It was a language. A way women spoke to one another about men, money, motherhood, endurance, and hope in places where feelings were rarely named aloud.

At the center of that language stands Dolly Parton, whose songwriting has long given voice to women too often dismissed or ignored: the poor woman, the pregnant teenager, the exhausted mother labeled “trailer trash.” Smarsh traces how Parton’s music and career embodied a lived feminism—one grounded in empathy, autonomy, and resilience—long before the word itself was widely embraced in the communities Parton spoke to most directly.

Interweaving cultural criticism with biography, Smarsh follows Parton’s journey from singing on the porch of her family’s cabin in the Smoky Mountains to becoming a global star, savvy businesswoman, and philanthropic force. Along the way, she examines how gender, class, labor, and power intersect in American life, using Parton’s work as both mirror and map.

Insightful, generous, and emotionally resonant, She Come By It Natural is not just a study of an icon, but a tribute to generations of women whose strength, intelligence, and creativity have always been there—whether or not anyone bothered to listen.

This title is a remainder, offered at half the original cover price. Remainder copies are new and unread, but may show minor shelf wear.