THE YEAR OF MY REBIRTH (342 pp.) Jesse StuartMcGraw-Hill ($4.75).
No man can really begin living until he has come close to dying. That is the message from Poet-Novelist Jesse Stuart to his readers. Busy Author Stuart, who wrote nearly 20 books in 20 years, including the rawboned poetry of Man with a Bull-Tongued Plow and bestselling Taps for Private Tussie, used to live at top speed. Then, two years ago, at 47, rushing from a lecture in Murray, Ky. to catch a chartered plane for another speaking date in Illinois, he was brought crashing to earth by a severe heart attack.
This...