[3][4] Stuart served in the US Navy during World War II but did not see combat as his mission in his life.

[6] In Stuart's memoir, The Thread That Runs So True, he explains how he met Norris at Lonesome Valley.

[7] After being denied admission at three colleges, Stuart was finally accepted at and attended Lincoln Memorial University, located in Harrogate, Tennessee.

After graduating he returned to his home area and taught at Warnock High School in Greenup, Kentucky.

The novel also received critical praise and won the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Award for the best Southern book of the year.

In 1974, Gale Research (in American Fiction, 1900-1950) identified Jesse Stuart as one of the forty-four novelists in the first half of the 20th century with high critical acclaim.

He described the role that teaching played in his life in The Thread that Runs So True (1949), though he changed the names of places and people.

Ruel Foster, a professor at West Virginia University, noted in 1968 that the book had good sales in its first year.

Prior to his death he donated 714 acres (2.89 km2) of woodlands in W Hollow to the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.