In 1926, when Perryville native Elizabeth Madox Roberts was 45 years old, her first novel, The Time of Man , was published. Praised by critics as "a book that embraces life" and as "original, powerful, and ... tender," The Time of Man tells the transcendent story of Ellen Chesser, a sharecropper's daughter growing up amid hardship and poverty. This luminous and poetic classic is the June selection for bookclub@ket . The program airs Saturday, June 9 at 3:30/2:30 p . m . CT and Sunday, June 10 at 11:30/10:30 p . m . CT on KET1 and Tuesday, June 12 at 4:30/3:30 p . m . CT on KET2 . Bill Goodman hosts.

On its surface, Ellen's life leaves little room for joy or celebration. The only survivor among Henry and Nellie Chesser's seven children, Ellen has spent her childhood moving from place to place, living in ramshackle cabins and working alongside her father in other people's fields. But adversity has not diminished Ellen's spirit or her wonder at the natural world in which she labors.

By focusing on the juncture between Ellen's outward experiences and her rich inner life, Roberts creates a narrative of surpassing beauty and depth. Through Ellen, Roberts transports us into the world of poor, rural Kentuckians at the beginning of the 20 th century -- their language, customs, rituals -- and compels us to recognize and respond to their innate human dignity. More than 75 years after its publication, The Time of Man still resonates with meaning and passion.

Roberts is also the subject of the next One to One , airing Friday, June 8 at 10/9 p.m. CT on KET2 and Sunday, June 10 at 2/1 p.m. CT on KET1 . Host Bill Goodman speaks with H.R. Stoneback , a professor of English and director of graduate studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz , who is the editor of a collection of essays on Roberts as well as an expert on Hemingway and modernism and Faulkner and the Southern Renaissance. He is also a former board member of the Hemingway Society.

bookclub@ket is a KET production , produced by Tom Bickel . Nancy Carpenter is execut ive producer. Following the broadcast, bookclub@ket is available for o n-demand videostream viewing at w ww.ket.org/ bookclub.

One to One is a KET production, produced by Bill Goodman and Cindy Asher . Following the broadcast, One to One is available for on-demand videostream viewing at w ww.ket.org/publicaffairs/onetoone.htm and podcasting at www.ket.org/rss.