Biography
"NO SWEAT" KENTUCKY AUTHOR
Kentucky author, Earl Lowell "Robbie" / "No Sweat" Robbins, Jr., Born 1951, Pattie. A. Clay Hospital, Richmond, Ky. Graduated from Irvine, Kentucky HS, '69. Entering Eastern Kentucky University he became one of Coach Don Combs' "Electrifying Eels," swimming long distance events for one of the best swim teams in the nation. He received his BA, MA in anthropology and sociology, '73-'75 During his senior year, January 6, 1973, he married Ruth Chesteen Hall in the university's chapel. On December 26, 1977, they had their only child, Nancy Chesteen, the mother of Lance Lowell Fuller and Barrett Mathew.
"No Sweat" began writing as a boy often sitting for hours alone in a corner chair in the apartment that he grew up in, belonging to his grandfather, Russell McClanahan. This apartment was located at the end of the Irvine, Kentucky Bridge and situated nearly atop his grandfather's "MACK" theater. In the production of the movie, THE FLIM FLAM MAN, staring George C. Scott, there is a scene in which Flim Flam Man is filmed recklessly driving across the same actual bridge. No Sweat's uneducated and domineering father operated a small fruit and vegetable stand located across the street of the apartment and his mother sold tickets in the theater; both were alcoholics. "No Sweat" spent much of his growing years swimming in the near-by Kentucky river, playing along the railroad tracks beside the apartment, being with his grandfather inside the theater, hunting Indian relics in the near-by plowed fields, catching pigeons roosting on the bridge and camping and caving while a boy scout in Troop 144 under the scoutmaster, Charles Vanhuss.
"No Sweat" eventually found publishers to take some of his work in 2012; editor Rudy Thomas, Old Seventy Creek Press, publishing THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by No Sweat, and editor Carol Itoh, Itoh Press, publishing NEFARIOUS by No Sweat. In late August, 2015 No Sweat completed a book he had been working on and off on for over 30 years called LA GUERRE EST FINIE; in 2015, he changed the title to, MY SINGER ISLAND. As of this writing the book is currently being looked at by editors and NY literary agents in hopes it will find a publisher. MY SINGER ISLAND is a 700 page non-fiction memoir taking place over sixty summers on Singer Island, Florida; many of those summers while living three month stints at The Colonnades Beach Hotel; The work involves No Sweat's relationship with John D. MacArthur, then the richest man in the USA, Luisa Lang and her father Will Lang, LIFE magazine's best WW2 war correspondent and good friend of Ernest Hemingway,Arlo Gunthrie, folk singer, Guy Davenport, Literary critic, the Kennedy family and many others; along with the 300 pages of text are some 400 photographs; It is "a book for everyone," states No Sweat.
THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by No Sweat is a 1979-81 journal taking place in a mythical eastern Kentucky region called, "Aopehh." It is written in first person and chronicles the life of its main character, No Sweat. No Sweat's close associates are a depressed West Point graduate that went on to become one of the nation's most distinguished SAC bomber pilots during the height of the Cold War era named "Black Hole." There is also a musically inclined, financially irresponsible attorney having once been arrested for growing marijuana named "Swallowtail." Another is a failed school teacher in love with the outdoors, named, "Dark Star,” and the near-retarded, heroin-addicted son of a medical doctor named "Doc." All these characters intertwine to paint life in this area of Appalachia. "No Sweat" spent thirty years in developing this journal, enduring through nearly 800 rejections before finding a publisher.
NEFARIOUS by No Sweat takes place primarily in Estill County, Kentucky, 1836-1857, chronicling the adventures of Estill County’s first legally hanged outlaw, Edward. W. Hawkins reported to have been the most handsome man in Kentucky. No Sweat devoted twenty-six years developing this novel, vowing to stay true to Ed's spirit and his surroundings. NEFARIOUS is based on booklet that was first published fifty years after Hawkins was hanged, The Confession of Edward W. Hawkins.
In November ,2015, No Sweat is busy completing new books, LETTERS FROM A GENIUS TO AN OAF, detailing his life with his writing mentor, Guy Davenport. And also, THE CONFESSION OF EDWARD W. HAWKINS, FACT & FICTION; this will be the absolute definitive work done on the famed Kentucky outlaw..
Other writing projects that he hopes will find publishers are BLACK BLUEGRASS, a collection of short stories he experienced while working in a small liquor store surrounded by black Americans in eastern Kentucky, PIGEON, a collection of stories involving his experiences and imaginations with racing pigeons and his lifelong relationship with Charles Heitzman of the French Sion fame. Of note, No Sweat is a National acclaimed champion with racing pigeons having won more than 800 first places in both showing and racing. UNBRIDLED, currently another one of his works in progress, is a collection of archaeological stories that No Sweat has experienced including his discovering the largest group of Arawak burials ever located in the Bahamas on an island called Eleuthera. His twenty-five years of excavations at Lincoln's experimental Civil War city, Camp Nelson, the thirty days he spent digging with the University of Kentucky while excavating Fort Boonesborough, his narrow escape from marijuana growers while digging some of the finest Kentucky red agates --some of which are now with The Smithsonian. And ES#1, THE PRYSE SITE, an archaeological work in which No Sweat spent four years off and on excavating eighteen, Motley period (carbon 14 dating 1,130 BP) ,skeletons digging twenty-two feet deep in a cave. And last, he hopes to complete a photo essay encompassing his beautiful wife’s life entitled, CHESTEEN.
"NO SWEAT" KENTUCKY AUTHOR
Kentucky author, Earl Lowell "Robbie" / "No Sweat" Robbins, Jr., Born 1951, Pattie. A. Clay Hospital, Richmond, Ky. Graduated from Irvine, Kentucky HS, '69. Entering Eastern Kentucky University he became one of Coach Don Combs' "Electrifying Eels," swimming long distance events for one of the best swim teams in the nation. He received his BA, MA in anthropology and sociology, '73-'75 During his senior year, January 6, 1973, he married Ruth Chesteen Hall in the university's chapel. On December 26, 1977, they had their only child, Nancy Chesteen, the mother of Lance Lowell Fuller and Barrett Mathew.
"No Sweat" began writing as a boy often sitting for hours alone in a corner chair in the apartment that he grew up in, belonging to his grandfather, Russell McClanahan. This apartment was located at the end of the Irvine, Kentucky Bridge and situated nearly atop his grandfather's "MACK" theater. In the production of the movie, THE FLIM FLAM MAN, staring George C. Scott, there is a scene in which Flim Flam Man is filmed recklessly driving across the same actual bridge. No Sweat's uneducated and domineering father operated a small fruit and vegetable stand located across the street of the apartment and his mother sold tickets in the theater; both were alcoholics. "No Sweat" spent much of his growing years swimming in the near-by Kentucky river, playing along the railroad tracks beside the apartment, being with his grandfather inside the theater, hunting Indian relics in the near-by plowed fields, catching pigeons roosting on the bridge and camping and caving while a boy scout in Troop 144 under the scoutmaster, Charles Vanhuss.
"No Sweat" eventually found publishers to take some of his work in 2012; editor Rudy Thomas, Old Seventy Creek Press, publishing THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by No Sweat, and editor Carol Itoh, Itoh Press, publishing NEFARIOUS by No Sweat. In late August, 2015 No Sweat completed a book he had been working on and off on for over 30 years called LA GUERRE EST FINIE; in 2015, he changed the title to, MY SINGER ISLAND. As of this writing the book is currently being looked at by editors and NY literary agents in hopes it will find a publisher. MY SINGER ISLAND is a 700 page non-fiction memoir taking place over sixty summers on Singer Island, Florida; many of those summers while living three month stints at The Colonnades Beach Hotel; The work involves No Sweat's relationship with John D. MacArthur, then the richest man in the USA, Luisa Lang and her father Will Lang, LIFE magazine's best WW2 war correspondent and good friend of Ernest Hemingway,Arlo Gunthrie, folk singer, Guy Davenport, Literary critic, the Kennedy family and many others; along with the 300 pages of text are some 400 photographs; It is "a book for everyone," states No Sweat.
THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by No Sweat is a 1979-81 journal taking place in a mythical eastern Kentucky region called, "Aopehh." It is written in first person and chronicles the life of its main character, No Sweat. No Sweat's close associates are a depressed West Point graduate that went on to become one of the nation's most distinguished SAC bomber pilots during the height of the Cold War era named "Black Hole." There is also a musically inclined, financially irresponsible attorney having once been arrested for growing marijuana named "Swallowtail." Another is a failed school teacher in love with the outdoors, named, "Dark Star,” and the near-retarded, heroin-addicted son of a medical doctor named "Doc." All these characters intertwine to paint life in this area of Appalachia. "No Sweat" spent thirty years in developing this journal, enduring through nearly 800 rejections before finding a publisher.
NEFARIOUS by No Sweat takes place primarily in Estill County, Kentucky, 1836-1857, chronicling the adventures of Estill County’s first legally hanged outlaw, Edward. W. Hawkins reported to have been the most handsome man in Kentucky. No Sweat devoted twenty-six years developing this novel, vowing to stay true to Ed's spirit and his surroundings. NEFARIOUS is based on booklet that was first published fifty years after Hawkins was hanged, The Confession of Edward W. Hawkins.
In November ,2015, No Sweat is busy completing new books, LETTERS FROM A GENIUS TO AN OAF, detailing his life with his writing mentor, Guy Davenport. And also, THE CONFESSION OF EDWARD W. HAWKINS, FACT & FICTION; this will be the absolute definitive work done on the famed Kentucky outlaw..
Other writing projects that he hopes will find publishers are BLACK BLUEGRASS, a collection of short stories he experienced while working in a small liquor store surrounded by black Americans in eastern Kentucky, PIGEON, a collection of stories involving his experiences and imaginations with racing pigeons and his lifelong relationship with Charles Heitzman of the French Sion fame. Of note, No Sweat is a National acclaimed champion with racing pigeons having won more than 800 first places in both showing and racing. UNBRIDLED, currently another one of his works in progress, is a collection of archaeological stories that No Sweat has experienced including his discovering the largest group of Arawak burials ever located in the Bahamas on an island called Eleuthera. His twenty-five years of excavations at Lincoln's experimental Civil War city, Camp Nelson, the thirty days he spent digging with the University of Kentucky while excavating Fort Boonesborough, his narrow escape from marijuana growers while digging some of the finest Kentucky red agates --some of which are now with The Smithsonian. And ES#1, THE PRYSE SITE, an archaeological work in which No Sweat spent four years off and on excavating eighteen, Motley period (carbon 14 dating 1,130 BP) ,skeletons digging twenty-two feet deep in a cave. And last, he hopes to complete a photo essay encompassing his beautiful wife’s life entitled, CHESTEEN.
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