Back of Beyond a Horace Kephart Biography

Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award Winner An icon of the Southern Appalachian region known for the seminal books Camping and Woodcraft and Our Southern Highlanders, Horace Kephart was instrumental in efforts to create a national park in the Smokies and to establish the Appalachian Trail through North Carolina and Tennessee. This is the behind-the-scenes story of a librarian-turned-woodsman who had a far-reaching effect on wilderness literature and outdoor pursuits throughout North America. All proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the educational, historical, and scientific programs of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. "This long-awaited biography of Horace Kephart is so well written and informative that one reads it with the pleasure of a riveting novel and an admiration reserved for the finest scholarship. Back of Beyond is a triumph." --Ron Rash, author of Serena "With affection and candor, McCue and Ellison reveal an intimate knowledge of Kephart's ancestry, education, marriage, and career, his place in American literature and history, and his part in the founding of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park." --Robert Morgan, author of Boone: A Biography "This meticulously researched and carefully considered book is a great contribution to the history and culture of the Southern Appalachians." --Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction George Ellison has written extensively about Horace Kephart and was designated one of the 100 most influential people in the history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In 2012 he won the Wild South Roosevelt-Ashe award for "Outstanding Journalism in Conservation." Janet McCue, an independent writer and researcher, has collaborated with Ellison and others on many Kephart projects. Her writing and research reveal Kephart's multi-faceted life as student, husband, father, librarian, writer, and public figure. She is the former director of Mann Library at Cornell University.

About the Author :
Writer-naturalist George Ellison has lived near Bryson City, North Carolina, since 1973. He has written extensively about Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Horace Kephart. For more than 30 years he conducted natural history workshops for the park's Smoky Mountain Field School. As part of the park's centennial celebration, Ellison was designated one of the "the 100 most influential people in the history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park." Since 1987, he has written the Nature Journal column for the Asheville Citizen-Times in Asheville, North Carolina. In 2012 he won the Wild South Roosevelt-Ashe award for "Outstanding Journalism in Conservation." In 2016 he and his wife, the artist Elizabeth Ellison, were named "Blue Ridge Naturalists of the Year." Ellison lives in Bryson City, North Carolina. Janet McCue is a writer, researcher, and avid hiker. She and George Ellison have collaborated on several other Kephart publications, including the introduction to Camping and Woodcraft (2011) and the biographical chapter in the Horace Kephart: Writings (2020). McCue's interest in Kephart began with backpacking trips in the Smokies in the 1970s and continued throughout her career as a librarian at Cornell University, where she specialized in library administration and digital library development--a career that took her all over the world. Like Kephart, McCue believes that "librarianship offers a better field for mental gymnastics than any other profession." McCue lives in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, writing regularly about the beauty and bounty of the area.

Review :
Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award Winner "This long-awaited biography of Horace Kephart is so well written and informative that one reads it with the pleasure of a riveting novel and an admiration reserved for the finest scholarship. Back of Beyond is a triumph." Ron Rash, author of Serena "With affection and candor, McCue and Ellison reveal an intimate knowledge of Kephart's ancestry, education, marriage, and career, his place in American literature and history, and his part in the founding of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park." Robert Morgan, author of Boone: A Biography "This meticulously researched and carefully considered book is a great contribution to the history and culture of the Southern Appalachians." Charles Frazier, author of Cold Mountain, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction "Best known for his influential books Camping and Woodcraft and Our Southern Highlanders and for his support of establishing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Horace Kephart has nonetheless remained a mysterious figure. In the first full-length biography detailing Kephart's long and varied career, Ellison and McCue enliven a complex man by exploring his family relations, friendships, and community involvement. They explain his enduring mystique as they chronicle a life that encompassed a lonely childhood, a career as a respected librarian, a period of deep personal anguish, and finally a renewal in the Southern Appalachia he sought out as his 'Back of Beyond.'" George Frizzell, co-editor of Horace Kephart: Writings (2020) and former head of Special Collections, Hunter Library, Western Carolina University "Previously, readers knew about Horace Kephart primarily through his own voluminous writings, yet little was known about his personal life before arriving in Western North Carolina. With the benefit of new archival materials, biographers George Ellison and Janet McCue meticulously fill in gaps to show how this man with an excellent education acquired from books expanded his knowledge to the outdoors with the help of an extensive cast of friends and acquaintances who introduced him to a place he came to love: the Great Smoky Mountains. While readers come away from this wonderful biography with a fuller portrait of the elusive Kephart, they also emerge with an incredibly rich knowledge about his role in the history of a region that continues to attract thousands of visitors every year." Mae Miller Claxton, co-editor of Horace Kephart: Writings (2020) and author of Conversations with Dorothy Allison, Conversations with Ron Rash, and Teaching the Works of Eudora Welty Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography is a masterpiece! Reading it reminded me of working a puzzle. In my case, I had filled in the borders and some of the interior elements of Kephart's life; however, after reading Back of Beyond, the puzzle revealed Horace Kephart, the complete man. This important biography illuminates in rewarding detail Kephart's life with all its facets and complexities, including a detailed account of his contributions to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. George Ellison and Janet McCue are to be commended for authoring this excellent work. It is a "must read' that does not disappoint." William A. Hart, Jr., author of 3,000 Miles in the Great Smokies "In Back of Beyond, the first full-length biography of Horace Kephart, Janet McCue and George Ellison delve deeply into the family dynamics, societal pressures, and chronic health issues that shaped this most enigmatic chronicler of the life and manners of the early 20th-century Great Smoky mountaineers. McCue and Ellison have painstakingly uncovered a wealth of source material previously untouched by earlier scholars. Meticulously researched, Back of Beyond is not only the most historically significant book ever published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association, but is a groundbreaking achievement that will infuse fresh vigor into the world of Kephart scholarship." Ken Wise, director of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project at the University of Tennessee Libraries "Those of us who have read Horace Kephart's books have come to treasure the writer, but with Ellison and McCue's richly detailed Kephart biography, we come to know the man. The authors intricately reconstruct Kephart's life and influences, tracing his journey from the Iowa prairie to the directorship of St. Louis' Mercantile Library, where Kephart lost nearly everything. Ellison and McCue unflinchingly describe Kephart's dismal fall--dismissal from his job, separation from his wife and six children, and a descent into madness--as well as the salvation he found in a primitive Smoky Mountain cabin. Ellison and McCue are exacting historians; they're also fine writers, and this book is a joy to read." David Brill, author of Into the Mist and As Far as the Eye Can See "Back of Beyond is an illuminative and exhaustive journey through the life of Horace Kephart. George Ellison was destined to write this book and Janet McCue complements his poetic and naturalist penchants with the diligence and research acumen that a subject as panoramic as Kephart requires. Through these storytellers we can finally know the real Horace Kephart and the complex story of the passions that fueled his work along with a wonderful 'supporting cast' including my favorite: photographer George Masa." Paul Bonesteel, director of The Mystery of George Masa documentary "Kephart was one of my boyhood heroes. Ellison and McCue have reaffirmed my appreciation for a man who had demons no different than many of us, and who dealt with them while creating two literary masterpieces that have stood for 100 years. Through careful research and cultivation of relationships with the Kephart family, new and valuable insights have given us a refreshing look at the man called 'the enigma.'" David Wescott, author of Camping In The Old Style