Horace Kephart's keen interest in exploring and documenting the great outdoors would lead him to become the most significant writer about the Great Smoky Mountains in the early twentieth century. This book dives into the full range of his writings to shed light on Kephart's classic image as a storyteller and practical guide to the Smokies.

"Horace Kephart's (1862-1931) reputation as a travel writer and often-invoked observer of Appalachian culture rests almost entirely on two major works still in print today: Our Southern Highlanders (1913) and Camping and Woodcraft (1916). All but forgotten, however, is Horace Kephart the prolific essayist who frequently appeared in popular magazines like Harper's Weekly, Outing, and Field and Stream many decades ago. In addition to collecting the best of these diverse and entertaining pieces, editors Frizzell and Claxton have here drawn on Kephart's voluminous journals and correspondence, which are archived at Western Carolina University. The book is organized into several thematic subsections, including biographical writings, family and friends, outdoor recreation, guns, southern Appalachian culture and dialect, fiction, writings on the Cherokee, and scouting"--