Horace Kephart

Camping and woodcraft; a handbook for vacation campers and for travelers in the wilderness.

No other book on the Southern Appalachians is more widely known or cited. "Awonderful book. I like it especially for its color and anecdotes. It is a classic, not only for its accuracy and breadth of insights into the people of the region, but because these people themselves are so interesting and strong."—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

This special expanded third edition of Horace Kephart's classic work on the people of Southern Appalachia has been completely re-typeset and includes a new introduction by writer George Ellison. This edition also includes eight articles written by Horace Kephart and published after the previous edition on such topics as moonshiners, rifle-making, mountain culture, and the proposed Great Smoky Mountains National Park. All told, readers will find over 100 pages of new material not included in any of the book's previous editions.

Travel author Horace Kephart discusses the culture of Appalachia he observed while living in a mountain cabin for several months at the start of the 20th century. This edition contains all of his original photographs. An honest and eye-opening account of the old Appalachian culture, Our Southern Highlanders attests to rugged yet proud communities well-adapted to the rough terrain. We discover a people who have carved out an existence through sheer grit and persistence; the hardships of mountain life are evident in the worn faces and attire. Though the region is secluded, the inhabitants are by no means cut off - trade is regular, and many locals are descended from Irish, Scots and English immigrants to North America. Recording conversations and photographing the most noteworthy sights of his stay, Kephart strives to portray the Appalachian region fairly. Although known for his travel writing - a craft usually aimed to encourage and inform potential visitors to a given place - Our Southern Highlanders carries an investigative and journalistic element. After its release, critics were surprised at how Kephart portrayed the Appalachian way of life in a realistic and honest fashion - in decades prior, the culture had received negative treatment by writers unfamiliar and disaproving. However, Kephart was criticized for focusing overly on the more sensationalist aspects of mountain life - the making of moonshine, for instance, features heavily with stills photographed.