Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography, 2019

George Ellison and Janet McCue

2019 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 help protect the Smokies as a national park and establish the Appalachian Trail through North Carolina and Tennessee. He wrote of his personal commitment: “I owe my life to these mountains, and I want them preserved so that others may profit from them.”

The culmination of decades of tireless research and devoted scholarship, Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography is the compelling story of this librarian-turned-woodsman who had a far-reaching effect on wilderness literature and outdoor pursuits throughout North America. Authors Ellison and McCue reveal Kephart’s fall from grace, the depths of his despair, his complicated private life, and his fortitude in forging a new existence in the Great Smoky Mountains. They do this through in-depth historical research and an exploration of Kephart’s own major writings on frontier history, camping, and woodcraft, and the lives of his neighbors on Hazel Creek, his personal back of beyond in the Smokies.

Preview the book here

  • "This is biographical writing at its best – entertaining and fast moving, built on a rock-solid foundation of superb documentation."

    - Bob Plott, historian and author

  • "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

  • "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, professor of English, Western Carolina University, and co-editor of Horace Kephart: Writings

  • "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."

    - David Wescott, author of Camping In The Old Style

  • "Back of Beyond – A Horace Kephart Biography is a masterpiece!...It is a “must read” that does not disappoint.”

    - William A. Hart Jr., author of 3,000 Miles in the Great Smokies

  • "…Ellison and McCue enliven a complex man…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…"

    - George Frizzell, former head of Special Collections, Hunter Library, Western Carolina University

  • "…one reads it with the pleasure of a riveting novel and an admiration reserved for the finest scholarship. Kephart was a complex man, and Ellison and McCue show that complexity. Back of Beyond is a triumph."

    - Ron Rash, author of Serena

  • "Ellison and McCue even characterize Kephart as both “genius and train wreck,” and...as an important American writer, conservationist, and personality…The book represents nothing less than a lifetime achievement for the two scholars."

    - Daniel D. Richter, Environmental History magazine

  • “...as expansive as Ellison’s earlier work was succinct…the biography aims to be neither critical nor speculative.”

    - Michael Ann Williams, Journal of American Folklore

  • “...a much needed and highly readable study of Kephart…”

    - Erin Presley, Appalachian Journal

About the authors

Writer-naturalist George Ellison lived near Bryson City, North Carolina for most of his life. He wrote 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 “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.” In 2016 he and his wife, the artist Elizabeth Ellison, were named “Blue Ridge Naturalists of the Year.” George passed away in February 2023.

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 Reader (2019). Learn more about Janet here.