Rediscovered Great Smokies novel published after 80 years

Author George Ellison been researching and writing about Horace Kephart’s life and work for just under 40 years. He wrote the biographical introduction for the book “Smoky Mountain Magic,” published exactly 80 years after the author’s final typescript had apparently been completed.

The emergence of the novel is a major literary and cultural event. It coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which Kephart helped found. It appears shortly after Kephart’s depiction as a central figure in the Great Smokies segment of Ken Burns’ “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” which was broadcast on PBS and is now available on DVD.

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