We are delighted to announce that on Tuesday,
October 20th at 7:00 p.m., City Lights will launch
Horace
Kephart's long-lost novel, entitled Smoky
Mountain Magic. The evening's program will
feature Kephart's great-granddaughter, Libby Kephart
Hargrave, who worked to
bring the book to print 80 years after the manuscript
was completed, and
artist Elizabeth Ellison, who painted the scene on the
book's cover. (It's a beautiful piece of artwork, as you
would expect from Elizabeth, but she had to paint it
with her
left hand because her right was injured during the time
she had to work on the project!)
Horace Kephart, one of the "founding fathers" of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
worked on Smoky Mountain Magic
from 1920 to 1929, when it was rejected by the
publisher to whom he had submitted it. The Great
Smoky Mountains Association
recently took on the project, and Smoky
Mountain Magic is now available.
Featuring an introduction by naturalist George Ellison,
the book is a story of
romance and adventure. While Kephart is well-known
for his nature writings and
role in helping to establish the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, his
novel shows another facet of his many talents.
Bestselling novelist and WCU
professor Ron Rash has praised the book, calling in
"a remarkable and illuminating read."

As
George Ellison points out in his introduction, Kephart
was an excellent listener,
and in his time in the Hazel Creek community, he
listened to residents tell
about their lives. Both his ear for dialogue and his
appreciation for a good
story are revealed in the novel, which is set in Deep
Creek, near Bryson City.
The story features Cherokee lore, as well, and some
fantastical elements. too.
According to Ellison, "Creating a dreamscape is not
the sort of stylistic
device a reader familiar with Camping and
Woodcraft and Our Southern
Highlanders would have expected from Kephart,
not even in a novel." But at its
heart, Smoky Mountain Magic is a story
of both romance and adventure.

At our
Tuesday night program (October 20th), Hargrave will
talk about
bringing the manuscript to publication and will read
selections from it. She and Elizabeth Ellison
will also take questions from the audience. For more
information, please don't hesitate to call the store at
586-9499.