The Terra Incognita Reader
Early Writings from The Great Smoky Mountains
This reader is an essential companion to Terra Incognita: An Annotated Biography of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1544-1934 and represents a significant contribution to scholarship on the Smokies and the region at large. Anne Bridges, Ken Wise, and Russell Clement have selected some of the best pieces from a rich repository of literature written about the Smokies prior to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934.
Based on years of research, the diaries, memoirs, literature, and journalism collected here shed light on various historical and cultural aspects of the Great Smokies, from Smoky Mountain folkways and religion, to the Civil War era and the Cherokee Indians. All together, the writings pay tribute to the diverse inhabitants of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Each section gathers writings under a single topic heading and progresses chronologically. The readings can thus be taken to document the slow progression of change up until the eve of the large-scale disruptions that would be wrought by the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934. This reader represents a significant contribution to scholarship on the Smokies and the region at large.
ANNE BRIDGES is associate professor emeritus and former history and special collections librarian and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is codirector of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project and editor of multiple books, including Mount Le Conte.
RUSSELL CLEMENT is librarian emeritus at Northwestern University Libraries. A coeditor of Terra Incognita, he is the author of monographs, and bibliographies on art and architecture.
KEN WISE is a professor in the University of Tennessee Libraries and director of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project. He is the author of Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains.