cover image for Ozark Country by Otto Ernest Rayburn

On the cover: Photocopy of photograph (original negative owned by Missouri Historical Society) Dr. Charles Swap, Photographer ca. 1906 EXTERIOR – Watts Log Cabin, Grandad Spring, Gravois Mills, Morgan County, MO (Library of Congress).

Published just days before America’s entry into World War II, Ozark Country is Otto Ernest Rayburn’s love letter to his adopted region. One of several chronicles of the Ozarks that garnered national attention during the Depression and war years, when many Americans craved stories about people and places seemingly untouched by the difficulties of the times, Rayburn’s colorful tour takes readers from the fictional village of Woodville into the backcountry of a region teeming with storytellers, ballad singers, superstitions, and home remedies.

Rayburn’s tales—fantastical, fun, and unapologetically romantic—portray a world that had already nearly disappeared by the time they were written. Yet their idealization of the Ozarks resonates with notions of the region that persisted in the American consciousness. Ozark Country gives a modern audience a fascinating glimpse into Depression-era American ideas about the Ozarks.

Ozark Country is part of the Chronicles of the Ozarks Series from the University of Arkansas Press. The cover is designed by Liz Lester.

Born in Iowa and raised in Kansas, Otto Ernest Rayburn (1891–1960) was a teacher, writer, and magazine editor who devoted most of his life to the folklore and folkways of the Ozarks.

Brooks Blevins, the Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University, is a native of the Arkansas Ozarks and the author or editor of ten books, including Arkansas/Arkansaw: How Bear Hunters, Hillbillies, and Good Ol’ Boys Defined a State.

 

Ozark Country is now available for preorder, and 25% off when you order online.