The author recounts his experiences growing up in Arkansas during the late 1800's and describes the humor and hardships of frontier life

Life in the Leatherwoods: An Ozark Boyhood Remembered

Wolf, John Quincy

Reference

August House

Life in the Leatherwoods is one of the country's most delightful childhood memoirs, penned by an Ozark native with a keen, observant eye and a gift for narrative. John Quincy Wolf's relaxed style and colorful characters resemble those of another chronicler of nineteenth-century rural life, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wolf's acerbic wit and lucid prose infuse the White River pioneers of his story with such life that the reader participates vicariously in their log rollings, house-raisings, spelling bees, hog killings, soap making, country dances, and camp meetings. Originally published by Memphis State University Press in 1974, this new edition includes additional writings of John Q. Wolf and a continuation of the autobiographical narrative after his 1887 move to Batesville. Wolf's writings are valuable resources for southern historians, folklorists, general readers, and scholars of Ozarkiana because they provide a rare glimpse into the social and family life of a largely misunderstood and stereotyped people—the independent hill farmers of the Arkansas Ozarks of the 1870s and 1880s. With Life in the Leatherwoods, Wolf bestows a benediction upon a society that existed vibrantly and humorously in his memory—one that has now forever disappeared from the American countryside. Originally published by Memphis State University Press in 1974, this new edition includes additional writings of John Q. Wolf and a continuation of the autobiographical narrative after his 1887 move to Batesville. Wolf’s writings are valuable resources for southern historians, folklorists, general readers, and scholars of Ozarkiana because they provide a rare glimpse into the social and family life of a largely misunderstood and stereotyped people—the independent hill farmers of the Arkansas Ozarks of the 1870s and 1880s. With Life in the Leatherwoods, Wolf bestows a benediction upon a society that existed vibrantly and humorously in his memory—one that has now forever disappeared from the American countryside.

Life in the Leatherwoods

Memphis State University Press

LIFE IN THE LEATHERWOODS by John Quincy Wolf - edited, with an afterword, by John Quincy Wolf, Jr., introduction and notes by F. Jack Hurley and Illustrations by Jim Barnett - Spelling bees, fist fights on horseback, quail hunts by torchlight, the cunning ways of guinea hens, stealing cream from the springhouse - these incidents and many more are recounted in this memoir of growing up in the Ozark foothills in the two decades following the Civil War. The author also describes his early manhood as a steamboat clerk on the upper White River at the end of the century. Informative as well as entertaining. he describes some of the economic changes brought to this isolated area, first by the steamboat and later by the railroad. These sharply focused glimpses into nineteenth-century farm life picture sad as well as happy times, hard as well as flush times, and so form an important document of a vanished way of life. Full of source material for the social historian or student of regional literature, these sketches provide many insights into early rural attitudes. There is humor on several levels-the offhand humor of the frontier, the general popularity of practical jokers who brightened up the dull routine of country life. But most of all, it abounds with the classic rural humor which is gently aimed at self--and is perhaps the most basic theme of early American humor.

Life in the Leatherwoods: John Quincy Wolf

Life in the Leatherwoods is one of the country's most delightful childhood memoirs, penned by an Ozark native with a keen, observant eye and a gift for narrative. John Quincy Wolf's relaxed style and colorful characters resemble those of another chronicler of nineteenth-century rural life, Laura Ingalls Wilder. Wolf's acerbic wit and lucid prose infuse the White River pioneers of his story with such life that the reader participates vicariously in their log rollings, house-raisings, spelling bees, hog killings, soap making, country dances, and camp meetings. Originally published by Memphis State University Press in 1974, this new edition includes additional writings of John Q. Wolf and a continuation of the autobiographical narrative after his 1887 move to Batesville. Wolf's writings are valuable resources for southern historians, folklorists, general readers, and scholars of Ozarkiana because they provide a rare glimpse into the social and family life of a largely misunderstood and stereotyped people—the independent hill farmers of the Arkansas Ozarks of the 1870s and 1880s. With Life in the Leatherwoods, Wolf bestows a benediction upon a society that existed vibrantly and humorously in his memory—one that has now forever disappeared from the American countryside. Originally published by Memphis State University Press in 1974, this new edition includes additional writings of John Q. Wolf and a continuation of the autobiographical narrative after his 1887 move to Batesville. Wolf’s writings are valuable resources for southern historians, folklorists, general readers, and scholars of Ozarkiana because they provide a rare glimpse into the social and family life of a largely misunderstood and stereotyped people—the independent hill farmers of the Arkansas Ozarks of the 1870s and 1880s. With Life in the Leatherwoods, Wolf bestows a benediction upon a society that existed vibrantly and humorously in his memory—one that has now forever disappeared from the American countryside.

Life in the Leatherwoods: New Edition (Arkansas Classics)

Biographies & Memoirs

Hyde, Gene

Community & Culture

University of Arkansas Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wolf, John Quincy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wolf, John Quincy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wolf, John Quincy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Life in the Leatherwoods: An Ozark Boyhood Remembered

Life in the Leatherwoods

Life in the Leatherwoods: John Quincy Wolf

Life in the Leatherwoods: New Edition (Arkansas Classics)