Originally released in 1932, Wayman Hogue’s Back Yonder is a rare and entertaining memoir of life in rural Arkansas during the decades following the Civil War. Using family legends,
personal memories, and events from Arkansas history, Hogue, like his contemporary Laura Ingalls Wilder, creatively weaves a narrative of a family making its way in rugged, impoverished, and
sometimes violent places.
From one-room schoolhouses to moonshiners, the details in Hogue’s story capture the essence of a particular time and place, even as the characters reflect a universal quality that endears
them to the modern reader. This reissue ofBack Yonder, the first in the Chronicles of the Ozarks series, features an introduction by historian Brooks Blevins that explores the life of
Charles Wayman Hogue, analyzes the people and events that inspired the book, and places the volume in the context of America’s discovery of the Ozarks in the years between the World Wars.
