Congenial Comrades & Trail Companions: Horace Kephart & George Masa in the Smoky Mountains
About the Event
Dive deeper into the life and work of Horace Kephart and his friend, George Masa, in this special event on Tuesday, June 17 at 6:30 PM.
Join award-winning author, Janet McCue for a conversation about how writer Horace Kephart and photographer George Masa fought together for the conservation of the Great Smoky Mountains in the 1920s. McCue will also screen a short portion of Paul Bonesteel’s 2002 film The Mystery of George Masa. Both Horace Kephart and George Masa are featured in our current exhibition, Horace Kephart in the Great Smoky Mountains.
About Janet McCue
Janet McCue is a writer, researcher, avid hiker, and award winning author. She collaborated with the late George Ellison on Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography, which won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award shortly after its release in 2019, along with several other publications including the biographical chapter in Horace Kephart: Writings (2020). Her newest book, George Masa: A Life Reimagined, was a collaboration with co-author Paul Bonesteel, and came out in 2024.
George Masa: A Life Reimagined (2024), co-written with Paul Bonesteel, is a comprehensive biography of visionary Japanese photographer George Masa. After conducting groundbreaking research in the US and Japan, McCue and Bonesteel tell the fascinating story of an immigrant who endured scrutiny from the Bureau of Investigation, harassment from the Ku Klux Klan, and the collapse of the economy, his business, and his health—all while making it his life’s goal to champion conservation in Southern Appalachia.
Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography (2019), co-written with George Ellison, is the compelling story of this librarian-turned-woodsman who had a far-reaching effect on wilderness literature and outdoor pursuits throughout North America. Authors Ellison and McCue reveal Kephart’s fall from grace, the depths of his despair, his complicated private life, and his fortitude in forging a new existence in the Great Smoky Mountains. They do this through in-depth historical research and an exploration of Kephart’s own major writings on frontier history, camping, and woodcraft, and the lives of his neighbors on Hazel Creek, his personal back of beyond in the Smokies.
In the 1970s, McCue and her husband began exploring the Great Smoky Mountains on extended backpacking trips; her interest continues today through her work on George Masa, Kephart, and the Smokies Life board of directors. For three decades, McCue was a librarian at Cornell University where she specialized in library administration and digital library development. She lives in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, writing regularly about the beauty and bounty of the area.
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