Vance Randolph: An Ozark Life

This is the first full-scale biography of Mr. Ozark himself -- Vance Randolph, the remarkable folklorist who almost single-handedly made the rest of the nation aware of the special heritage and lore of the Ozarks and its people. Randolph (1892-1980) is best known for his books. But, as Robert Cochran shows, the life he led is a t least as compelling as anything he wrote. Randolph lived and worked most of his life in the hardscrabble country of the Ozark mountains, yet touched many of his life time's major figures and movements.
 He worked for the Appeal to Reason and knew Eugene Debs; he was involved in the first National Folk Festival; he worked for the Federal Writers' Project; his M.A. thesis was directed by G.Stanley Hall (Freud's major early American Champion) and when Hollywood beckoned, he answered the call in his own inimitable way.
Through it all--the rough times and the good--Randolph remained his own man, an "outlaw" outside the American mainstream, a modern maverick who had "lit out for the margins." -- from the publisher.