A Yankee from the West

“A pleasing story…. Shows genuine literary art…. Probably his best work. The book makes one feel, and it makes one laugh cheerily, besides holding the Interest of the reader to the end…. Mr. Read has deserted Kentucky and the South and has laid his scenes In Lake County. 111. The railway stations of Rollins, Lake Villa, and Antioch, familiar to all Chicago fishermen, figure In the story, though the scenes are chiefly laid on a neighboring farm. The author has successfully caught the quiet charm of the rural scenery…..Worth reading.” -Chicago Tribune, Dec. 29, 1898

A vivid imagination, a knack for depicting characters he met during his travels, and the proverbial gift of gab--these were the talents that made Opie Read widely known at the turn of the century, but his popularity was too ephemeral to last even to the end of his own life. When he died in 1939, few remembered that he had been a pioneer in the newspaper business, had established the Arkansas Traveler, had traveled coast to coast entertaining audiences with his droll anecdotes and character sketches, and had authored over fifty books.

If ever a writer was influenced by his native territory, Opie Read was, for the hillbilly sketches, jokes, and stories in the Arkansas Traveler; the humor in his lectures; and the characters and plots in his novels were lifted, with few exceptions, straight from his Southern background.