Into the Sound Country - by Bland Simpson (Paperback)

About the Book

The story of two North Carolinians returning to seek their roots in the state's eastern provinces, "Into the Sound Country" offers an affectionate, impressionistic, and personal portrait of the coastal plain and its richly varied natural world, as seen by two natives of the region. 61 illustrations. 3 maps.

Book Synopsis

Into the Sound Country is a story of rediscovery--of two North Carolinians returning to seek their roots in the state's eastern provinces. It is an affectionate, impressionistic, and personal portrait of the coastal plain by two natives of the region, writer Bland Simpson and photographer Ann Cary Simpson.

Here Bland Simpson tours his old waterfront haunts in Elizabeth City, explores scuppernong vineyards from Hertford to Southport, tramps through Pasquotank swamps and Croatan pine savannas, and visits Roanoke River oyster bars and Core Banks fishing shanties. Ann Simpson's original photographs capture both the broad vistas of the sounds and rivers and the quieter corners of mossy creeks and country churchyards. Her selection of archival illustrations ranges from the informative to the humorous, from a turpentine scraper at work in the 1850s to a pair of little girls playing with a horseshoe crab on a Beaufort porch at the turn of the century.

A memorable journey into eastern Carolina's richly varied natural world, Into the Sound Country is for anyone who would spend a while in one of America's most intriguing and underexplored areas.

Review Quotes

[Observations and anecdotes] form an amiable pastiche with Simpson 's own family history and that of eastern North Carolina.

"Preservation Magazine"

[A] memorable journey into Eastern North Carolina's varied natural world, a reading of this volume should prove gratifying.

"Our State"

ÝA¨ memorable journey into Eastern North Carolina's varied natural world, a reading of this volume should prove gratifying.

"Our State"

ÝObservations and anecdotes¨ form an amiable pastiche with Simpsons own family history and that of eastern North Carolina.

"Preservation Magazine"

"[A] memorable journey into Eastern North Carolina's varied natural world, a reading of this volume should prove gratifying.

"Our State""

An insightful and rich glance at an under-appreciated and under-explored region.

"Coaster"

Simpson brings the natural world so close that the reader can almost smell the rivers.

"Virginia Explorer"

Simpson will introduce you to a North Carolina you've never experienced.

"Coastwatch"

About the Author

Bland Simpson, who teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is author of The Great Dismal and The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey. A member of the Red Clay Ramblers, the internationally acclaimed string band, he has collaborated on such musicals as Diamond Studs, Fool Moon, Kudzu, and King Mackerel & The Blues Are Running. Ann Cary Simpson has worked for a number of conservation groups, including the Nature Conservancy, the Environmental Defense Fund, Ducks Unlimited, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, and N.C. Coastal Land Trust. She is associate director of development for the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill.