Intro -- Contents -- Editors Introduction -- Preface to the 1851 Edition -- Chapter I.A Lumping Business -- Chapter II. Starting Off Of the Right Foot -- Chapter III. Spontaneous Ebullition in a Drunkard -- Chapter IV. The Resurrection, or How To Take Up a Negro -- Chapter V. Busting a Dog and Carving a Turkey -- Chapter VI. The Way To Keep Folks From Marrying -- Chapter VII. A Death-Bed Scene -- Chapter VIII. A New Plan for Catching a Rogue -- Chapter IX. Bloodshed and Hysterics -- Chapter X. Aqua Fortis and Croton Oil, or Taking the Wrong Medicine -- Chapter XI. Three Scrapes In One Night -- Chapter XII. A Thunder Storm, and a Night in the Woods -- Chapter XIII. Making a Hole in the Wrong Place -- Chapter XIV. A Fishing Party, A Ghost, and Suicide -- Chapter XV. Taken Captive By Indians -- Chapter XVI. The Man With a Snake Disease -- Chapter XVII. Cutting Up a Negro Alive -- Chapter XVIII. A Fight With Wolves -- Chapter XIX. How To Cure Deafness In Three Hours -- Chapter XX. Rattlehead's Farewell Address -- Notes

What do Scott Joplin, John Grisham, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Maya Angelou, Brooks Robinson, Helen Gurley Brown, Johnny Cash, Alan Ladd, and Sonny Boy Williamson have in common? They’re all Arkansans. What do hillbillies, rednecks, slow trains, bare feet, moonshine, and double-wides have in common? For many in America these represent Arkansas more than any Arkansas success stories do. In 1931 H. L. Mencken described AR (not AK, folks) as the “apex of moronia.” While, in 1942 a Time magazine article said Arkansas had “developed a mass inferiority complex unique in American history.” Arkansas/Arkansaw is the first book to explain how Arkansas’s image began and how the popular culture stereotypes have been perpetuated and altered through succeeding generations. Brooks Blevins argues that the image has not always been a bad one. He discusses travel accounts, literature, radio programs, movies, and television shows that give a very positive image of the Natural State. From territorial accounts of the Creole inhabitants of the Mississippi River Valley to national derision of the state’s triple-wide governor’s mansion to Li’l Abner, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Slingblade, Blevins leads readers on an entertaining and insightful tour through more than two centuries of the idea of Arkansas. One discovers along the way how one state becomes simultaneously a punch line and a source of admiration for progressives and social critics alike. Winner, 2011 Ragsdale Award

From the expeditions of de Soto in the sixteenth century to the celebrated work of such contemporary writers as Maya Angelou, Ellen Gilchrist, and Miller Williams, Arkansas has enjoyed a rich history of letters. These two volumes gather the best work from Arkansas's rich literary history celebrating the variety of its voices and the national treasure those voices have become.