Into the Sound Country: A Carolinian's Coastal Plain [Paperback]

Bland Simpson (Author), Ann Cary Simpson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 1997

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

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

Coaster

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

Our State

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

Coastwatch

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

Virginia Explorer

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

Preservation Magazine

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; 1st Edition. edition (October 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807846864
• ISBN-13: 978-0807846865
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,694,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stopping to smell the roses when you thought it was a swamp., July 18, 1998

By 

Dr. John S. Clayton, Sr. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Into the Sound Country: A Carolinian's Coastal Plain (Paperback)

I received Bland Simpson's "Into the Sound Country" as a gift. I've had it by the bed for my night reading. It's an unlikely book for me to read -- no plot, no tight narrative, no famous folks or... well, it's different.

You walk into it rather slowly. I kept thinking of John Parker quoting White's description of Roanoke Island (site of the "Lost Colony") as "the goodliest land under the cope of heaven."

"I got no respect for a man with judgment like that," Parker said.

Simpson takes on this swamp filled, brackish, mosquito plagued, twisted tree, run-down and Godforsaken part of the world (except for the beaches) that he and his ancestors grew up in, and Suffering Cats! You can't put the book down. You want to go there. Hell, you want to LIVE there. Remarkable.

I read until I couldn't keep awake last night and then for some reason -- perhaps my wife being away baby sitting in Charlottesville -- I woke up this morning a bit! before five and finished the book. Hated for it to end. That kind of book.

Simpson teaches Creative Writing at Chapel Hill. His long ago past was at one time my present, the forties and fifties on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It's a funny book to recommend. Who the hell has time for a book that is so... leisurely. And such good company. I read passages to Jutta. Long passages. That kind of book.

Very quietly in a sort of sneaky way, you get a picture of this guy and his family. Not a bad life. Not bad at all. You'll be glad you got to know him and them. His wife takes pictures. Good ones. You'll like her too.