The Great Dismal

“Beautiful writing by someone who knew this famously forbidding tangle of canals and legends from childhood.”—Annie Proulx

“I’ve always wanted to explore the Great Dismal Swamp, and now, thanks to [The Great Dismal], I have. [Bland Simpson] did a good and graceful, forceful job. I enjoyed it from start to finish."—Shelby Foote

“Simpson has written a most interesting personal memoir of his romance with the swamp. It is rich with the place’s history and with stories of people who have lived in or near the swamp.”—Robert Pittman, St. Petersburg Times

“A warm, beguiling history of the Great Dismal Swamp. . . . [P]ainstakingly researched. . . . Most of all, Simpson offers an alternative model for studying places and extracting the essence of their identity.”—Media Evaluation Service

“This delightful book tells the thoroughly enjoyable story of one man’s encounter with his favorite spot in nature. . . . Bland Simpson’s Temple is the Great Dismal.”—Georgia Historical Quarterly

“Fascinating yet disquieting. . . . [H]andsomely crafted.”—Southern Quarterly

“This fine book, chockablock with factual information, is also a moving experience, a book of the heart. . . . Simpson has come to the Great Dismal, and he owns the place, at least in a literary sense.”—Fayetteville Observer

“Simpson has given us a jewel of natural and human history.”—New Yorker

“An engaging portrait.”—Publishers Weekly

“Indians, lumbermen, hermits, fugitive slaves, swamp rats, canal builders, and bird watchers have all enjoyed the slightly sinister beauty of the Great Dismal. Mr. Simpson’s book, part history and part travelogue, entices the reader to join them.”—Atlantic Monthly