“I'm firmly convinced that human well-being is closely allied with Nature and her creatures, I believe it is important to live as naturally as possible and to spend time outdoors and relating to natural things. I am a handspinner and natural dyer and derive great satisfaction from producing a thing of beauty with time-honored methods. My favorite way to live is gypsying around the Ozarks, discovering out-of-the-way beauty spots overlooked by most others, meeting and talking to the people who live here—mostly still very close to Nature. History is my ruling passion and discovering little-known facets of historical events gives me great pleasure.”
—Phyllis Rossiter
This doctrine, according to author Phyllis Rossiter, sums up the intent and message of her latest book, A Living History of the Ozarks. Considered by some to be a travel guide to a land of ever-changing natural wonders, this book is actually a timeless chronicle of the area by one of its native daughters.
A former teacher, public librarian, and newspaper editor, Rossiter has been a prolific writer since the age of sixteen. She has won awards in both fiction and nonfiction categories with local writers' groups in Missouri and Arkansas, in addition to receiving national recognition from the Children's Book Council and the National Council for Social Studies. Spending her time freelancing for magazines such as The Mother Earth News, The Missouri Conservationist, Missouri Life, and The Kansas City Star, she has published a series of articles on the Ozarks region and is featured regularly in The Ozarks Mountaineer with her column “A Sense of Place.”
Rossiter was born in the Ozarks and raised in Kansas City, but she spent virtually every possible moment “at home” in the hills, especially during the summers with her grandparents. She can remember when there were outhouses, kerosene lamps, woodstoves, bedwarmers, and scratch cooking. In A Living History of the Ozarks, she reflects a clear-eyed, down-to-earth picture of the present-day Ozarks from the beneficial vantage point of a native who has lived elsewhere long enough to be able to view the area objectively.