Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood is a memoir that weaves the story of one woman's coming of age with the longleaf pine flatwoods of the southeastern U.S. 

Born and raised in a junkyard on the coastal plain of southern Georgia, author Janisse Ray renders her hardscrabble childhood—marked by poverty, a deeply religious family, and a father struggling to overcome mental illness—with honesty and lyricism. 

She uses her childhood as a vehicle to bring attention to one of America's most endangered ecosystems. This is an urgent, passionate plea for longleaf pine's survival.

This is a book about roots in every sense of the word: the roots of a family, a culture, and a landscape inextricably bound together.

With the eye of a naturalist and the heart of a poet, Ray traces the destruction of the longleaf pine forest, which once covered 93 million acres across the South and sustained a rich web of life, from the imperiled red-cockaded woodpecker to the gopher tortoise. 

By intertwining personal narrative with the ecological history of this vanishing landscape, Ray does something rare and powerful: she makes the loss of a forest feel personal.

Published in 1999 and winner of the American Book Award and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, among many others, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood has earned its place as a landmark of American nature writing as well as Southern literature. 

It is essential reading for anyone who loves the natural world, values honest and courageous memoir, or seeks to understand the deep connections between land, identity, and culture. A contemporary classic, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood is a call to protect the cultures and ecologies of every childhood.

Deeply moving, this book will change the way you see the South—and the earth beneath your feet.