John Joseph Mathews observed and immersed himself in the natural world, documenting, honoring, and defending it. In Our Osage Hills, Michael Snyder revisits Mathews's early lost writings, contributing his own valuable perspective and historical context. From where we stand now, we would do well to pay attention. -- Laura Mathews Edwards Michael Snyder has done an excellent job of collecting and providing context for Mathews' pieces. This is an important book about an important literary figure. -- Alan Velie, University of Oklahoma Michael Snyder is to be praised for his profound literary archeological work in unearthing and contextualizing previously unknown writings by John Joseph Mathews. Snyder's short essays and commentaries punctuate Mathews's texts, reminding readers that Mathews was a nature-writer and philosopher as well as a chronicler of the Osages who is to be reckoned with. -- Lionel Larre, Directeur de l'UFR Langues et civilisations, Universite Bordeaux Montaigne An important contribution to our understanding of the writer, the era, and, most significantly, the place: the Osage hills of Oklahoma.

Michael Snyder has uncovered lost gems of John Joseph Mathew's work and offers them in extraordinary bites, accompanied by his own interstitial essays that illuminate backstory and sociohistorical context. Coupled with his biography John Joseph Mathews: Life of an Osage Writer, this book affirms Snyder's place as a significant scholar of Mathews' work. -- Rilla Askew, author of Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place.