As a British officer assigned to Fort Loudon on the free-flowing Little Tennessee River just south of the present-day Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Henry Timberlake (circa 1730-1765) lived close to many of the 18th Century Cherokee settlements and also served as an emissary to the Cherokees. He was the first white person to meticulously describe Cherokee life. The editor, Samuel Cole Williams (1864-1947) was a Johnson City, Tennessee, businessman, lawyer and eventual Tennessee Supreme Court Justice. As an amateur historian he wrote and re-published many of the most important early Tennessee histories.
Cherokee, N.C. Museum of the Cherokee Indian Press, 2007. 176 pages. Hardback without a dust jacket.