Modern Shepherd of the Hills

What would you least expect to find in the Ozark back country? That’s what Ted Richmond is – a librarian. For 20 penniless years he has trudged the hills – a sack on his back – to give, not sell, books to people of the woods. This is his story.

A way back in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas, where the hand-hewn log cabin is still every man’s dwelling and timber wolves howl by night, the best-known person is the one figure least likely to be found there – a librarian.

Everyone in the region knows Ted Richmond. A sinewy little fellow with a Daniel Boone haircut and a pack of books on his back, Richmond has trudged for twenty years from ridge to ridge and hollow to hollow, encouraging the hill folk to read. He is not a peddler. His books are free. He is a modern casting from the mold of Harold Bell Wright’s famous Ozark character, the Shepherd of the Hills. Nobody pays him; nobody sponsors him. He is propelled by his love for his fellow man.

More of this great article later. . .