Devil's Backbone, The: The Story of the Natchez Trace

Jonathan Daniels was a Southern liberal born with writing in his blood. The son of Josephus Daniels, the owner of the News and Observer, a Raleigh, North Carolina, newspaper, he began writing and editing at a young age. While studying for his BA and MA in English at the University of North Carolina, he edited the Daily Tar Heel.   After graduating he wrote for the Louisville Times in Kentucky and later decided to study law. He enrolled in Columbia Law School where he wrote The Crash of Angels, for which he won a Guggenheim Award in creative writing. He did not graduate from Columbia, but did pass the North Carolina bar exam. In 1923 he returned to the News and Observer, and from 1925 to 1928 served as the Washington correspondent for the paper.  During the Depression he wrote for Fortune magazine, and has contributed to Harper's and The Saturday Evening Post. Following in his father's footsteps he became editor of the News and Observer in 1948 and also helped friends start the newspaper the Island Packet in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  From 1942 to 1945, Mr. Daniels was an administrative assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, working on wartime projects such as The Tennessee Valley Authority. Later he became the press secretary for a portion of Roosevelt's term, as well as the beginning of Harry Truman's term. From 1947 to 1953, Mr. Daniels represented the United States on the United Nations Subcommission for the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities. In 1967 he was awarded the North Carolina Award for Literature, and in 1981 he passed away.  With more than twenty books under his belt, Mr. Daniels continued the tradition of writing and journalism in his family. In addition to being a writer, he was an editor, a public servant, and a historian. He is considered an expert on the Old and New South.  The Devil's Backbone: The Story of the Natchez Trace is the story of a trail traveled by thousands as the continent of America was being explored and settled. The Natchez Trace was traversed by a variety of characters from Andrew Jackson and Meriwether Lewis, to soldiers and pioneers forging a new world, to the lowlifes and ruthless thieves settlers sometimes encountered in the westward expansion.