Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along U.S. Highway 1 amid the hulks of old cars, stacks of blown-out tires, and primeval jumbles of rusted metal. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation -- living in the country but not even knowing how to swim -- grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that existed before the region was ever called the South.

This memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined flatwoods of the Southeast was published by Milkweed Editions in 1999. Besides being a plea to protect and restore the glorious Southern forests, the book looks hard at family, mental illness, poverty, and fundamentalist religion.

Chapters in the book alternate between personal history and natural history, showing the two to be irrevocably intertwined. Besides being a memoir and an account of pinewoods flora and fauna, the book is a clarion call for action to save what ecologists call a "critically endangered" ecosystem. Only one percent of natural longleaf forests remain.

Essayist Wendell Berry called the book "well done and deeply moving." Anne Raver of The New York Times said of Janisse Ray, "The forests of the South find their Rachel Carson."

The book won the Southeastern Booksellers Award for Nonfiction 1999, an American Book Award 2000, the Southern Environmental Law Center 2000 Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award 2000.

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood was a New York Times Notable Book and in 2000 was chosen as the Book All Georgians Should Read.

• We started tracking this book on May 8, 2012.
• This book was $9.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 213 times in the past 4,954 days.
• The current price of this book is $8.60 last checked 3 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past year.
• The lowest price to date was $5.45 last reached on May 31, 2022.
• This book has been $5.45 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $9.99 last reached on November 7, 2025.
• This book has been $9.99 25 times since we started tracking it.

• Science & MathNature & Ecology

• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 310 Pages
• File Size: 18 KB