A LIFELONG AFICIONADO OF ghost stories who used to scare his charges while a camp counselor by telling them tales of supernatural beings that go bump in the night, Steve Friedman (1955–) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and graduated from Stanford University. He left his graduate work at the University of Missouri School of Journalism to take a job at the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune, where he worked for five years before becoming editor in chief at St. Louis Magazine and then senior editor at GQ. He has been a full-time writer since 1997, his work appearing in such publications as Esquire, Outside, and The New York Times; he is a writer-at-large for Runner’s World, Bicycling, and Backpacker. Many of his stories have been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing, The Best of Outside, and, eight times, in The Best American Sports Writing. He has written five books, including Driving Lessons (2011) and Lost on Treasure Island: A Memoir of Longing, Love, and Lousy Choices in New York City (2011).
“The Lost Boy of the Ozarks” is the first piece of fiction ever to appear in Backpacker magazine. When the editors requested a story with the only guideline being that it had to be mysterious and have something to do with the outdoors, Friedman combined his affection for ghost stories with a book he was reading at the time, Tana French’s Into the Woods, from which he (admittedly) stole the powerful idea of two children walking into the woods and never returning. Adding his own experiences as a journalist completed the tale.
“The Lost Boy of the Ozarks” was originally published in the November 2009 issue of Backpacker.