Although Patrick D. Smith is most noted for environmental novels set in Florida,
his first two books take place in his native state of Mississippi.
Smith wrote the second of these, The Beginning (1967), while working as the
Director of Public Information at the University of Mississippi from 1962 to 1966.
On exhibit from the Patrick D. Smith Collection is the last page of the typed
manuscript for that novel.
View the last page of the manuscript for The Beginning.