Frazier has said that the real W. P. Inman was his great-grand-uncle who lived near the real Cold Mountain, which is now within the Pisgah National Forest, Haywood County, North Carolina. In the book's acknowledgments, Frazier apologizes for taking great liberties in writing of W. P. Inman's life. Frazier also used Hendricks County, Indiana, native John V. Hadley's book Seven Months a Prisoner as inspiration for the novel.