Noah Adams - Takoma Park, MD. Author
of Far Appalachia: Following the New River North (2001).
John Albertus - Martinsburg, WV. Editor &
publisher of the third WV newspaper, The Berkeley and Jefferson County Intelligencer and Northern Neck Advertiser
(1800).
Charles Henry Ambler (1876-) - Morgantown, WV.
WVU History professor and author of Sectionalism in Virginia (1910), Thomas Ritchie: A Study in Virginia Politics
(1914), Life and Diary of John Floyd (1918), and the editor of the John P. Branch History Papers and the
Letters and Papers of R.M.T. Hunter. He also wrote prolifically in articles and pamphlets such as Cleavage
between Eastern and Western Virginia (1910) and Disfranchisement in Virginia (1905).
Edward Jack Appleton - West Virginia. Poet &
author of The Quiet Courage and Other Songs of the Unafraid (1912), With the Colors (1919), and other works.
George W. Atkinson - Charleston, WV. Revenuer, Congressman,
Governor, and author of Among the Moonshiners (1881), Men of West Virginia (1890), Public
Addresses (1901), and Chips and Whetstones (1908).
Waitman Barbe (1864-1925) - Morgantown, WV.
Nicknamed "The 20th Century Crusader". Alumnus of WVU (1884), Harvard (1901), and Oxford (1909). WVU English professor,
assistant to WVU President, and WVU Director of Summer School. Author of many works relating to WV life & culture
such as Ashes and Incense (1891), In the Virginias (1896), Are You Going to College (1889), The
Study of Poetry (1905), Famous Poems Explained (1909), Great Poems Interpreted (1913).
Blanche Burgess Barbe - Keyser, WV. Poet.
Author of The Little Appalatian (1968).
Joseph Barry - Martinsburg, WV. Artist &
author of The Annals of Harper's Ferry, with Sketches of its Founder (1872).
Joseph Herbert Bean - Hinton, WV. Poet
and author of A Pilgrim's Harp (1923) among other works.
Frank Lee Benedict - St. Albans, WV. Author
of My Daughter Elinor.
Ancella Bickley - Institute, WV. Memphis
Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman (2001).
Virginia Biddle - Parkersburg, WV. Poet and
newspaper serialist.
Dwight Billings - Logan, WV. Appalachian Sociologist & author of The Road to Poverty: the Making of Wealth and Hardship
in Appalachia (2000), contributor & editor of Backtalk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes (1999),
and author of other works.
Francis Moore Bland - Weston, WV. Poet &
author of Twilight Reveries (1900) and other works.
Margaret Agnew Blennerhassett - Parkersburg, WV.
Poet & wife of Harman Blennerhassett. Author of The Widow of the Rock and Other Poems (1824).
Ignatius Brennan - Wheeling, WV. Poet and author
of Mountain State Gleanings (1911) and other works.
Earl D.C. Brewer - scholar & co-author of Life
and Religion in Southern Appalachia (1962).
Richard A. Brisbin, Jr. - Morgantown, WV. Political
Science professor and co-author of West Virginia Politics and Government (2001), and author of Justice Antonin
Scalia and the Conservative Revival.
William Perry Brown - Glenville, WV. Author
of fiction including A Sea Island Romance (1888), and other works.
Pearl S. Buck - Hillsboro, WV. The first woman
to win both The Nobel Prize for Literature and The Pulitzer Prize. Prolific author. Her many works include The
Good Earth (1931), Imperial Woman (1956), The Exile (1936), Peony (1948), Sons (1931) and
The Three Daughters of Madame Liang (1969).
Shirley Stewart Burns - Matheny Bottom, WV (currently
resides in Charleston, WV). Author of Bringing Down The Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal Surface Coal
Mining on Southern West Virginia Communities 1970-2004.
St. John Byer - West Virginia. Poet & author
of Stories in Rhyme, Elegies and Lyrics (1915) and other works.
Alice Piersol Cain - Parkersburg, WV. Poet &
author of A City's Chaplet (1899) and other works.
James Morton Callahan (1864-) - Morgantown, WV.
State Historian, history professor, and author of The History of West Virginia (1913). It was the sequicentennial
history book about West Virginia. He also wrote: Neutrality of the American Lakes (1898), Cuba and International
Relations (1899), American Relations in the Pacific and the Far East (1901), Confederate Diplomacy
(1901), The American Expansion Policy (1903), Introduction to American Foreign Policy Volume I: The Monroe Doctrine
and International Relations; The United States and Canada: A Study in International History; Evolution of Seward's Mexican
Policy, University Studies in West Virginia History (1909), Upper Monongahela Valley (1912) in three
volumes, West Virginia 1863-1909 in The Making of a Nation (1909), The Government of West Virginia
in the Cyclopedia of American Government (1913), and West Virginia Old and New (1923) in three volumes.
Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) - Bethany, WV.
Known as the "Sage of Bethany", Campbell founded Bethany College - the first in the state. He also represented Brooke
County, WV in the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829-30. He served as President of Bethany College from 1840
until his death in 1866. His written works include: Popular Lectures and Addresses (1864), Memoirs of Thomas
Campbell, The Christian System (1835), The Living Oracles- new Testament with Notes and Introduction, Preacher's
Companion: or Infidelity Refuted by Infidels, Christian Baptism: Its Antecedents and Consequents, Lectures on the Pentateuch
(1859-60), six volumes of debates with various learned men of the time, The Christian Baptist (1823-30) - in seven
volumes, and thirty-four volumes of the The Millenial Harbinger (1831-64).
Mason Campbell - Charleston, WV. Editor &
publisher of The Western Courier (1820) - Charleston's second newspaper.
Gary Carden - North Carolina. Folklorist, playwright, &
author of Mason Jars in the Flood & Other Stories (2000) and other works.
Charles Russell Christian - Logan County, WV.
Poet & author of The Mountain Bard (1881) and offered an enlarged edition of this work in 1885.
Mary E. Cober - West Virginia. Folklorist &
author of The Remarkable History of Tony Beaver: West Virginian (1953).
Noah Coleman - Charleston, WV. Poet and author
of the Visions of a Seer (1894) and other works.
Jim Comstock - Richwood, WV - creator
& publisher of The West Virginia Hillbilly Newspaper and author of The Best of the West Virginia Hillbilly
(1968).
Phil Conley - West Virginia. Historian and author
of West Virginia Reader: Stories of the Early Days (1970).
Kermit A. Cook - Morgantown, WV. Education Professor
& Author of A Profession Emerges in West Virginia (1966). It is a book about the history of education in
WV.
John Estin Cooke - Martinsburg, WV. lyricist.
Author of Florence Vane (1847). Brother of Philip Pendleton Cooke.
Philip Pendleton Cooke - Martinsburg,
WV. Author of Froissart Ballads and Other Poems (1847). Brother of John Estin Cooke.
John Jacob Cornwell - Romney, WV. Poet and author
of Knock About Notes (1918) and other works.
Marshall S. Cornwell - Hampshire County, WV.
Poet & author of Wheat and Chaff (1899) and other works.
Fanny Kemble Johnson Costello - Bridgeport, WV.
Nickname "A Merchant of Hope". Poet and author of stories related to the lives and interests of young adults.
She is the author of The Beloved Son (1916), The Roddy Ivor Stories (Century Magazine) including They
Both Needed It (1916), The Master of His Fate (1916), The Persistent Little Fool (1916), On the
Altar of Friendship (1917), New Lamps for Old (1917), Magic Casements (1917), The Strange Looking
Man (Pagan Publishing Co. 1917), The Idyl of Uncle Paley (Harper's 1917), Butterfly Dust (Century Mag
1918) and others. Her poems include Singing He Rode, The Watcher, Fulfillment, The Lost
Child, The Living Use, The Moor's Key, and other works. These were published in Harper's
Magazine and The Youth's Companion.
Dennis Covington - Birmingham, AL. Author of
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia (1995).
Albert Benjamin Cunningham (1888-) - Linden,WV.
Veteran, Minister, Scholar, Professor, & Author of many works including The Manse at Barren Rocks (1918), The
Singing Mountains (1919), Chronicle of an Old Town (1919), Western Reserve - a story about Ohio, and
Old Black Bass (1922).
Porte Crayon (see David Hunter Strother).
Guy H. Crook - Williamstown, WV. Poet and newspaper
serialist.
Danske Dandridge (1854-1914) - Shepherdstown, WV.
Poet & author of Joy and Other Poems (1888), Rose Brake (1890), Joy and Other Poems (Collected
Poems) (1900), George Michael Bedinger; A Kentucky Pioneer (1909), Historic Shepherdstown (1910), and American
Prisoners of the Revolution (1911).
Donald Davis - Ocracoke Island, NC. Storyteller
& author of Listening for the Crack of Dawn (1990), Southern Jack Tales (1992), and other works.
Dudley Hughes Davis - Harrison County, WV. Poet
& author of Songs of the Age (1891) and The Kingdom Gained (1896).
Rebecca Harding Davis - Wheeling, WV. Author
of Life in the Iron Mills (1861), David Gaunt (1862), Doctor Warrick's Daughters, and Kemp
Hampden. Her work is some of the first mentioning of civil strife and labor problems in US literature.
Robert Jay Dilger - Morgantown, WV. Political
Science professor and co-author of West Virginia Politics and Government. Author of West Virginia in the
1990s: Opportunities for Economic Progress.
Dr. Joseph Doddridge - West Virginia. Author
of Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania, and also Logan,
the Last of the Race of Shikellemus, Chief of the Cayuga Nation (1823).
William S. Dutton - Kentucky. Author of Stay
On, Stranger! (1954). It is a story of life in the Kentucky mountains.
Michael Eagan - West Virginia. Union soldier
& author of The Flying Gray-Haired Yank, or the Adventures of a Volunteer (1867).
Rosalie Earle - Editor of the Charleston Gazette &
author of Snapshots of the 20th Century: A Photographic Look at the Past 100 Years in West Virginia (2000).
Ron D. Eller - Beckley, WV. Author of Miners, Millhands and
Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930 (1982).
Thomas Dunn English - Logan County, WV. Songwriter,
author, & poet. Author of Ben Bolt (1852-57), Poems (1865), Ballads (1882), Select
Poems (1894). The Select Poems were edited by his daughter Alice English. One of his more
popular poems is Brown Waters of Gauley.
Garnett Laidlaw Eskew - Charleston, WV. Poet
and newspaper serialist.
Martin Luther Fearnow - Morgan County, WV. Author
of fiction including A Modern Crusade (1889).
Stephen Fisher - Charleston, WV. Author of Fighting
Back in Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change (1993).
Minnie Reed French - Bluefield, WV. Author of
fiction including A Little Court of Yesterday (1900).
Herbert P. Gaines - Charleston, WV. Schoolteacher,
Editor & publisher of Charleston, WV's first newspaper, The Kanawha Patriot (1819).
Winfield Scott Gardner - Tunnelton, WV. Poet
& author of Rustic Rhymes (1904).
Kenneth Gilbert - Parkersburg, WV. Editor &
author of Mountain Trace: Book I (1980).
John G. Gittings - Clarksburg, WV. Poet and
author of West Virginia Lyrics (1902) and other works.
Otway M. Gunnoe - Huntington, WV. Poet &
author of Homey Poems (1972).
Ella Maxwell Haddox - Charleston, WV. Poet and
author of Poems of Sentiment (1912).
Granville Davisson Hall - Salem, WV. Newswriter,
Secretary of State (1864-66) and author of works about WV prior to the US Civil War including Old Gold (1907),
The Rending of Virginia (1902) - a history of the formation of WV, The Two Virginias, Lee's Invasion
of North-West Virginia (1911), The Daughter of the Elm, Stenographic Notes of the Debates of the Weheeling
Constitutional Convention (1862), and other works.
John S. Hall - St. Marys, WV. Poet & author
of Musings of a Quiet Hour (1907) and other works.
Allan S. Hammock - Morgantown, WV. Political
Science professor and co-author of West Virginia Politics and Government (2001), and co-editor of West Virginia
Policy Issues.
Henry Sydnor Harrison (1880-) - Charleston, WV.
Ambulance driver in WWI France. Author of many works including Queed (1911), Captivating Mary Carstairs
(1911) V.V.'s Eyes (1913), Angela's Business (1915), and When I Come Back (1919) - a
tribute to his brother Edmond Caskie Harrison who was killed in WWI a few days prior to the armistice, and Saint Teresa
(1922) among other works.
William H. Harvey - Putnam County, WV. Author
of political fiction including A Tale of Two Nations (1894) and Coin's Financial School (1892).
Clarence Everett Hayworth - Huntington, WV.
Poet and newspaper serialist.
Col. Julian G. Hearne, Jr. - Wheeling, WV.
author of Some Unknown Facts of American History: The Saga of Governor Pierpont (1987).
Anna R. Henderson - Williamstown, WV. Poet and
author of Life and Song (1900) and other works.
Dr. Robert Henry - Berkeley County, WV. Aside
from being a physician, he was also the editor & publisher of the first newspaper in WV, the Potomac Guardian and
Berkeley Advertiser (1789).
David R. Hill - West Virginia. Poet & author
of Song, Poetry and Prose (1905).
Clyde Beecher Johnson - Charleston, WV. Poet
and author of Rhyme and Reason (1914) and other works.
Fanny Kemble Johnson - Charleston, WV. Author
of fiction and short stories including The Beloved Son (1916), The Strange Looking Man (1917), and other
works.
Lena Leota Johnson - Monroe County, WV. Author
of juvenile fiction piece Nonie (1898).
Philander Chase Johnson - West Virginia. Poet
and author of Now-a-Day Poems (1900).
David Johnston - West Virginia. Judge, Congressman,
Confederate Soldier, and author of Four Years a Soldier (1868).
Colonel Buehring H. Jones - Lewisburg, WV. Confederate
Soldier & author of The Sunny Land of Prose and Poetry (1865). This work was written while the colonel
was in a Johnson's Island Federal Prison during the US Civil War.
Jay McHenry Jones - West Virginia. Author of
fiction including Hearts of Gold (1896).
Sarah Jones - Buffalo, WV. Author of works on
temperance reform and young adult fiction. Her work includes Downward and Struggling Upward (1883).
Dr. John Kearsley - Shepherdstown, WV. Physician,
medical college instructor, & author of St. Helena, A Poem by a Yankee (1821), and Indecision: A Tale of
the Far West and Other Poems (1839).
Edward B. Kenna - West Virginia. Poet &
author of Lyrics of the Hills (1902), Songs of the Air and Other Poems (1913).
Patrick Kenny - Richwood, WV. Poet & author
of Wayside Thoughts (1903) and other works.
Georgiana Goddard King - West Virginia. Poet
and author of The Way of Perfect Love (1908).
Barbara Kingsolver - Kentucky. Author of Prodigal
Summer (2000), The Bean Trees (1988), Pigs in Heaven, Animal Dreams, The Poisonwood Bible (1998),
and other works.
Rich Knoblich - Wheeling, WV. Storyteller and author of Talking 'bout the relatives (2008).
A.T. Laidley - Charles Town, WV. Co-editor of Charles
Town's The Virginia Free Press newspaper (1821).
J.M. Laidley - Charles Town, WV. Co-editor of
Charles Town's The Virginia Free Press newspaper (1821).
Howard B. Lee - West Virginia. Attorney General
of WV and author of Lost Tales of Appalachia (1977), The Story of the Constitution (1932), The Criminal
Trials in the Virginias (1940), and other works.
Thomas H. Lees - Wheeling, WV. President of
Linsley Institute & poet. Author of Musings of Carol (1831), Poetical Works -including The
Snowy Daughter (1839).
William Leighton (1833-1911) - Wheeling, WV.
The "poet-manufacturer". Poet & author of The Sons of Godwin: A Tragedy (1876), At the Court of King
Edwin (1878), Change: The Whisper of the Sphinx (1879), Shakespeare's Dream and Other Poems (1881),
The Subjection of Hamlet (1882), The Price of the Present Paid by the Past (1883), The History of Oliver
and Arthur (1903) -translation from German, Sonnets in Florence (1904), Roman Sonnets (1906), A
Scrap-book of Pictures and Fancies (1906), and Merry Tales and Three Shrovetide Plays (1910) - translated from
Hans Sachs (German).
John Lewis (aka Young Kate) - New Hope, or the
Rescue - A Tale of the Great Kanawha (1835).
Ron Lewis - Morgantown, WV. Appalachian Scholar.
History professor at WVU. Author of West Virginia: Documents in the History of a Rural-Industrial State (1991)
and other historical works.
Virgil A. Lewis (1848-1912) - Charleston, WV.
West Virginia's first Official State Historian, he wrote many works about the history of the state. They include: History
of West Virginia (1889), Life of Anne Bailey, the Pioneer Heroine of the Great Kanawha Valley (1891), History
and Government of West Virginia (1891), Story of the Louisiana Purchase (1893), Hand Book of West Virginia
(1893), How West Virginia Was Made (1909), Battle of Point Pleasant (1910), and his Biennial reports
that began in 1906.
Judge Daniel Bedinger Lucas (1836-1909) - Charles
Town, WV. Playwright & author of The Land Where We Were Dreaming (1913), The Maid of Northumberland
(1879), Ballads and Madrigals (1884), Boudoir Melodies (1865), Early Narrative Poems, Patriotic and
Occasional Poems (1865-88), Biographical and Serious Poems (1869-1909), Love Lyrics (1865-1896), Memoir
of John Yates Beall (1865), Nicaragua: War of the Filibusters (1896), and The Dramatic Works of Daniel
Bedinger Lucas (1913). Brother of Virginia Bedinger Lucas.
Virginia Bedinger Lucas - Charles Town, WV.
Author of The Wreath of Eglantine and Other Poems (1869), Wild Flowers (1898), and other works. Sister
of Judge Daniel Bedinger Lucas.
Mary Tucker Magill - Jefferson County, WV. Prolific
author. Her many works include Women, or Chronicles of the Late War (1870), and works the US Civil War and
school history in WV.
Sam T. Mallison - Elkins, WV. Author of The
Great Wildcatter and Let's Set A Spell (1961).
Jeff Mann - Hinton, WV (current residence: Blacksburg,
VA). Creative Writing Professor, poet, & author of Loving Mountains, Loving Men (2005), Bones Washed
with Wine, and Edge. His works include the discussion of the struggle of homosexuals in West
Virginia.
B.B. Maurer - Appalachian Scholar and author of Mission
in the Mountain State (1981) and Mountain Heritage (1977).
Lee Maynard - Crum, WV. Author of Crum
(1988) and Screaming with the Cannibals.
Lee Mays - Ripley, WV. Poet & author of
Idylls of the Hills (1975), Epic of Creation, Child of the Hills, The Return to the Hills,
Echos from the Hills, and other works.
Herbert McGinnis - Jackson County, WV. Poet
& author of Lyrics of the Hills (1909) and other works.
Llewellyn McKernan - West Virginia. Poet &
author of Short and Simply Annals: Poems About Appalachia (1979) and other works.
Irene McKinney - Belington, WV. WV Poet Laureate
& author of Six O'clock Mine Report (1989), Stone in Her Lap, The Wasps at the Blue Hexagons,
and Quick Fire and Slow Fire.
Louise McNeill-Pease - Greenbrier County,
WV - West Virginia Poet Laureate (-1977). Author of The Milkweed Ladies & Elderberry Flood, among
others.
Duncan McRa - Monongalia County, WV. Author
of Quaint Family of Three - a work about Monongalia County during the US Civil War.
Mrs. Alexander McVeigh Miller - author of The
Bride of the Tomb (1881), and Guy Kenmore's Wife.
Joseph Margrave Meador - Hinton, WV. Poet and
author of Memories and Other Poems (1923) among other works.
Jim Minnick - Roanoke, VA. Professor and author
of Finding a Clear Path (2005).
Margaret Prescott Montague (1878- ) - White Sulphur
Springs, WV. Short story author and novelist. Her short stories included England to America (1919) and
Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge (1920). Her novels include: The Sowing of Alderson Cree (1907) - about a
mountain feud, In Calvert's Valley (1908), Linda (1912) - a WV heroine, The Poet, Miss Kate and I
(1905), Deep Channel (1923), Closed Doors (1915) - about deaf and blind children, Home to Him's Muver
(1916), Of the Water and the Spirit (1916), Twenty Minutes of Reality (1917), Up Eel River (1923),
The To-day To-morrow (1923), The Man From God's Country (1924) and other works.
Christopher Z. Mooney - Morgantown, WV. Political
Science professor and co-author of West Virginia Politics and Government (2001), and co-author of Bootstrapping:
A Nonparametic Approach to Statistical Inference.
Oren F. Morten - Allegheny Highlands, WV. Author
of many works about life in the Allegheny Highlands including Winning and Losing (1902) - a work about the Spanish/American
War, Land of the Laurel (1903), Under the Cottonwoods, and An Irony of Fate.
Ruth Ann Musick - Fairmont, WV. Professor, storyteller,
and prolific author. She collected much of West Virginia's folklore & ghost stories throughout her career.
Her works include The Telltale Lilac Bush (1965), Coffin Hollow (1977), and The Green Hills of Magic.
Karl Myers - Hendricks, WV. Poet and newspaper
serialist.
Tawni O'Dell - Western Pennsylvania. Author
of Back Roads (2000).
Phillip J. Obermiller - Appalachian Scholar.
Co-editor of Appalachia in an International Context: Cross-National Comparisons of Developing Regions (1994).
Callie Bruce Oldham - Moundsville, WV. Author
of fiction including Down South in Dixie (1894).
Joseph Osborne - Greenbrier County. Preacher
& author of the second book printed in West Virginia - David & Goliath, an Apology for the Baptist Religion
(1776).
J.H. Parry - professor and author of The Establishment
of the European Hegemony: 1415-1715 - Trade and Exploration in the Age of the Renaisance (1961). This work
shows how early economics shaped West Virginia.
Robert L. Pemberton - St. Marys, WV. Poet and
author of Random Rhymes (1904), Songs in a Merry Mood (1907), and other works.
William Kimbrough Pendleton (1817-1899) - Bethany,
WV. Scholar, minister, and editor of The Millenial Harbinger newspaper. Served
as President of Bethany College 1866-1884, and WV State Superintendent of Schools 1873.
William W. Philliber - Appalachian Scholar.
Co-editor of Appalachia in an International Context: Cross-National Comparisons of Developing Regions (1994).
Jayne Anne Phillips - West Virginia (currently resides in New Jersey). Award-winning author of Black Tickets (1979),
Machine Dreams (1984), Fast Lanes (1987), Shelter (1994), and Motherkind (2000) as well
as other works and articles.
Bernice McCally Pollock - West Virginia. Author
of Hortense (1902) and other fiction.
Melville Davisson Post (1871- ) -
Monongalia County, WV. Nicknamed "A Master Storyteller". WVU Alumnus, actor, lawyer, and author of many works
of WV life, but is most famous for his detective and mystery novels. His works include: The Strange Schemes of Randolph
Mason (1896), The Man of Last Resort (1897), Dwellers in the Hills (1901), The Corrector of Destinies
(1908), The Gilded Chair (1910), The Nameless Thing (1912), Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries (1918),
The Mystery of the Blue Villa (1920), The Sleuth of St. James Square (1920), The Mountain School
Teacher (1922), Monsieur Jonquelle (1923), and other works.
Anna Louise Price - Marlinton, WV. Poet and
author of
The Old Church and Other Poems (1921) among other works.
Francis Pridemore - Southern West Virginia.
Author of How Doth the Busy Moonshiner! (July 1929) - an article in the North American Review about moonshining in
West Virginia.
Edward Earle Purinton - Morgantown, WV. Poet
& author of The Soul in Silhouette (1904) and other works.
Herbert Quick (1861-1925) - Berkeley Springs,
WV. Editor,Author of works about rural and socio-economic issues. They include: In the Fairyland of America
(1901), Double Trouble (1906), The Broken Lance (1907), Virginia of the Air Lanes (1909), America
Inland Waterways (1909), Yellowstone Nights (1911), On Board the Goodship Earth (1919), From War
to Peace (1919), The Brown Mouse (1915), The Fairview Idea (1919), Vandemark's Folly (1922),
and The Hawkeye (1923).
Marvin L. Rankin - Ravenswood, WV. Poet and
author of Studies in Prose and Verse (1919) among other works.
Dr. Powell Benton Reynolds (1841-1914)
- Morgantown, WV - scholar, minister, professor, and acting President of West Virginia University. Noted essayist published
in West Virginia School Journal, and author of Some Gospel According to Latter-Day Prophets and The
Meaning and Value of Life.
Connie Park Rice - Morgantown, WV. Author of
Our Monongalia: A History of African-Americans in Monongalia County, West Virginia (1999).
Otis K. Rice - West Virginia. Scholar &
author of West Virginia: The State and Its People (1971).
Lillian Mayfield Roberts - Wheeling, WV. Poet
and newspaper serialist.
Anne Royall - Sweet Springs, WV (later lived in Washington,
DC). The first female journalist in the United States, she published a large number of works. These include the
first work of fiction by a West Virginian, The Tennessean - A Novel founded on Facts (1827). It came a year
after her first book, Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the United States (1826). She wrote eleven volumes
total, including Southern Tours and Black Books. She operated two newspapers near Washington, DC.
The first was Paul Pry (began circulation Dec. 3, 1831) and the second was The Huntress (began circulation
Dec. 2, 1836).
Anna M. Schein - West Virginia University librarian
and editor of White Pine Spirit of Peace: The WVU Peace Tree (2005).
Anna Pierpont Siviter - Fairmont, WV. Daughter
of Governor Alexander Pierpont, poet, and author of Nehe (1901). It is a novel about the time of Artaxerxes.
Also wrote On Parole - a work about adventure in Wyoming - and other works. These include The Sculptor
and Other Poems (1903), Songs of Hope (1906), and Songs Sung Along Life's Way (1921).
Frank Preston Smart - Parkersburg, WV. Poet
and newspaper serialist.
David Hunter Strother (aka Porte Crayon) - Berkeley
Springs, WV. Artist & author of Virginia Canaan (1857), The Adventures of Porte Crayon and His Cousins
(1857), and The Blackwater Chronicle (1853).
Frank R. Stockton - Charles Town, WV. Author
of John Gayther's Garden (1900), The Captain's Tollgate (1903), Kate Bonnet (1903), and other works.
Colonel John Stuart (1749-1823) - Greenbrier County,
WV. State Delegate & author of Memoirs of Indian Wars and Other Occurrences.
Ken Sullivan - Charleston, WV. Editor of The
West Virginia Encyclopedia & Executive Director of the West Virginia Humanities Council.
Howard L. Swisher - Monongalia County, WV. Poet
& author of Brier Blossoms (1899) and other works.
Frank X. Walker - Danville, KY. Poet & Author
of Affrilachia (2000). His work deals with the experience of African Americans in Appalachia.
R. Watson - Shepherdstown, WV. Author of the
first book published in West Virginia, The Christian Panoply (1797). It was commonly known as Watson's
Reply to Tom Paine.
W.D. Weatherford - Appalachian Scholar & co-author
of Life and Religion in Southern Appalachia (1962).
Jack E. Weller - New York. Author of Yesterday's
People: Life in Contemporary Appalachia (1965).
Will C. Whisner - Berkeley County, WV. Author
of Mark Ellis, a work about life in Berkeley County during the US Civil War.
John Alexander Williams - West Virginia. Author
of West Virginia: A History (2001).
Nathaniel Willis - Martinsburg, WV. Editor &
publisher of the Martinsburg Gazette (1799), the second WV newspaper.
Nathaniel Parker Willis - Martinsburg, WV. Poet
(and son of Nathaniel Willis).
Nina Blundon Wills - Charleston, WV. Poet and
newspaper serialist.
Alexander Scott Withers (1792-1865)- Clarksburg, WV.
Author of Chronicles of Border Warfare, or a History of the Settlement by the Whites of Northwestern Virginia and of the
Indian Wars.
Emma Withers - Weston, WV. Nature poet &
humanitarian. Author of Wildwood Chimes (1891).
Warren Wood - Ravenswood, WV. A poet and West
Virginia Scholar, he collected much early information regarding West Virginia's literary history in his Representative
Authors of West Virginia (1926). He also authored: The Tragedy of the Deserted Isle (1909), When Virginia
Was Wrent in Twain (1913), and Voices from the Valley (1918), among other works.
Katherine Pearson Woods - Wheeling, WV. Author
of fiction such as Metzerott Shoemaker (1889), A Web of Gold (1890), The Mark of the Beast (1890),
From Dusk to Dawn (1892), and other works.
W.W. Wirtz - Kanawha County, WV. Author of Malinda
- a work about life in the Kanawha Valley during the US Civil War.
Eugene P. Wratchford - Moorefield, WV. The
Snows of Pine Ridge (2001).
