Charles Neville Buck

Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1879, Charles Neville Buck became known as an American novelist whose work drew heavily on Appalachian settings and dramatic adventure. He studied at the University of Louisville, trained in law, and also worked as a cartoonist before turning fully to fiction.

His best-known books include The Call of the Cumberlands and other popular novels of the 1910s and 1920s. Several of his stories were adapted for the stage and for silent films, which helped make him a familiar name to readers and theatergoers of his time.

Buck died in 1957. While he is less widely remembered now than some of his contemporaries, his fiction still offers a window into the tastes of early 20th-century popular storytelling and the era's fascination with the American mountains.