Charles Neville Buck

Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1879, Charles Neville Buck grew up with strong ties to the state he would later write about so often. He also spent part of his youth in South America with his father, and he graduated from the University of Louisville in 1898.

Before finding success as a novelist, he worked as a cartoonist and then as a reporter in Kentucky. His novels were often set in the Cumberland Mountains and focused on the people, customs, and conflicts of Appalachian life. Several of his works were serialized in magazines, and a number were adapted into theater productions and silent films.

Buck published many popular novels, including The Lighted Match, The Key to Yesterday, The Call of the Cumberlands, The Battle Cry, The Code of the Mountains, and Destiny. He later moved to New York, also wrote under the pseudonym Hugh Lundsford, and died in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1957.