Edwin Carlile Litsey

Born on June 3, 1874, near the Little Beech River in Washington County, Kentucky, he moved to Lebanon as a child and began working at Marion National Bank after his father's death, when he was just 17. Banking remained his day job for more than seventy years, while writing became the lifelong creative work he pursued in the margins of everyday life.

He started publishing young, with The Princess of Gramfalon appearing in 1900. Over the years he produced 13 books, including novels, short fiction, and poetry, and much of his writing drew on the people and rhythms of Washington and Marion counties. Notable works include The Love Story of Abner Stone, A Man from Jericho, A Maid of the Kentucky Hills, A Bluegrass Cavalier, and Stones for Bread.

His papers at the University of Kentucky show just how prolific he was, preserving hundreds of poems and short stories along with several novels. In 1954, he was chosen by the state legislature as Poet Laureate of Kentucky, a fitting honor for a writer whose imagination stayed closely tied to his home state throughout a very long life.