Jr. John Fox

Born in Kentucky in 1862, he studied English at Harvard and then went to New York to work as a reporter before turning to fiction. That journalism background shows in the pace and scene-setting of his books, which often draw on life in Kentucky, Virginia, and the Cumberland mountain region.

He is especially remembered for novels such as The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. His work was enormously popular in the early 20th century, and some of his stories were adapted for the stage and screen.

He died in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in 1919. Readers still come to his books for their strong sense of place and for the role they played in shaping how mountain life entered popular American fiction.