Roger Osborne, a resident of Fairborn, Ohio, is the author of five
books about Appalachia --
Land of Yesterday,
The Mountains Wept,
Pilgrimage To An Appalachian Mining Camp,
Voices from Appalachia, and
My Mountain Angel. He also is the author
of Appalachia -- The Land And Its People, a 20-page newspaper supplement
published in 1992 by the Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio for use in schools
in the Dayton area.
In 1996, Land of Yesterday, Osborne's
autobiography about growing up in a mining community in West Virginia during
the '40s and '50s, was adopted by Dayton City Schools for use in its
classrooms. In 2000, The Mountains Wept, an autobiographical novel, also was
adopted by Dayton City Schools.
His books are also being used in
numerous other school systems throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Land of Yesterday and
The Mountains Wept were both selected
as commemorative items of Dayton's
Bicentennial Celebration in 1996.
Osborne's newsletter, Mountain Ink, has
subscribers in 39 states. The newsletter serves as a link between
Appalachians -- those who now live in Appalachia and those who were forced
to migrate to other parts of the country, especially during the '50s and
'60s.
Ohio Magazine featured Osborne's writings in a 12-page article in its
September, 1997 issue.
Osborne has been published in numerous local, regional and national
periodicals throughout the country, and portions of
The Mountains Wept were
used in a Japanese television documentary.
Osborne is a native of
Wharton, West Virginia, a coal mine community
located in the southern part of the state.
Before his retirement in 1994, he was a copywriter/copyeditor in the
marketing department of the Dayton Daily News.
He is the father of five children, four girls
and a boy,
the
grandfather of 14, and the great-grandfather of two children.
