Born: 1950 Ohio connection: Resident South Euclid Mary Doria Russell was born in Elmhurst, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, to military parents. A religious transformation was one of the defining experiences of her life. Raised a Catholic, she converted to Judaism in middle age with decades of atheism in between. Religious aspects made their way into Russell’s first …
Read More Mary Doria RussellBorn: 1954 Ohio connection: Birth Columbus Michael Rosen was born in Columbus, Ohio, the eldest son of Marvin and Nona Rosen. His childhood home was in a new development situated amid a former pasture. It was there he explored construction sites and fields, collected cocoons, milkweed pods and chrysalises, gathered buckeyes, fed roadside horses, and fished. Rosen attended Kent State …
Read More Michael J. RosenBorn: November 29, 1892 Died: September 1984 Ohio connection: Birth Frankfort Eugene Holloway Roseboom, son of Emerson Beard and Sarah Alice (Miller) Roseboom, was born in 1892 in Frankfort, Ohio. He received a B.A. in 1914, and an M.A. in 1916, both from Ohio State University. He taught high school classes in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, from 1916 …
Read More Roseboom, Eugene HollowayBorn: October 24, 1927Died: July 9, 2013 Ohio connection: Birth Portsmouth Barbara Robinson was born in the southern Ohio river town of Portsmouth. Robinson’s father died when she was three and her mother, a school teacher, encouraged her to read books. Robinson began writing at an early age. She graduated from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, with …
Read More Barbara RobinsonBorn: 1937 Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland Heights Born Lester Roubert in Chicago, Illinois, Les Roberts had his surname legally changed in 1968. Roberts is the son of Lester Nathaniel (a dentist) and Eleanor Sybil (Bauch) Roubert. He married Gail Medland in 1957 and they divorced in 1980 after having two children: Valerie Lynne and Darren Jon. Les …
Read More Les RobertsBorn: October 13, 1890Died: October 30, 1968Ohio connection: Resident Cleveland Conrad Michael Richter was born October 13, 1890, in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, and grew up in a series of tiny coal mining towns with his parents: John Absalom, a Lutheran minister, and Charlotte Esther (Henry) Richter. Richter’s formal schooling ended when he graduated from high school …
Read More Conrad RichterBorn: 1978 Ohio connection: Birth Cleveland James Renner, novelist, freelance journalist, and former newspaper editor, graduated from Kent State University in 2000 with a degree in English. He has also taught creative writing. Renner’s nonfiction books focus on unsolved crimes and strange stories from Ohio. While working as a staff writer for the alternative weekly, Cleveland Scene …
Read More James RennerBorn: March 9, 1904Died: October 1, 1983 Ohio connection: Birth Springfield Marion Renick was born Marion Lewis, the daughter of Bertram Charles and Anna (Washway) Lewis, in 1904 in Springfield, Ohio. From early childhood, she was an avid sports enthusiast and played various games on the sports fields at nearby Wittenberg University (WU) as well …
Read More Marion RenickBorn: April 30, 1888Died: July 3, 1974 Ohio connection: Resident Gambier Poet, editor, educator, and literary critic John Crowe Ransom was the son of Methodist minister John James Ransom (also a noted scholar and linguist) and Sara Ella (neé Crowe) Ransom. Born April 30, 1888 in Pulaski, Tennessee, Ransom was educated at home until, in …
Read More John Crowe RansomBorn: July 17, 1914Died: March 13, 2009Ohio connection: Birth Hicksville James Otis Purdy, son of William and Vera Otis Purdy, was born July 17, 1914, in Hicksville, Ohio. He was the middle child of three boys, with another boy having died before James was born. His parents were divorced during his youth, and he lived alternately …
Read More James Purdy