Disciplines: Literature

Rollo Brown

Disciplines: Literature
Residencies: 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1930
Rollo Walter Brown (1880-1956) was a prominent American author. Brown was born in Crooksville, Ohio. Many residents of Crooksville earned their livings through mining during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Brown graduated from Ohio Northern University in 1903, and he received a master’s degree from Harvard University in 1905. He taught English at several institutions including Wabash College and Carleton College. Brown's life formed the basis of several of his books. The Firemakers, Toward Romance, The Hillikin, and As of the Gods were novels centering on a man named Luke Dabney of fictional Wiggam's Glory, Ohio. Wiggam's Glory, like Crooksville, was a mining town. Dabney hoped to leave the mines but he was unable to do so. He placed his hopes in his son, Giles, who attended Harvard University and escaped southeastern Ohio. Brown also became known for his non-fiction., His other books included a biographical collection entitled Lonely Americans and The Creative Spirit -- An Inquiry into American Life.