John Fox, Jr. (1862-1919) was the first author to set books in the Appalachian Region that made the New York Times best seller lists. His first was The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come that made the list in 1903 and 1904. Then this book,The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, made it in 1908 and 1909. It is a story based on the life of "Devil John" Wright, the Sheriff of Wise County, Virginia, a coalfield county. Fox was born and raised in the Kentucky Bluegrass, but his brother was a coal operator. After graduating from Harvard and pursuing a career as a foreign war correspondent, Fox decided to live near his brother, first in Jellico, Tennessee, and then in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and write fiction set in the mountains. He published 15 books of fiction.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, a 1984 paperback reprint of a 2008 release. 421 pages with a Foreword by John Ed Pearce.