Roanoke book kicks off series on 20th century American cities
Stephen H. Provost
You may have noticed I’m not blogging as much lately, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. On the contrary, I’ve been working on a new project.
It’s not just a book, it’s a series of books. In fact, it’s a whole new imprint.
After spending a few years hopping back and forth between writing history and novels, I decided to stop straddling the fence (at least for the time being) and dive into the deep end of nonfiction pool.
Over the past month, I’ve been hard at work creating the first two books for Century Cities Publishing, a new imprint of my publishing company, Dragon Crown Books, devoted exclusively to exploring and celebrating the history of midsized and smaller American cities during the 20th century.
Enough has been written about New York and L.A. and San Francisco; less has been said about the places where most of us either lived or grew up before we moved to one of those big cities. That’s a niche I decided to fill.
I’ve already written two books spotlighting cities: Fresno Growing Up in 2015 and Martinsville Memories in 2019. But the Century Cities series is going to be a little different: There’s a clear template that I’ll be following for each of these books, which will serve as tour guides through the history of the 20th century for each city I plan to highlight.
Each volume will consist of 10 chapters, one for each decade from 1900 to 1999, and each chapter will be broken up into years and topics, so if something interesting happened on the football field in 1946, you’ll find it under “1946” and “Football.” It’s all chronological.
Some entries will be as simple as a single sentence, perhaps relating the population growth that year or the results of a mayoral election. Others will go into greater detail, weaving fascinating stories of the people and institutions that defined these cities and towns — or at least made them a lot more interesting.
Like my highway books, they’ll be illustrated with as many memorable images as I can find or create (photography is part of the fun).
The cover of each book will feature iconic landmarks that define each community, and the title will be the city’s name, followed by the word “Century.”
For example, Roanoke Century, the first in my series, features a panoramic view of the city, St. Andrews Roman Catholic Church and the H&C Coffee sign on the front cover, with the Roanoke Hotel, Towers Shopping Center sign, and Dr Pepper “bottlecap” sign on the back.
Do you remember when Dr. J (Julius Erving) played in Roanoke? When Santa's train stopped at the Miller & Rhoads Department Store downtown? When a native son starred in one of the biggest holiday movie classics of all time? Did you know that, once upon a time, Roanoke was home to the state's biggest football stadium and its first indoor mall? Whether you answered, "I didn't know that," or whether you just want to be reminded, that’s the kind of information you’ll find in Roanoke Century.
The city once known as Big Lick was home to the Norfolk & Western railroad and a thriving textile industry. It was called “The Magic City” because it grew so fast, then "The Star City of the South" when a giant neon star appeared on Mill Mountain overlooking a thriving and historic downtown.
This is the kind of information you’ll find in Roanoke Century, and, for the other cities I’ll be exploring, in all the Century Cities books.
These titles will all be available on Amazon under their city names and as part of the Century Cities series. I’ll be announcing more as time goes on.