St Albans Writes

The Advisory Board, for the St. Albans Library, is proud to present St Albans Writes...a monthly speaker series featuring local authors.  Dorian Cook is a native of Huntington, but spent the greater part of his childhood growing up in St. Albans and on the Appalachian foothills surrounding the Riverlawn Subdivision where he lived. From age 10 to 17 much of his free time was spent exploring those foothills and the old cabin ruins they contained, as well as fishing and trapping along the Coal River.

After graduation from St. Albans High School in 1965 he moved to Dallas, Texas, acquired landscape design and construction skills and started his own business which he maintained for 44 years before retiring in 2016. Over the course of his working years, he would acquire skills in many different trades including metal detecting and treasure hunting, which would serve him well in his writing.

Since retiring, he has authored five non-fiction books on the more unusual aspects of both Pioneer and Civil War history in Kentucky. Those books bear the titles of “Kentucky In The Early Years, Vol. 1 – Heroes And Hostiles!” and “Kentucky In The Early Years, Vol. 2 – Heroes And Hostiles!” Also “Kentucky In The Civil War Years, Volume 1 – Perryville... The Battle That Turned The Bluegrass Red” and “Kentucky In The Civil War Years, Volume 2 – John Hunt Morgan... Kentucky Terrorist With A Rebel Heart.” And finally, “Kentucky In The Civil War Years, Volume 3 – Battle to Battle. He is currently working on his sixth book, which will be entitled “West Virginia In The Early Years – Vol. 1 – History and Mystery.

In addition, the author has had over 200 columns and articles dealing with subjects related to history published in various internationally circulated magazines. He has also written many history related newspaper articles that have been published in several different newspapers throughout Kentucky over the past eighteen years.