Ohio Town

A Portrait of Xenia

“I wanted to tell the truth about the small town.”

Xenia, Ohio: The young among us sometimes rebel in their inexperience, saying “nothing ever happens here.” They say it because they do not know the old houses. If they live long enough they will learn that everything has happened here, and may happen again. The town is Winesburg and Spoon River, it is Highbury and Cranford, it is even Illyria and Elsinore. Little that mankind knows and endures but has been here known and endured: even battles and sieges—Shiloh and Vicksburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and all the others, before and since—have been fought here, in the minds of women who waited and the memories of soldiers who came home again.

For all of her 90 years Helen Hooven Santmyer—critically acclaimed author of “...And Ladies of the Club”—has been carrying on a love affair with her hometown of Xenia. Her OHIO TOWN is a microcosm of a century of America. The history, heartache, and hilarity of small-town life...The sights and sounds, like the locomotive whistle, imprinted in our memories...The unsung heroes of Americana: Miss Harper, the rigorous, unforgettable sixth grade teacher; Dr. Will, the unfailingly patient family practitioner; Miss McElwain, the librarian for 50 years. All are celebrated in this award-winning, heart-warming memoir of an America that will live forever in our hearts.

First published in 1956, Ohio Town received widespread critical recognition as a stirring, magical blend of history and memoir.

“Miss Santmyer writes beautifully”—WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD

“A new gem in the crown of Ohio’s classics. The theme is the beauty of Midwest America, the closeness of a small town to the countryside and, therefore, to the world, to poetry, and to the enlightened mind.”—TOLEDO BLADE

“A lively history pulsating with memories.”—HISTORY NEWS