Historian and social critic Harry Monroe Caudill was an eloquent and courageous spokesman for Kentucky's Appalachian region. His first book, Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1963), subtitled A Biography of a Depressed Area, focused national attention on the region's poverty, the exploitation of its people and natural resources, and the destruction of its natural beauty. Writing from his own experience, from that of friends and relatives, and from tales passed through generations, he showed deep love and respect for his birthplace. A descendent of the first white man to settle in what is now Letcher County, he was born and raised in Whitesburg, returned there after receiving a law degree from the University of Kentucky in 1948, served three terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives beginning in 1954, and was a professor of history at the University of Kentucky from 1977 to 1985. His father and brother were both disabled in mining accidents, and in ten books, including My Land is Dying (1971), The Watches of the Night (1976), and Theirs Be the Power, as well as more than 125 magazine and newspaper articles, he often explored the economic, environmental, and social consequences of strip mining.