Marci Rich

If an American city could write its autobiography, it would be Growing Up in Elyria. More than a book of local history, this is a multi-voiced memoir combining elements of journalism and historical research. Its lens is focused on midcentury—an innocent time when children walked by themselves to the library or the corner store and milk was delivered in glass bottles to the kitchen door. With chapters featuring the city's beloved Cascade Park, the M.B. Johnson School of Nursing, and the effect of the Vietnam War on the town, Growing Up in Elyria looks back at a time when America was poised on the bridge between innocence and experience.

This award-winning blog, named by The Huffington Post as one of the top seven blogs for the over-50 set in 2012, represents what Marci Rich calls her first published writing "off-the-leash." Before starting her blog in 2011, she worked full-time as director of communications for the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.