Join the library for a live in-person author event with Ohio author John Kropf, to discuss his book, Color Capital of the World: Growing Up with the Legacy of a Crayon Company. In this story, Kropf details the history of the crayon in Ohio and how the formation of The American Crayon Company in Sandusky, Ohio led to economic development after the Civil War. The Washington Post calls Color Capital of the World “well-written and suffused with nostalgia.”

This is the story of the crayon and the Ohio town that produced more crayons and paints than anywhere in the world. Following the Civil War, three entrepreneurial families took their innovative ideas for school chalk from the kitchen stove and transformed them into the American Crayon Company. Color Capital of the World tells this story through the eyes of one of the founding family’s descendants, tracing the cycle of build, boom, and bust.

John Kropf is the author of Color Capital of the World. His previous book, Unknown Sands: Journeys Around the World’s Most Isolated Country that Publisher’s Weekly praised as a “fascinating narrative bound to hook adventurers.” His writing has appeared in The Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Kropf was born in Sandusky and raised in Erie County, Ohio. He is an attorney in the Washington, DC. area.

Registration is required for this in-person event. Copies of Color Capital of the World will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of the Learned Owl Book Shop. If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or call (330) 653-6658 x1010.

The Hudson Library’s entrepreneurial programs are generously supported by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.