"It was a quiet, Parisian night. A heavy fog had settled in. There was a chill in the air. The sounds of carriage wheels and the clatter of horses’ hooves echoed across the cobblestones of Rue Delambre, located on the West bank of the Seine. Gaslights flickered in the dark, dank air.”

So begins local Author Edward Roh’s latest book, “The Summit,” which draws its readers in with exceptional imagery and an inviting premise.

Set in a café along the Seine in Paris, “The Summit” explores a conversation after midnight between four of Roh’s most revered authors: Charles Dickens, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Sydney Porter (better known by his pen name O. Henry) and Ernest Hemingway.

“The West Bank of the Seine is where a lot of the little pubs and cafes were,” Roh said. “Musicians, artists, authors; they would all get together and just relax and let their hair down.

“I thought it'd be kind of fun to bring these guys together of different eras and understand and comprehend how they thought about writing, what inspired them to write and share ideas with each other.”

Summit approach

The idea for “The Summit” had been rattling around Roh’s mind for some time before he decided to revisit each author’s published works, rediscover their voices and dive deeply into understanding each author’s thoughts, emotions and writing processes.

After two years, Roh felt confident he could appropriately speak on their behalf.

“It’s all fictional conversation, but I learned to know them well.”

Just over 40 pages, “The Summit” is a brief novella to be enjoyed on a quiet morning or, more intently, after dark.

After choosing the writers and the location, Roh realized that putting four classic writers together at the same table might create a clash of egos. With advice from a family member, Roh chose Maxwell Perkins, the famed publisher of Scribner Brothers Publishing, to host and moderate the evening’s provocative dialogue.

“Perkins is probably my hero because he's very low-key. His genre was, he would take writers that had been rejected at one time or another from other publishers, and he saw the possibility and the potential of each book,” Roh said. “[Perkins] said, ‘I've gotta teach these guys the power of the word.’ So, he would edit their work and edit their work. They'd get frustrated, be angry at him, but he stood his ground and he really helped them be very successful.”

During his research, Roh came to understand each writer’s “skeleton in the closet” and personal woes. After careful consideration, Roh decided that the extracurricular lives they lived were secondary to his story on writing and omitted any mention of them from his book.

When asked who he had in mind when writing “The Summit,” Roh said he envisions those who grew up reading Dickens, Fitzgerald, O. Henry and Hemingway, academics who enjoy classic novels and of course, his wife, Kim Roh.

“She’s my first line editor,” he said. “She doesn’t like to do it because I get angry, but 99% of the time, she’s right.”

Roh says choosing the four classic writers as the protagonists of his book was a difficult task because he had to leave so many talented writers out including Thomas Hardy, Thomas Wolf and Edith Wharton.

“The whole purpose is number one, to tell a story. Number two, to generate interest again in some of the classic novels that are out there and number three, have people understand that reading a book is richer than watching a movie because you personalize it.”

A lifetime of stories

Roh began his writing career when he wrote his first book at the age of six. At a young age, Roh would walk with his friends to school and regale them with stories. As a young adult, he took a job in broadcasting, first in radio and then television, before writing and directing TV commercials and writing training manuals for corporations. He has written several children’s books and holds approximately 15 books with copyrights.

Roh will be holding a book reading and signing event at Shepherd of the Desert Church in Scottsdale on Tuesday, August 29 at 10:30 a.m. “The Summit” is now available to purchase at rosedogbookstore.com, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.