Author Pete K. was raised in a hardscrabble company coalmining town. His father and grandfather, both miners, taught him the value of hard work and the realities of an uncaring world from an early age. He grew up in the shadow of billowing clouds of coal dust and the horrors of World War II. Somehow, the boy in the battered shoes who watched his grandpa scrub black coal dust from his face every day earned advanced degrees and had a successful career in aerospace and marine transportation.

Pete K.'s true passion, however, is writing. In a series of eclectic essays, poetry, memories, and...