About the author
Allen J. Singer was born and raised in Cincinnati and finds the city’s rich history endlessly fascinating, especially its mass transit past: streetcars, inclines and the subway. Allen started researching the subject in 1999, and couldn’t find any thorough information outside of sporadic newspaper articles and infrequent TV news features. Since he was a writer at heart, and wanted to write a whole book, he took on the task of the creation of a book that would tell the entire story of the subway. He decided to write about the growth of the city as the subway project took form, and to include a multitude of pictures for illustration.
After months of research and many more months of writing, rewriting and revisions, the book was finished and was pitched to several university publishers including Kent State University Press and Ohio University Press. The book was rejected every time because either the subject didn’t fit into their series, or they thought the topic was too narrow for any real audience. Then Allen and his wife bought a house in 2000, and the book was pushed to the back burner until the fall of 2002 when he found the publisher through one of his favorite websites, www.forgottenohio.com. The publisher loved it, and after several months of new revisions and picture gathering, the book was published and released in May, 2003.
Throughout all this, Allen worked as an assistant engineer for a pair of radio stations in Cincinnati until he was downsized in July, 2002. He then worked for an audio/video installation company in Cincinnati from November 2002, until May 2003 when he was let go due to budget problems in the company. Since then he has started a freelance business copywriting company, Allen’s Edge Copywriting Services. For more information on Allen, please see his FAQ page. Also, Allen has recently started a blog.