Writer John Knowles (September 16, 1926-November 29, 2001) was born in Fairmont. He attained literary fame in 1959 with his first novel, A Separate Peace. The book was inspired by his war-years experience at a private school, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Knowles later attended Yale University.

A coming-of-age novel often compared to J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, Knowles's first book continues to be widely read and has achieved the status of a modern classic. A Separate Peace was nominated for the National Book Award and earned its author a Rosenthal Award and the William Faulkner Award for best first novel. Knowles's other published works include Morning in Antibes (1962), Double Vision: American Thoughts Abroad (1964), Indian Summer (1966), Phineas: Six Stories (1969), Paragon (1971), Spreading Fires (1974), A Vein of Riches (1978), Peace Breaks Out (1981), and The Private Life of Axie Reed (1986). A Vein of Riches, set in and around "Middleburg," apparently a fictional Fairmont, was Knowles's notable use of a West Virginia coal country setting for his fiction.

John Knowles died in Florida.