LUMBERTON -- The history of Robeson County is coming to a coffee table near you.

The Robeson County Museum and The Robesonian have joined forces to produce a hardbound coffee table book that will chronicle Robeson County's rich and diverse history.

The book is called Robeson Remembers, A Pictorial History, and is scheduled to be released later in the fall. The book will be the first volume in a series about the history of the county, and will contain articles written by the Writers' Committee of the Robeson County Museum, as well as historical photographs.

Selections from the book appear periodically in the Sunday Lifestyles section of The Robesonian.

The project began in Donnie Douglas, editor of The Robesonian, about compiling a history of the county.

Helen Sharpe, who has been active in planning the book, said the book has quite a bit of oral history and human interest stories that have been handed down over the years, as well as stories done from the research of historical documents. The time range of the book is from the late 18th century to current times.

The book is just one of a number of recently released volumes on the history of the county.

Judge Henry A. McKinnon wrote Historical Sketches of Robeson County in 2001; earlier this year, the Robeson County Heritage Book Committee and County Heritage, Inc. published the reference volume Our Heritage, Robeson County, North Carolina; also in 2002, a pictorial history of Robeson County titled Images of America, Robeson County, was written by K. Blake Tyner. And last spring, Native American Resource Center Publications released River Spirits: A Collection of Lumbee Writings.

Lynn McLamb, publisher of The Robesonian, said these books and the articles appearing in The Robesonian represent the great interest in the county's past.

"Each of these publications is an example of the explosion of interest in the area's past," McLamb said. "And each is different from the other and portrays a particular aspect of the tapestry of our diversified culture and history."

You can reserve a copy of Robeson Remembers, A Pictorial History, at The Robesonian for $24.95. If you don't pre-order the book, it will cost $29.95.