Like many of James Wright's poems, "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio" is an autobiographical account of an occurrence in Wright's hometown in southeastern Ohio. It was published in the 1963 collection The Branch Will Not Break, a book which came to mark a turning point in the poet's writing style, moving him from formal, rhyming patterns to a more lyrical free verse. This poem highlights a subject consistent in Wright's work, namely the distressing and pitiable lives of many working class Americans who struggled through the Great Depression of the 1930s and whose descendants still struggle today.