Holcomb, Kansas, is the birthplace of Kansas writer Charles Plymell, who became one of the Kansas and National Beats, who was the first publisher of R. Crumb, of Zap Comics, and who is longtime editor of Cherry Valley Editions, which has published the likes of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.

In 1959, the Herbert Clutter family was murdered, in cold blood, and that became the title of New York writer Truman Capote's nonfiction novel, a best-selling book (1965) and film (1969) that is still applauded by those who study Kansas Literature.