Harry Crews
| Harry Eugene Crews | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 7, 1935 Alma, Georgia |
| Died | March 28, 2012 (aged 76) Gainesville, Florida |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Novel, short story, essay |
Harry Eugene Crews (June 7, 1935 – March 28, 2012) was an American novelist, playwright, short story writer and essayist.
Crews was born in Bacon County, Georgia, in 1935 and served in the Marines during the Korean War. He attended the University of Florida on the GI Bill, but dropped out to travel. Eventually returning to the university, Crews finally graduated and moved his wife, Sally, and son, Patrick Scott, to Jacksonville where he taught English at Lakeshore Junior High School for a year.
Crews returned to Gainesville and the university to work on his master's in English Education. It was during this period that he and Sally divorced for the first time. Crews continued his studies, graduated, and – denied entrance into UF's Creative Writing program – took a teaching position at Broward Community College in the subject of English. It was here in south Florida that Crews convinced Sally to return to him, and they were remarried. A second son, Byron, was born to them in 1963. Crews returned to University of Florida in 1968 not as a student, but as a member of the faculty in Creative Writing. Crews formerly taught in the creative writing program at the University of Florida. In 1964, Patrick Scott drowned in a neighbor's pool. This proved to be too heavy a burden on the family, and Crews and Sally were once again divorced.
Crews' first published novel, The Gospel Singer, appeared in 1968. His novels include: A Feast of Snakes, The Hawk Is Dying, Body, Scar Lover, The Knockout Artist, Karate Is a Thing of the Spirit, All We Need of Hell, The Mulching of America, Car, and Celebration. Crews published a memoir in 1978 titled A Childhood: The Biography of a Place. Crews wrote essays for Esquire, Playboy, and Fame. He had a column in Esquire called "Grits" for fourteen months in the 1970s, where he covered such topics as cockfighting and dog fighting. Crews had a tattoo on his right arm which said: "How do you like your blue eyed boy Mr. Death" (from the poem Buffalo Bill's by E. E. Cummings) beneath a skull.
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