Max Crawford (writer)

Last updated

Max Crawford
BornMax Fleming Crawford
(1938-08-06)August 6, 1938
Lubbock, Texas, U.S.
DiedOctober 7, 2010(2010-10-07) (aged 72)
Livingston, Montana, U.S.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipAmerican
Education Master of Fine Arts
(creative writing)
Alma mater University of Texas at Austin
Stanford University
Genre Historical fiction, Western,
Notable worksWaltz Across Texas
Lords of the Plain
SpouseSusan Parsons (divorced)

Max Fleming Crawford was an American writer. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, and grew up in Floydada, Texas. Crawford was influenced by Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, and Malcolm Lowry. His friendships with other writers were a great influence in his life and career as well, including Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Michael Koepf, Raymond Carver, [1] Chuck Kinder, Al Young, Diane Smith, [2] [3] Bill Kittredge, Scott Turow, Jon Jackson [4] and James Crumley. [5]

Contents

Personal life

He attended The University of Texas at Austin where he earned an undergraduate degree in economics and met his wife, Susan Sherzer Parsons. They moved to Mexico and lived in the Zona Rosa of Mexico City, where his son Peter was born. After the birth of his daughter Katherine in Houston, Crawford was awarded a Stegner Fellowship, and moved with his family to California. Over his life, he worked on his novels in Houston, London, Pézenas, France, Montana, and San Francisco. [ citation needed ]

Career

Many of his novels are set in West Texas, such as Lords of the Plain, much admired by Ronald Reagan, [6] [7] and The Backslider, and others in California, such as The Bad Communist. He has also published poems and written and edited literary publications, such as The Redneck Review and 100 Flowers.

His papers are held in the Sowell Family Collection in Literature, Community, and the Natural World, part of the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University. [8]

Works

Quotes

No one knew when we would commence our second campaign. Our horses were fat, the men restless, all equipment and tack and supplies stood ready, and still we did not march out.

Lords of the Plain (1997)

In nine days’ march I reached some plains, so vast that I did not find their end anywhere I went … plains with no more landmarks than as if we had been swallowed up in the sea, where our guides strayed about, because there was not a stone, nor a bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by …

Lords of the Plain (1997)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Carver</span> American story writer and poet (1938–1988)

Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. He contributed to the revitalization of the American short story during the 1980s.

<i>Lonesome Dove</i> 1985 novel by Larry McMurtry

Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Western novel by American writer Larry McMurtry. It is the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series and the third installment in the series chronologically. It was a bestseller and won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In 1989, it was adapted as a TV miniseries starring Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall, which won both critical and popular acclaim. McMurtry went on to write a sequel, Streets of Laredo (1993), and two prequels, Dead Man's Walk (1995) and Comanche Moon (1997), all of which were also adapted as TV series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry McMurtry</span> American novelist (1936–2021)

Larry Jeff McMurtry was an American novelist, essayist, prominent book collector, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallace Stegner</span> American historian, writer, and environmentalist

Wallace Earle Stegner was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U.S. National Book Award in 1977.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Antiquarian Society</span> Learned society and national research library

The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in the United States with a national focus. Its main building, known as Antiquarian Hall, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark in recognition of this legacy. The mission of the AAS is to collect, preserve and make available for study all printed records of what is now known as the United States of America. This includes materials from the first European settlement through the year 1876.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Per Petterson</span> Norwegian novelist

Per Petterson is a Norwegian novelist. His debut book was Aske i munnen, sand i skoa (1987), a collection of short stories. He has since published a number of novels to good reviews. To Siberia (1996), set in the Second World War, was published in English in 1998 and nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize. I kjølvannet, translated as In the Wake (2002), is a young man's story of losing his family in the Scandinavian Star ferry disaster in 1990 ; it won the Brage Prize for 2000. His 2008 novel Jeg forbanner tidens elv won the Nordic Council Literature Prize for 2009, with an English translation published in 2010.

Gordon Lish is an American writer. As a literary editor, he championed many American authors, particularly Raymond Carver, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Rick Bass, and Richard Ford. He is the father of the novelist Atticus Lish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Riordan</span> American author (born 1964)

Richard Russell Riordan Jr. is an American author, best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. Riordan's books have been translated into forty-two languages and sold more than thirty million copies in the United States. 20th Century Fox adapted the first two books of his Percy Jackson series as part of a series of films, while a Disney+ adaptation is in production. His books have spawned related media, such as graphic novels and short story collections.

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers is a non-profit umbrella organization of bookseller associations, with its legal location in Geneva, Switzerland. It federates 22 National Associations of Antiquarian Booksellers, representing nearly 2000 dealers in 32 countries. Antiquarian booksellers affiliated to the League adhere to the ILAB Code of Ethics, and the League aims to server as a global network for the rare book trade.

New York Review Books (NYRB) is the publishing division of The New York Review of Books. Its imprints are New York Review Books Classics, New York Review Books Collections, The New York Review Children's Collection, New York Review Comics, New York Review Books Poets, and NYRB Lit.

David Streitfeld is a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist, best known for his reporting on books and technology. During his tenure as book reporter at The Washington Post, he definitively identified Joe Klein as the "Anonymous" author of the 1996 novel Primary Colors, upon which Klein admitted authorship, despite earlier denials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Evison</span> American writer

Jonathan Evison is an American writer known for his novels All About Lulu, West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!, Lawn Boy, Legends of the North Cascades, and most recently Small World. His work, often distinguished by its emotional resonance and offbeat humor, has been compared by critics to a variety of authors, most notably J.D. Salinger, Charles Dickens, T.C. Boyle, and John Irving. Sherman Alexie has called Evison "the most honest white man alive."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Sklenicka</span>

Carol Sklenicka is an American biographer and literary scholar known for her authoritative, full-scale biographies of two important figures in late twentieth-century American literature: acclaimed short story masters Raymond Carver and Alice Adams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biblio.com</span>

Biblio is a privately owned international online marketplace specializing in rare and collectible books. Biblio was established in 2000 in Asheville, North Carolina, by Brendan Sherar and Michael Tracey. Biblio also provides e-commerce solutions and web services to multiple professional bookseller associations, including the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), the Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA), and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Antiquarian Booksellers (ANZAAB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Karmiole</span>

Kenneth Karmiole is an American bookseller and philanthropist. He is President of Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller, Inc., located in Santa Monica, California, established in 1976, an antiquarian bookselling firm specializing in early printed books and manuscripts.

The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, founded in the late 1970s, provides training for dealers in out-of-print, used, and antiquarian books.

Ig Publishing is a New York-based press devoted to publishing original literary fiction and political and cultural nonfiction. The editor is writer Robert Lasner, and the publisher is Elizabeth Clementson. The press was founded in 2002.

Oak Knoll is a bookseller and publisher based in New Castle, Delaware, United States. Oak Knoll includes Oak Knoll Books which specializes in the sale of rare and antiquarian books and Oak Knoll Press which is a publisher and distributor of in-print titles. Both divisions specialize in "books about books" on topics such as printing history, bibliography, and book arts. Oak Knoll has also been the sponsor of the book arts festival Oak Knoll Fest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin G. Schiller</span>

Justin Galland Schiller is an American bookseller specializing in rare and collectible children's books; proprietor during his student days under his own name (1960–69), then Justin G. Schiller, Ltd. (1969–2020). Headquartered in New York City, it was the oldest specialist firm in the United States, focusing on historical and collectible children's books, related original art, and manuscripts. In 1988, he formed a second corporation—Battledore Ltd, with his partner and spouse Dennis M V David, to further specialize in original children's book illustration art and the legacy of Maurice Sendak.

References

  1. Sklenicka, Carol (November 24, 2009). Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life – Carol Sklenicka – Google Books. Simon and Schuster. ISBN   9781439160589 . Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  2. "Letters from Yellowstone – Diane Smith – Book Clubs – Penguin Group (USA)". Us.penguingroup.com. Archived from the original on January 26, 2004. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  3. Smith, Diane (2002). Pictures from an Expedition (9780670031290): Diane Smith: Books. ISBN   0670031291.
  4. George S. Kelly (July 1, 2004). "Official Web Site of Author Jon A. Jackson". Jonajackson.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  5. Zigal, Tom (October 1, 2008). "10,000 Barstools Ago". Texas Monthly. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  6. "Review-a-Day – The Comanche Empire (Lamar Series in Western History) by Pekka Hamalainen, reviewed by New York Review of Books – Powell's Books". Powells.com. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  7. "Splendors and Miseries of being an Author/Bookseller, Larry McMurtry – ABAA Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America – Search for Rare, Used and Antiquarian Books". Hq.abaa.org. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
  8. "Max Crawford: An Inventory of His Papers, 1960–2000 and undated, at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library". Lib.utexas.edu. Retrieved June 24, 2012.