Dennis McMillan published WHORES in his first incarnation as
a publisher. Later, Dan Gerber published an extended version
of essentially the same book when he had his Clark City
Press, with a cover design by the incomparable Russ Chatham,
under the title MUDDY FORK & OTHER THINGS. I mispoke a
bit: In the intro to MUDDY FORK, "A Short but Interesting
Literary History of Orphans," Crumley says he has had "the
pleasure of long friendships with Raymond Carver, Andre
Dubus, and Bill Kittredge, a sort of trinity of the American
short story." Crumley was a student at Iowa while Carver was
there; presumably they met in a classroom setting.
Certainly Dick Hugo was in part the model for Abraham
Trahearne from THE LAST GOOD KISS, one of the finest
post-World War II novels written by an American, in my humble
opinion. Crumley also dedicated KISS to Hugo and used one of
Hugo's poems as the inscription for the book. Interestingly
enough, Hugo was also one of the persons to whom Crumley
dedicated MUDDY FORK. Hugo was a top American poet teaching
at Missoula when Crumley settled there. It was well known
that Hugo was a lover of crime fiction and wrote a topnotch
mystery novel himself, DEATH AND THE GOOD LIFE (also
reprinted in a terrific Clark City Press edition, with an
introduction by James Welch). I suspect that Crumley, at his
core a literay writer, and Hugo had some interesting
conversations as the snows fell on Missoula during the dark
days of winter.
Later...Kip
---------------
"Kip" wrote:
>Both Crumley and Jackson came through the University
of Iowa Writers
>Workshop at the time Carver was teaching there.
Jackson profiles Carver
>in his brief memoir, RIDIN' WITH RAY -- and it's not
a very pretty
>profile. I believe that it is in the interview in
WHORES/MUDDY FORK
Dixon Chandler Wrote: I have Whores (although I can't lay my
hands on it right now, it's somewhere around here...), and I
don't think there's such an essay in there. I don't know
MUDDY FORK, is it a reprint of Whores? Alternate title w/
different contents? Or maybe I'm wrong about Whores--the
memory will do that to you.
In any case, I'd also like to toss out the question: hasn't
Crumley mentioned he was influenced by the poet Richard Hugo
as well (whom, I believe, taught at Iowa for awhile)? Any
comments on this connection?
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