Harry Crews

Georgia, USA, 1935

He served as a Marine during the Korean War. During his first year in the military, he was the lightweight champion of his regiment and had his nose broken at least six times. He practiced karate for 27 years. His first child drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool. He trained falcons and was passionate about falconry. He had a tattoo on his right arm reading, ‘How do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mr. Death’ under a skull—a verse by e.e. cummings.

He drank heavily and used drugs enough. He didn’t have his first hangover until he was 47. He admitted he was not a funny person. People did not sit around him laughing at his jokes. He himself laughed very little. All his humor is found in his more than 20 books.

He died in Florida at the age of seventy-six due to complications from neuropathy.