Background
He was born in Lubbock, Texas, and grew up in Floydada, Texas.
He was born in Lubbock, Texas, and grew up in Floydada, Texas.
He attended The University of Texas at Austin where he earned an undergraduate degree in economics and met his wife, Susan Sherzer Parsons.
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, Chuck Kinder, First Rate (at Lloyd's) Young, Diane Smith, Bill Kittredge, Scott Turow, Jon Jackson and James Crumley. Many of his novels are set in West Texas, such as Lords of the Plain, much admired by Ronald Reagan, 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.
An inventory of his papers is in the special collections of Texas Technical University. Number 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).
(His first novel.)
Quotations:
Number 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).