There really is a town named Crum in West Virginia, and Lee Maynard (1936-2017) lived there as a kid. It is on the Big Sandy River. Maynard famously writes, "Across the river was Kentucky, a mysterious land of pig-fuckers." Yes, this book employs the scatological language that was used there - and I reckon everywhere - among adolescents. As a result it was banned at Tamarack - the tourist attraction that offers all kinds of West Virginia merchandise to travelers. Of course Lee Maynard was inordinately proud of how that action against his book boosted sales and helped create for him a triumphant writer's tour of the state as an "Outlaw." Maynard actually lived a pretty charmed life. He dropped out of WVU and joined the Army, but while in the Army, he met his wife Helen, a native American. Then right after he returned and graduated from WVU,he was hired as the editor of West Virginia Conservation Magazine. Soon he became West Virginia's youngest secretary of a state department - their Commission on Manpower, Technology and Training. That led to a job as the National Director of Operations for Outward Bound and then President of Prescott College in Arizona. Late in his life he became CEO of The Storehouse, a food pantry in Albuquerque. Of his six books, this, his first, is arguable by far the most compelling and hilarious. I know my offspring loved it when they were about junior high age! I think this is the most attractive of the three editions of this popular book that have been published.As a conversationalist, Lee Maynard would have companions rolling in the aisles, and he was in great demand as a writing workshop leader.
Morgantown: Vandalia Press/West Virginia University Press, a 2001 reprint of a 1998 release. 170 pages. Trade paperback.