Lee Maynard
Biographical Information
Novelist Lee Maynard was born and raised in Wayne County, West Virginia, in the small mining town of Crum (population at the time, 219), where his father was a teacher and coach and his warmest memories were of out-of-town football trips (Maynard played offensive tackle). He graduated from Ceredo-Kenova High School and then earned a BA from West Virginia University. He published his first novel, Crum, in 1988. Since then, he has been published many times in periodicals, including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Review, and the Columbia Review of Literature. He has also worked as an editor and screenwriter. In 1995, he received a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship in Fiction for his yet-unpublished novel Screaming with the Cannibals. Lee Maynard lives in New Mexico.
Critical Responses
Writing about the reprinting of Crum by the West Virginia University Press in the October 21, 2001, Charleston Gazette, Dave Peyton commented that "Lee Maynard and I have something in common. Neither of us in welcome in Crum, WV. If there is ever a Crumfest, we won't be invited to be parade grand marshals."Originally published in 1988, Crum was received angrily by many residents of the small town who objected to Maynard's depictions of the town and its people, despite a disclaimer from Maynard himself on the first page of the book that "Other than the town of Crum, nothing in this book is real. The people do not exist, the events never happened." As James Casto of the Herald-Dispatch remarked: "[Maynard's disclaimer] didn't stop the people in Crum from seeing themselves and their town in Maynard's book. Many didn't like what they saw." Despite this unfavorable reaction, the book is considered a cult classic by scholars of Appalachian literature. Highly prized by collectors, copies of the originally $6.95 paperback sell for over $100.
Critics have compared the novel to classic coming-of-age tales Tom Sawyer and The Catcher in the Rye. The Charleston Gazette's David Peyton calls the book "brilliantly written, carefully crafted, and downright funny. Most of all, it is real." Meredith Sue Willis, who writes the Introduction to the new edition of the novel from West Virginia University's Vandalia Press, writes "Each time I read Lee Maynard's Crum, I ask myself why this foul-mouthed, sexist, scatological, hillbilly-stereotyping novel is one of my favorites." Her answer to that question explores the honesty of Maynard's prose, the complexity of his thoughts, and the honesty of his portrayals of young people coming of age and growing out of the box where they've been planted.
Works Published
Crum
Lee Maynard has also published articles in such periodicals as Readers Digest and The Saturday Review.
Selected Bibliography
Nyden, Paul J. Crum Humorous, Crude, Ultimately Touching. Sunday Gazette Mail, October 21, 2001.Peyton, Dave. Crum Deserves Delegate's Defense. The Charleston Gazette, February 4, 2002.
--. Ah, A Second Edition of Crum. The Charleston Daily Mail. October 22, 2001.
Author Website
none available