A Tribute to James Crumley
The following letter is part of the correspondence between Kristofer Collins, TNY managing editor, and the author Chuck Kinder. Reprinted here by kind permission of the author.
Dear Kristofer Collins,
Thanks so much for including me in your requests for tributes to Jim
Crumley. Jim was a longtime pal of mine. We go way back. Over the years we took a
number of road trips together, which meant we loaded up our vehicle of choice
with beer & set off to God Knows Where, living for a time anyway purely by
whim. Our last trip together was back in about 2000, when we drove over from
Missoula, Montana, to see friends in Livingston, chief among them being Max
Crawford. We stayed at the old Murray Hotel in Sam Peckinpah's old room, or
rather suite, where he used to hole up to write his screenscripts. Driving around
with Jim was like being with the Mayor of Montana. Everywhere we stopped
people knew him & his writing. I don't recall encountering a single bartender who
had not read about everything Jim ever wrote. I can recall Jim shaking his
old head & commenting that he didn't recall writing some of that stuff.
Anyway, I just want to share the attached photograph of Jim in the old days
(& I have copied all the folks you had on your original email message, plus a
couple of others who I thought would be interested). This was taken by my
wife, Diane Cecily, on a street corner in the North Beach section of San
Francisco during the Thanksgiving holidays about 30 years ago when a bunch of our
friends congregated at our flat for a big feed. From left to right is the
aforementioned Max Crawford (a wonderful writer out of Texas, who is now in a
nursing home in Livingston, having floated him mind down that old whiskey river
several years ago), the poet Tess Gallagher, the short story writer Ray
Carver, Jim Crumley in the middle, me, & on the right Mike Koepf, a California
novelist & professional fisherman who was a Green Beret in Viet Nam at nineteen
years of age.
I have already committed to writing a tribute piece about Jim, so I probably
won't have the time or extra energy to send you folks something. You are
welcome to share this picture in any way you want. A while back that Chris
Potter character ran a few "lost" chapters in "City Paper" that had been cut out
of my novel, HONEYMOONERS: A CAUTIONARY TALE. The first one, which appeared
November 2, 2006, was a little chapter that features a character who is much
like Jim Crumley, who I call in the chapter, well, Jim Crumley. This Chris
Potter character also ran a interview with me & an article in which he accuses me
of being an unrepentant thief, liar, & plagiarist. He was correct of course.
And the chapter Chris ran is one in which not only do I use Jim Crumley's
good name in vain, but I set us in landscapes & settings stolen right out of
Jim's novels, & much of it is rendered with Jim's lyrical language. I just
found this piece on-line by "yahooing" my name (something I assure you I don't do
often). It appears on about page 4 under the title "A Kinder, Gentler
Approach To Literature." Anyway, you are welcome to make use of this if you wish.
If you like I can put you in touch with some of Jim's old drinking buddies,
some of whom may well wish to contribute to your "New Yinzer" tribute issue.
All my best to you,
Chuck Kinder
