Introduction

Photograph of Lou from RU Magazine (Radford University), May, '99.
She was a graduate of Radford (class of '32)

"Was I a spirit set down in that paradise for sixteen years, to find out what it is to be human? Or was I a human set there to absorb the spirit that would last eighty years and plant something new to the heart of me? That something would save me—help me to stand apart; isolated, all the while observing the diversity of life's systems, circles, patterns. That something would give me roots to write from." Paradise in Price Hollow," Lou Crabtree [Bloodroot: Reflections on Place by Appalachian Women Writers, ed. Joyce Dyer. Lexington, KY.: University of Kentucky Press, c. 1998 (81)]

Anyone who looks at photographs taken by Walker Evans or Shelby Lynn Adams will see that Appalachia can be a hard place to live. Those harsh black and white images of people living in abject poverty, surrounded by hosts of children and their few meager possessions staring back at us with a challenging "Who do you think you are?" defiance. They aren't looking for our approval, or our help, neccessarily.

Lou Crabtree's poetry and prose capture not only the hardships but also the ineffable beauty of that part of Middle Appalachia where she spent her early years. By all accounts her childhood was not hard, but her married life was difficult and she knew tragedy, losing her brother after the Second World War and later a daughter. Writing was her therapy. When times were hard, when she felt "tired or achy" (according to Beth Macy, Lou didn't believe in doctors, had never taken an aspirin, and didn't even know what a headache feels like), or needed spiritual uplifting, she would write.

Lou in her "office" on Valley St. in Abingdon, VA. in 1999.

"Always she has written, putting a random thought or phrase or story on a snatch of paper and tucking it away in a drawer somewhere. When she retired from teaching with her kids grown, she had time to turn her notes into short stories, plays, poems, and novels." ["In Her Own Words: for Lou Crabtree, writing is a way of making sense of her life," Beth Macy. Roanoke Times & World News, "Extra." Sunday, September 20, 1992 (Extra10)]

It didn't matter to her if her writing ever got published; she did it to make sense of her life...,and the world. In fact, there are only two published works by Lou Crabtree listed in OCLC (Worldcat.org): The river hills and beyond : poems, by Lou V. Crabtree ; [with introduction by Lee Smith] and Sweet Hollow : stories, by Lou V. Crabtree.

She has been included in a number of anthologies, some of which include original work, including: Appalachia Inside Out, vol. 2: "Conflict and Change," Bloodroot: reflections on place by Appalachian women writers, and Her Words: diverse voices in contemporary Appalachian women's poetry. (For complete bibliography, see Part IV)

Thanks to Quinn Hawkesworth, actor, animal lover, friend and collaborator with Lou Crabtree on a number of literary projects, the Washington County Public Library has access to additional unpublished material. A small sampling of these writings, accompanied by photographs, some critical commentary, and gentle (occassionaly bemused) reminiscences by those who knew Lou and loved her provide the basis for this exhibit.