The papers represent an important addition to the Duke Library because Crowe is an interesting person with a significant collection, said Tim West, director of collection development at the Durham university.
"He's interesting because he was among the 'Baby Beats' in San Francisco, he's a contemporary poet and writer, and he's also a publisher," West said. "He's been an environmental and social activist - he's a great example of someone who grew up in the '60s and maintained his ideals."
Visitors to Duke's Special Collections Library can examine Crowe's papers now, though the collection is not yet in its final form, West said. The Crowe Collection includes the author's books, drafts, notebooks, photographs and letters, West said.
"The papers are full of really interesting correspondence," West said, and include letters to Crowe from American "Beat" poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti as well as letters from a number of the Celtic world's primary poets.
Other Southern authors whose papers are archived at Duke include William Styron, Anne Tyler, Fred Chappell and Reynolds Price, all of whom attended Duke, and two Virginia writers - Richard Bausch and George Garrett.
The deal between Crowe and Duke was brokered by Chan Gordon of The Captain's Bookshelf in Asheville. A unique feature of Crowe's papers is the breadth of the collection, Gordon said.
"(Crowe) started 25 or more years ago on the West Coast and has this wonderful range from the Beat tradition to the present," Gordon said. Another especially interesting feature of the Crowe Collection is from the New Native Press point of view, Gordon said.
Crowe's papers document the "struggles and successes of a very small publisher trying to bring good work into the public eye," Gordon said. "It's a struggle that's gone on since people have been printing books. Thomas is continuing the good fight."
A strength of Crowe's poetic work is the integration of his diverse influences, Gordon said.
"(Crowe's) been able to achieve the integration of some Eastern, especially Chinese, poets with the Western idiom," Gordon said. "More recently he's added his keen ear for the rhythms of the land he's inhabiting now - Western North Carolina and the Cherokee tradition. He's a very good integrator."
Crowe is also an insightful reviewer, Gordon said. The author's prose work is significant for many of the same reasons that make his poetry interesting, Gordon said.
Western Carolina University's Hunter Library houses a number of print items Crowe has written, said George Frizzell, head of special collections. Crowe's work is important for a couple of reasons, Frizzell said. WCU bought Crowe's early work both because he's a regional author and because of New Native Press.
"(Crowe) embodies the personality and creative spirit that's been going on in our area the past few years," Frizzell said. "And New Native Press is a small but important creative outlet for other writers."
In addition, Frizzell said, Crowe's Celtic anthology, "Writing the Wind," illustrates the connection between this area's Scotch-Irish heritage and the British Isles.
Crowe, 51, was born in Chicago but grew up in the mountains of Graham County and Rabun County, Ga. He earned his bachelor's degree from Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
After a time in France, Crowe returned to the U.S., where he worked as a laborer on Midwestern farms and laid track for a Pennsylvania railroad before settling in San Francisco.
As editor of Beatitude magazine, he played a key role in the "Second San Francisco Renaissance" and was heralded as one of the "Baby Beats," a group of young poets that migrated to San Francisco and the Bay Area in the early to mid-1970s.
Before the arrival of the younger poets, enthusiasm for the original "Beat" writers, like Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti, was waning. The younger group revived Beatitude, the original Beat publication from the 1950s, and provided the catalyst for San Francisco's second literary flowering, Crowe said.
The collaboration of the older and younger poets was mutually beneficial in that the admiration of the younger set reinvigorated the original group, while the presence of their literary heroes inspired the younger writers.
Returning to his boyhood Western North Carolina roots in the 1980s, Crowe was a founding editor of "Katuah Journal: A Bioregional Journal for the Southern Appalachians" and founded New Native Press, the publishing company he heads today.
Crowe returned to WNC "to prove that you can go home again, and with the idea to begin something of a literary tradition here in a region that has been largely considered to 'the boondocks' of the American literary scene," he said.
Crowe's books include: "The Laugharne Poems," published in Wales and written at the Dylan Thomas boathouse in Laugharne, Wales; "Writing the Wind: A Celtic Resurgence," a comprehensive translation of contemporary Celtic poets published by Crowe's New Native Press; "Night Sun," a trilogy (New Native Press); and "Deep Language" (New Native Press).
A former pressman at The Sylva Herald, Crowe left the newspaper in 1993 to devote all his energy to New Native Press. Several years ago he added a spoken word audio recording arm to his publishing company.
Fern Hill Records, named in honor of one of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's most famous poems, is a record label that focuses on the combination of poetry and music, Crowe said. Fern Hill has produced three full-length recordings including "The Laugharne Poems," a mostly musical album of compositions by Nan Watkins of Tuckasegee based on her 1993 visit to the Welsh town.
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