Judson Crews Photograph Collection

Judson Crews, noted southwestern author, printer and educator, was born in Waco, Texas on June 30, 1917. After growing up in Central Texas, he traveled extensively, living in areas as diverse as Albuquerque and Zambia. He married photographer and author Mildred Tolbert on October 19, 1947 (divorced January 1980), with whom he had two children (Anna Bush and Carole Judith). Crews attended Baylor University, from which he received a BA in 1941 and a MA in 1944. He also studied Fine Arts there from 1946-1947. He worked as an educator at Wharton County Junior College (1967-1970), University of New Mexico-Gallup Branch (1971-1972), and at the University of Zambia (1974-1978). He has also been involved in social work.

Crews has done work as both an author and a publisher. Amongst the presses he has been involved in are Motive Press (Waco, TX.) and Este Es Press (Taos, NM). After first being published in 1935, Judson Crews has been published over 600 times in about 300 periodicals. In addition to appearing in such literary journals as Poetry, Points, The Window and Foxfire, he has written many books of poetry, including Angels Fall, They Are Towers (Este Es Press, 1965), and The Noose, A Retrospective: Four Decades (Duende Press, 1980). He has also appeared in such anthologies as An Uninhibited Treasury of Erotic Poetry (Dial Press, 1963), and City Lights Anthology (City Lights, 1974).