Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Bill Crider/Robert Skinner Collection
Date(s)
- 1993 - 2001 (Creation)
Extent
1 box
Name of creator
Biographical history
Bill (Allen Billy) Crider was born July 28, 1941, in Mexia, Texas. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963, a Master's degree from North Texas State University in 1966, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. Crider taught in high school for two years, followed by college teaching at Howard Payne University. From 1983 forward, he taught at Alvin Community College, where he chaired the English Department.
Crider is a prolific writer who writes in a variety of genres, including mysteries, westerns, horror, and young adult novels. He was best known for his mystery novels, particularly the "Sheriff Dan Rhodes" series. Crider is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Private Eye Writers League, and the Western Writers of America. He has been awarded the "Anthony Award" for best first novel (Too Late to Die), and the "Golden Duck Award" for best the best juvenile science fiction novel of 1998 (Mike Gonzo and the UFO Terror).
Bill Crider passed away on February 12, 2018, at his home in Alvin, TX, from cancer.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Robert Skinner was born in Alexandria, VA in 1948. He has degrees in history (B.A., Old Dominion University, 1970) and library science (M.L.S., Indiana University, 1977) and studied creative writing at the University of New Orleans from 1990-1992. He authored or co-authored four different books dealing with the career of African-American novelist Chester Himes (a mutual love of Himes brought Skinner together in friendship with Bill Crider) , and six novels set in Depression-era New Orleans. Those hard-boiled crime novels feature Wesley Farell, a gambler and bon-vivant who is also an African-American man passing as white. They were published between 1998-2002.
Skinner's stories have appeared in Xavier Review, War, Literature & the Arts, Louisiana Literature, STORYGLOSSIA, and PlotsWithGuns.com. He is a regular contributor to FIRSTS: The Book Collector's Magazine, for which he has written essays on Elmore Leonard, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Benjamin Capps, Bernard Cornwell, and Robert Morgan, to name a few.
In 2013 he retired as University Librarian at Xavier University of Louisiana after 26 years in service there.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection consists almost entirely of correspondence between legendary Texas writer Bill Crider and author and professor Robert E. Skinner, of Xavier University in New Orleans. Over several years, the two became regular correspondents in exchanges involving numerous subjects, including writers, writing, films, books, and their personal lives.
The two did not cease corresponding after 1998 (the date of last correspondence in the collection), but once Crider and Skinner started using email as their major medium of choice, Skinner ceased collecting the exchanges.
System of arrangement
Chronological by date of composition.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated by Robert E. Skinner, October 2021.
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Collection processed by Jeremy Brett, October 2021.
Finding aid created by Jeremy Brett, November 2021.