Lewis Crystal

Lewis Frederick Crystal is a native of the great state of mind called Brooklyn, New York. He came of age in Canarsie,an area much maligned in the popular imagination but actually on the cutting edge of many of the cataclysmic social changes of the 1960's and 1970's. His father Charles Henry Crystal used to ride the 14th Street Canarsie Line to the Garment Center in Manhattan, so early in the morning, that he was said by his own account "to open up the city".

Mr. Crystal had no reason not to believe his father, for over the course of their time together, the father taught the son many important lessons, the greatest of which was the concept of TRUTH.

From his mother, Miriam, a former model, he learned about BEAUTY and these two weighty words formed the axis on which he spun his life. Never mind what Keats said, they do not always co-exist peacefully, certainly not in one mind striving for clarity. Still the struggle produced a budding writer, who bloomed briefly at the age of 17, writing two novels: DREAMS & EXPECTATIONS and THE MADHOUSE.

In the ensuing years, Mr. Crystal continued to write but somehow became mysteriously sidetracked by the daily issues of life, trying to balance the quest for love with the need for privacy and security.

Realizing his folly, he emerged from this immersion in self delusion in 2009, publishing two books of poetry: THE HORSES OF MARRUM; NEW AND SELECTED POEMS and PICTURES FOR A SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

1976 A BICENTENNIAL NOVEL is his first published novel. Written in the spring of 2009, it tells the story of a love affair and a cross-country road trip with a liberal sprinkling of sex, drugs and rock and roll, death, freedom and revolution.

Mr. Crystal has just completed and published a prequel to 1976, called THE THIEVES OF YOUTH. He also presides over an online literary salon on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/groups/FMANONLINEMAGAZINE/ and is the sole employee of AVENUE U PUBLICATIONS, which he operates out of his still vibrant imagination. Married to the artist, Brigitte Kowaltschuk, he is the father of twin sons who never looked alike, and the care giver of three kittens, two of whom look like twins. He lives in Bucks County,Pa. which already has a rich and lengthy history of literary endeavor, including Pearl Buck and James Michener.

Update(January 26, 2012):

Mr. Crystal has subsequently published several more books including WHEN SIX WAS NINE,the second book in the ADVENTURES IN THE VOID trilogy, BOOKSELLER BLUES YOU MADE ME CRY, a novel which expands the fictional universe of Lucien Goldman, and a few more volumes of poetry, including a GREATEST HITS collection and UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF CHILDHOOD, currently # 44 on Amazon's Worldwide Bestseller List for Poetry.