"Hell, I was drunk every day for 30 years. I drank with both hands. But I wrote every day."

Harry Crews was a University of Florida creative writing professor for 30 years, joining the program in 1968 when he published his first novel. [Photo: Tampa Bay Times files]

Harry Crews, novelist, journalist and teacher, chronicler of ruin and redemption in the hard side of the South, died in Gainesville on Wednesday. He was 76.

Crews joined the UF creative writing faculty in 1968, the same year he published his first novel, The Gospel Singer. He taught writing at UF for 30 years, intimidating and inspiring several generations of students with his performances in and out of the classroom. He was a legendary wild man whose drink- and drug-fueled escapades were often marked by violence. "People do like to exaggerate about me," Crews said in 2008. "But I don't care. Hell, I was drunk every day for 30 years. I drank with both hands. But I wrote every day."

Read more at the Tampa Bay Times.