Author: Sharyn McCrumb

Cites

• Alfred Tennyson (1)
  • IN: Sick Of Shadows (1984) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: I am half sick of shadows,’ said The Lady of Shalott.
    FROM: The Lady of Shalott, (1833), Poem, UK
• Stephen Vincent Benet (1)
  • IN: MacPherson's Lament (1992) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Why were they all going out to war? He brooded a moment. It wasn’t slavery. That stale red-herring of Yankee knavery. Nor even states-rights, at least not solely, But something so dim that it must be holy.
    FROM: John Brown’s Body, Book 2, (1928), Book, US
• Rudyard Kipling (1)
  • IN: If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him… (1995) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: When the Himalayan peasant meets the he- bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside. But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
    FROM: The Female of the Species, (1911), Poem, England/ India
• Charles Dickens (1)
  • IN: If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him… (1995) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: Pray do not, therefore, be inducted to suppose that I ever write merely to amuse, or without an object.
    FROM: Letter to Hon. Mrs Edward Cooper, (1852), Letter, UK
• NULL (1)
  • IN: Highland Laddie Gone (1986) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: Here’s tae us. Wha’s like us-damn few an’ they’re a’ deid.
    FROM: Traditional Scots toast, (None), NULL, UK
• Jack the Ripper (1)
  • IN: Missing Susan (1991) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: I love my work and want to start again.
    FROM: Letter from Jack the Ripper September 25, 1888, (1888), Letter, UK
• Theodore Roethke (1)
  • IN: Lovely In Her Bones (1985) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: I knew a woman, lovely in her bones…
    FROM: I Knew a Woman, (1954), Poem, US
• E. B. White (1)
  • IN: Once Around the Track (2007) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you.
    FROM: Charlotte to Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web, (1952), Novel, US
• Ernest Hemingway (1)
  • IN: St Dale (2001) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: There are only three real sports: mountain climbing, bullfighting, and automobile racing.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US
• Perry Smith (1)
  • IN: The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1997) Fiction, Mystery, Speculative fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: The rich never hang; only the poor and friendless.
    FROM: Perry Smith executed in Kansas, 1965, for the murder of the Clutter family, (1965), Speech, US
• Sharyn McCrumb (1)
  • IN: The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1997) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: This dreadful, dark and dismal day Has swept my glories all away; My sun goes down, my days are past, And I must leave this world at last. Oh! Lord, what will become of me? I am condemned, you all now see; To heaven or hell my soul must fly, All in a moment when I die. Judge Donnell my sentence has passed, These prison walls I leave at last; Nothing to cheer my drooping head Until I’m numbered with the dead. But Oh! That awful judge I fear, Shall I that awful sentence hear: “Depart, ye cursed, down to hell And forever there to dwell.” I know that frightful ghosts I’ll see, Gnawing their flesh in misery; And then and there attended be For murder in the first degree. Then shall I meet that mournful face, Whose blood I spilled upon this place; With flaming eyes to me he’ll say, “Why did you take my life away?” His feeble hands fell gently down, His chattering tongue soon lost its sound, To see his soul and body part It strikes with terror in my heart. I took his blooming days away, Left him no time to God to pray; And if sins fall upon his head, Must I not bear them in his stead? The jealous thought that first gave strife To make me take my husband’s life, For months and days I spent my time Thinking how to commit this crime. And on a dark and doleful night I put the body out of sight, With flames I tried to him consume, But time would not admit it done. You all see me and on me gaze, Be careful how you spend your days; And never commit this awful crime, But try to serve your God in time. My mind on solemn subjects rolls, My little child, God bless its soul; All you that are of Adam’s race, Let not my faults this child disgrace. Farewell, good people, you all now see What my bad conduct’s brought on me; To die of shame and disgrace Before the world of human race. Awful indeed to think of death, In perfect health to lose my breath; Farewell my friends, I bid adieu, Vengeance on me you must now pursue. Great God! How shall I be forgiven? Not fit for earth, not fit for Heaven; But little time to pray to God, For now I try that awful road
    FROM: The Ballad of Frankie Silver, (1998), Novel, US
• Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr. (1)
  • IN: The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1997) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: A rumor was prevalent in Burke County that Silver wrote some verses which were tantamount to a confession of her guilt and read them while on the scaffold to the surrounding throng just before she was executed. The mind of Squire Waits A. Cook, a highly respected justice of the peace in the Enola section, was a veritable storehouse of legends and events of Burke County’s earlier days. He told me that the verses Frankie had allegedly written were composed by a Methodist minister whose surname was Stacy.
    FROM: NULL, (None), NULL, US

Cited by

• Sharyn McCrumb (1)
  • IN: The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1997) Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, American
    EPIGRAPH: This dreadful, dark and dismal day Has swept my glories all away; My sun goes down, my days are past, And I must leave this world at last. Oh! Lord, what will become of me? I am condemned, you all now see; To heaven or hell my soul must fly, All in a moment when I die. Judge Donnell my sentence has passed, These prison walls I leave at last; Nothing to cheer my drooping head Until I’m numbered with the dead. But Oh! That awful judge I fear, Shall I that awful sentence hear: “Depart, ye cursed, down to hell And forever there to dwell.” I know that frightful ghosts I’ll see, Gnawing their flesh in misery; And then and there attended be For murder in the first degree. Then shall I meet that mournful face, Whose blood I spilled upon this place; With flaming eyes to me he’ll say, “Why did you take my life away?” His feeble hands fell gently down, His chattering tongue soon lost its sound, To see his soul and body part It strikes with terror in my heart. I took his blooming days away, Left him no time to God to pray; And if sins fall upon his head, Must I not bear them in his stead? The jealous thought that first gave strife To make me take my husband’s life, For months and days I spent my time Thinking how to commit this crime. And on a dark and doleful night I put the body out of sight, With flames I tried to him consume, But time would not admit it done. You all see me and on me gaze, Be careful how you spend your days; And never commit this awful crime, But try to serve your God in time. My mind on solemn subjects rolls, My little child, God bless its soul; All you that are of Adam’s race, Let not my faults this child disgrace. Farewell, good people, you all now see What my bad conduct’s brought on me; To die of shame and disgrace Before the world of human race. Awful indeed to think of death, In perfect health to lose my breath; Farewell my friends, I bid adieu, Vengeance on me you must now pursue. Great God! How shall I be forgiven? Not fit for earth, not fit for Heaven; But little time to pray to God, For now I try that awful road
    FROM: The Ballad of Frankie Silver, (1998), Novel, US