Smith, Claude Clayton 1944–

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Smith, Claude Clayton 1944–

PERSONAL:

Born March 11, 1944; married; wife's name Elaine; children: two sons. Education: Wesleyan University, B.A.; Yale University, M.A.T.; University of Iowa, M.F.A.; Carnegie Mellon University, D.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home— Ada, OH. E-mail— c-smith@onu.edu.

CAREER:

Ohio Northern University, Ada, professor of English, retired.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Gold medal, United Nations committee for the "Decade of Indigenous Peoples, 1994-2004," for writings about indigenous people.

WRITINGS:

The Cow and the Elephant(for children), illustrated by R.Z. Whitlock, Golden Press (New York, NY), 1983.

The Gull That Lost the Sea(for children), illustrated by Lucinda McQueen, Golden Book (New York, NY), 1984.

The Stratford Devil(novel), Walker (New York, NY), 1984.

Quarter-Acre of Heartache(nonfiction), Pocahontas Press (Blacksburg, VA), 1985.

Red Men in Red Square(nonfiction), map and cover design by Elizabeth Foster, Pocahontas Press (Blacksburg, VA), 1994.

(Editor) Yeremei Aipin,I Listen to the Earth(short stories), translated by Alexander Vaschenko, artwork by Gennady Raishev, University Printing Services (Ada, OH), 1995.

(Coeditor and translator)The Way of Kinship(anthology), 2003.

Lapping America(memoir), Burford Books (Short Hills, NJ), 2006.

Author's books have been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese.

SIDELIGHTS:

Claude Clayton Smith has written fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays. He is also coeditor and translator of The Way of Kinship, the first anthology of Native Siberian literature available in English. For his writing on native people both at home and abroad, he was awarded a gold medal authorized by the United Nations committee responsible for the "International Decade of Indigenous Peoples, 1994-2004."

Smith's first two books are picture books for children. In The Cow and the Elephant, illustrated by R.Z. Whitlock, Smith features three different animals who travel the river via a log, a banjo, and a birthday cake. The Gull That Lost the Sea, illustrated by Lucinda McQueen, tells the story of a lost gull who is swept inland by a storm and is rescued by a good-hearted barber, who returns the gull to its beloved ocean.

Smith presents a historical novel based on a true story with The Stratford Devil. First published in 1984, it is a fictionalized account of the struggles of a Puritan settlement and the events that led to the hanging of Goody Bassett for witchcraft in Stratford, Connecticut, in the spring of 1651, nearly fifty years before the infamous Salem witch trials. Smith depicts the real-life Goody Bassett as an outsider among the Puritans of early America because of her independent thinking. A Small Press Bookwatch contributor called the novel "a powerful allegory … [about] religious fundamentalism and authoritarianism gone awry."

Smith's next book,Quarter-Acre of Heartache, is an account of the Golden Hill Paugusset tribe in Trumbull, Connecticut, and its struggle for federal recognition. The story is told through the words of Chief Big Eagle and documents the legal struggle to save a token parcel of land that is the only remaining part of the original Paugussett reservation established in 1658 in what is now the city of Bridgeport.

In another nonfiction book,Red Men in Red Square, the author focuses on the Russian Indianist movement, which is made up of a small group of Russians who study and preserve Native American culture. The author recounts his trip to Russia with Chief Big Eagle, whom he featured in his previous book,Quarter-Acre of Heartache. In an interview with Sam Libby for the New York Times, Chief Big Eagle explained his reason for going to Russia: "There aren't many people in this country that really care about the tradition and culture of the American Indian. But the Indianists in the former Soviet Union really do. They cared and followed the tradition when it meant they were criminals and could be thrown into prison. In most ways the Indianists are more true, more closely follow the culture and tradition, than Indians in America." In addition to reporting on the chief's visit, Smith includes interviews with members of the Russian American Indianist group as they explain their interest in Native American culture and comment on their own homeland. A Publishers Weekly contributor called Red Men in Red Square a "subjective mixture of reportage and political analysis."

As editor of I Listen to the Earth, by Yeremei Aipin, Smith, along with translator Alexander Vaschenko, provides American readers with an introduction to Khanty literature, specifically, a series of short stories. The Khanty are native people who live in western Siberia near the Arctic Circle and have for years depended on reindeer herds and other game for their survival in this harsh wilderness. "The world of Aipin's prose is one of anguish," noted Joseph P. Mozur in World Literature Today. "The narrator in his stories recalls nostalgically the all but forgotten legends and myths of his childhood, as well as the people who first told them to him." Mozur added: "Several of the stories are unique and indeed strike the reader as bridging the cultures of native Americans and native Siberians."

Lapping America was called "travel writing … at its best" by a California Bookwatch critic. Another contributor to the same periodical referred to the book as "a fine survey." In this 2006 memoir, Smith presents his journey across various American interstates in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate Highways. Riding in a red 1996 Corvette, the author attracts much attention and relates stories about the various people he meets. He also provides a history of the highways he travels, as well as black-and-white photos of his journey. "An entertaining learning experience, not only for the reader but for the author as well," assessed David Pitt in Booklist. Joseph L. Carlson, writing in the Library Journal, averred that the author provides "some of the best of contemporary travel writing: humorous, insightful, depressing, challenging, nostalgic, and surprisingly upbeat."