Harry Crews experienced cruelty, violence, pain, terror, love, wonder and mercy—all before he was 10 years old. His book, A Childhood, recreates those experiences, which for a time had found no words except in his fiction….

He needed to go back to the one place of which, not just in which, he had lived. His subtitle, The Biography of a Place, refers not to the geography but to the community of human beings from which he became I, the community of Bacon County, Ga., of the late 1930's and early 1940's.

From this community, he learned how cruel humans, including himself, can be to each other. At the same time, he learned codes of ethics and mercy….

With violent deaths, pain and hardships were mixed the wonders, such as the Sears, Roebuck catalogue that brought color, mystery and beauty into his life. And there were stories told by...