Staying Alive in Bear Country is the final work of Peter Crow — a longtime English professor, radio storyteller, and devoted hiker of the Blue Ridge. It gathers a lifetime of trail stories, family adventures, and hard-won wisdom into a single, generous tale.
Rooted in the beloved "Old Joe Grady" stories that Pete first shared on public radio, the novel carries readers into the mountains — and into the deeper questions of how we live well, treat one another, and stay alive, in every sense, in bear country.
Warm, wry, and quietly profound, it is Pete's invitation to lean into what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature."
"I suspect this wonderful old professor, who had lived life, read much, 'seen it all' (as folk used to say), thought deeply, hoped profoundly, and labored assiduously to realize the deepest hopes of what Abe Lincoln called 'the better angels of our nature,' wanted an opportunity to synthesize all that he had witnessed and discerned, in the hope of sharing it with a wider audience."
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry — Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (2015–2024)
