None of the definitions of "crib" that I can find fit this on p.83:
"It is perhaps difficult to imagine so creative a mind working without a single work
of lexicographical reference beside him other than Mr. Cooper;s crib (which Mrs.
Cooper once threw into the fire, prompting the great man to begin all over again)......"

(On previous page there was mention of a "Thesaurus" compiled by a man named
Thomas Cooper) If the "crib" referred to his incomplete manuscript, the word
"prompted" seems a poor choice - he was "obliged" to start over.
I recall some other English author having his wife "accidentally" destroying his
manuscript - can you remember who it was? Basis for justifiable homicide.

(