Kirjahaku

For the first half of the twentieth century, Texas literature, culture, and folklore were dominated by J. Frank Dobie, the man Lon Tinkle called "Mr. Texas." Dobie's Texas was a land of exuberance and romance, a time when Texas was proud of itself and not loath to let the world know it. But the culture of the state changed in the 1960s, and the figure who replaced Dobie as the dominant Texas writer and literary icon was Larry McMurtry. The Texas of Larry McMurtry is a far different landscape. The old certainties were replaced by irony and cultural revolution. The high, wide, and handsome posture of Texans was muted by politics, student unrest, and war. In the first two essays in this volume - "The Age of Dobie" and "The Age of McMurtry" - James Ward Lee places the writers, the politicians, and the cultural leaders in the context of each age. Subsequent chapters discuss writers and trends in Texas literature. Lee discusses long-standing arguments about Texas literature and surveys bodies of work that have had an impact on it. Another part of the book looks at Texas folklore and culture. "The Uses of Folklore," "The Folkways of the Arklatex," "Texas: Land of Legends and Myths," and "The Texas Sidekick" all study the way Texans live and work and see the world. The final section of the book is made up of some personal essays by a man whose ideas and attitudes are sometimes odd but always humorous. Lee writes of the life he has led in Texas as a college professor and takes a backward look at his life from boyhood to service in the U. S. Navy.

Set primarily during the early 1940s, A Texas Jubilee is a collection of short stories about life in fictional Bodark Springs, Texas. Through these stories, author Jim Lee paints a humorous picture of the politics, friendships, and secrets that are part of day-to-day life in this eccentric little Texas town. Stories like “Rock-ola” and “Pink-Petticoat” reveal secrets and raise questions about many of the town’s more colorful characters. Will Grady Dell reunite with his lost love, Eva? Is there a connection between Edna Earle Morris’s murder and her mysterious visit from Jesus? Other stories like “Navy, Blue, and Gold” highlight the ways that World War II is causing life to change for everyone in the town. Young Tommy Earl Dell and Fred Hallmark now spend their afternoons staring at the pictures of boys from Eastis County on the Gold Star shelf in the power company's window, dreaming of the day when they will be old enough to join the army. Townspeople now hold their breaths any time John Ed Hallmark, the town’s official messenger, drives his “Chariot of Death” up the street to deliver the news to one of his neighbors that a brother, son, or husband is not coming home from war. Although the pace of life in this small town is slow, there is never a dull moment in A Texas Jubilee. From the first to last page, readers will be constantly entertained by the exotic and unexpected in this imaginative collection of tales. A Texas Jubilee includes a preface by Jeff Guinn.

The Girls of the Golden West tells the tale of ninety-five-year-old John Quincy Adams the Second (no relation to the famous historic figure), who meets a graduate student named Annie Baxter and agrees to help her write a history of the culture of the South by sharing his experiences through the decades. The redheaded Annie looks just like Liz Denney, one of John Q.’s old lovers, which immediately endears her to him. After welcoming Annie to the small, fictional town of Bodark Springs, he shares hours of stories on Annie’s tape recorder, with little prompting along the way. John Q.’s memories follow histories of love and jealousy, misunderstanding and murder, giving a picture not only of Bodark Springs, but also of Texas. Meanwhile, John Q.’s inner dialogue reveals secrets of his own, including the long months he disappeared in order to protect his family from a deadly threat. Author James Ward Lee easily carries readers through this humorous cultural pilgrimage of the West. While John Q.’s pace of life is slow, his mind is razor sharp and keeps readers on their toes, waiting for his next harmlessly bawdy joke or flare of seriousness. The Girls of the Golden West is ultimately a story of finding love for other people and for one’s homeland. From the first moment John Q. bemoans opening his door for nosy townsfolk, readers come face-to-face with a blend of wisdom and fun that will keep them coming back for more.

Betsy Colquitt has long been recognized as one of Texas’ finest poets. With the publication of this collection, readers can see for the first time the full range of her work.The “Eve” poems, which give the volume its title, are new in substance and tone. This exciting sequence traces the life of the first woman from her creation by the “Great Mother,” through the years in the Garden of Eden, where Eve helps bring Adam out of the mud of Mother Earth, down to the present, as Eve looks at life and comments from the perspective of wise and eternal Woman. At the end of the sequence, Eve is seen in the Big Bend of Texas, a land different, yet strangely like, the first Garden.The second section of the book includes poems published in Colquitt’s 1980 collection, Honor Card, and the third section, “New and Uncollected Poems,” explores subjects ranging from art and architecture to home and family.

A Woman of the People is one of Texas’ best-known and most-respected novels. In this story of the Texas frontier, Capps dramatizes the capture by a Comanche band of a ten-year-old white girl and her five-year-old sister from the upper reaches of the Brazos River a decade before the Civil War. As the narrative progresses, Helen Morrison slowly—and almost unbeknownst to herself—goes from being a frightened, rebellious white girl to becoming “a woman of the people.” Like many of the people who figure in true-life Indian captivity narratives, Helen adopts the ways of the Comanches, marries a member of her small band, and becomes a major figure in tribal life.A Woman of the People parallels in some ways the real story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was taken by Comanches, married Peta Nocona, and became the mother of the celebrated Quanah Parker, the last great chief of the Comanches. But unlike the real-life Cynthia Ann Parker story, where many mysteries abound, the novel takes the reader inside the mind of the main character, and we are allowed to grow with her as she forgets her white heritage and Helen and becomes Tehanita (Little Girl Texan).

The Second Dune, Shelby Hearon's second novel, was published in 1973 and won the Texas Institute of Letters Award as the best book of fiction of the year. Written when Hearon was forty-three and just before her divorce, the novel is seen from the point of view of suburban housewives and their mothers and daughters. Ellen Marshall, divorced and remarried, is troubled by her son's refusal to accept her second husband, but takes great comfort from the five-year old daughter of her second marriage. She hopes to be able to pass on to her daughter some of the knowledge that only women possess and to help little Ellen see that women need to break the bonds that society has forced upon them. As the narrator says early in the novel, "Raised by women, schooled by women, we who are mothers now were taught to look across the gulf to men and count ourselves as they counted us." Ellen hopes her daughter will be different just as she is slowly becoming different herself.

Naked Came the Stranger set the format, but not always the tone or subject matter, for a whole string of books that appeared in the 1970s. Called collaborative or serial novels, the multi-author works were set in the suburbs, the Blue Ridge Mountains, Florida, the American West, but never in Texas. Now, a dozen Texas authors have gotten together to create a good old-fashioned western novel. Each contributing author will write a chapter that builds on the work that precedes his or her chapter. The plot features Noah, a plantation slave who escapes and makes his way to the Union forces and, finally, Texas, where he establishes a small ranch, runs a few cattle, and, with wife Nelly, begins to raise a family. But Noah, who has taken the name Freeman and named his ranch Free Land, cannot leave his past behind. The slave catcher Quint Carpenter is the local sheriff, and he's out for blood - specifically Noah's blood - after Noah's sister kills Quint's younger son. And carpetbagger Bear Coltrain, who once wanted to kidnap Noah and sell him back into slavery, now wants Noah's land. And then, John Malone comes along - Noah once saved the former cavalry officer's life, and he wants to repay his debt. Can he help when someone kidnaps Noah's baby girl? Can he help save the ranch - and, finally, save Noah's life? At press time for this catalog, half the chapters remain yet to be written, so the plot may change some - but that's the magic of a project such as this one. In cooperation with TCU Press, the ""Fort Worth Star-Telegram"" announced a contest in which the winner became one of the contributing authors. Entries were posted on the ""Star-Telegram"" web page, where the best three entries were chosen by popular vote. The staff of TCU Press chose the winner from among those entries. She is Mary Dittoe Kelly, and this will be her first published writing. A celebration at Fort Worth's Bass Hall will bring all the authors together onstage to talk about the work, and the joys and problems of working in collaboration. Former ""Star-Telegram"" book editor, Jeff Guinn will moderate.