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New
Small
Towns in Sepia - Arcadia Publishing Approaches Its 100th Texas Title
3-2-10Hauling
Corn Crop to Market at Age 13 3-1-10
Excerpted from "Growing Up On the Farm" by Henry Skupin“Death
by Rope” by Bob
and Doris Bowman 2-26-10
Explores
49 lynchings and legal hangings in East Texas between 1862 and 1942. Tyler
by Robert E. Reed Jr. 1-1-10
Postcard
HistoryMayhem
at Mount Carmel by Mike Cox 10-27-09
Excerpt
from "Time of the Rangers from 1900 to the Pesent"Miss
Bell by Harold Bell
9-1-09
Nobody in the world, dead or alive,
knew how long Miss Bell taught the fourth grade in and around Decatur, Texas...
Davy
In East Texas by Bob Bowman 8-30-09
Much
of "Journey Into the Land of Trials" by Manley F. Corbia, Jr., deals with Davy's
travels across East Texas and his stays in landmark communities like Clarksville,
Nacogdoches, San Augustine and a fledging village that would eventually be named
for him. Alex
Sweet and His Siftings by Clay Coppedge
8-26-09
In
terms of popularity and a reputation for being a real Texas wise guy, Alex Sweet
could be called the Kinky Friedman of his day. Sweet’s day was roughly the last
half of the 19th Century, a time when Texas was by all accounts wild and wooly.
To Sweet, it was also funny... Bonnie
and Clyde Slept Here by Mike Cox 7-23-09
Don
Wayland Crowley tells a great “Bonnie and Clyde slept here” story in his self-published
2005 book “West Texas Tales: Stories About My Father.” Amarillo
in thick of Dust Bowl by Delbert Trew 6-9-09
"Amarillo
- The Story Of A Western Town" by Paul H. Carlson is a must read for old-timers
and those who arrived later. Most who have lived in the Panhandle very long remember
seeing or hearing of our most notorious history, but few know the little details
of how and why the stories unfolded. The book is a treasure chest of details based
on published fact... Driving
Around with Bonnie and Clyde by Robin Cole-Jett 5-15-09
A Road Tripper's Guide to Gangster Sites in Middle America
Book
Snippets by Mike Cox 5-7-09
A
stack of old books may hold much more than the titles suggest. Pick one up, check
the fly leaves and title page, thumb through it for the magic passages older books
often contain--the bizarre, the humorous, the historic, the prophetic, the philosophical.
The
Murder Maverick by C. F. Eckhardt
4-16-09
If you’ve ridden many miles on the sunset side of the Colorado and listened to
people talk in bars and cafes, you’ve heard a good many tales. Once you get west
of the Pecos, there’s one in particular you’ll hear. You’ll hear the tale of a
phantom steer called ‘the Murder Maverick.’... . The legend of the Murder Maverick
appeared in Dobie’s book THE LONGHORNS. Early
Movie Making by Mike Cox 4-11-09
Back in 1996 screenwriter Frank Thompson set the scene at Hot Wells at the beginning
of his interesting book, “The Star Film Ranch: Texas' First Picture Show.” Texas
Sketchbook by Mike Cox 3-26-09
Humble,
a Texas oil company created in 1911 which in the 1970s became Exxon... published
thousands of copies of the “Texas Sketchbook” and distributed them for free to
anyone who wanted one, including school kids...Boyce
House by Mike Cox 3-19-09
Chances
are, you’ve never heard of Boyce House. But he deserves to be remembered... House
improved the communities he served as a hard hitting newspaper editor... What
he did best, however, was collect Texas stories --folktales, jokes, history--and
preserve them in books, articles and newspaper columns...Everyone
was GTT: Gone to Texas
by Delbert Trew 3-16-09
"Going
To Texas - Five Centuries of Texas Maps" by the Center For Texas Studies at Texas
Christian University. It is published by TCU Press, Fort Worth. |
See Also
"Of Books I Sing"
"Of
books I sing" is a column showcasing excerpts from “volumes of forgotten
lore.” Rescued from library sales, thrift store shelves and recycling dumpsters,
if it’s amusing, poignant or illustrates the somewhat overblown and colorful prose
of yesteryear, it can find a place here. Think of it as a home for unwed paragraphs
or a museum of resuscitated sentences. |
| | Mayhem
at Mount Carmel by Mike Cox 10-27-09
Excerpt
from "Time of the Rangers from 1900 to the Pesent"
The
morning of February 28, 1993... A Texas National Guard helicopter had been shot
down and numerous federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents killed
and wounded while attempting to serve a search warrant at David Koresh’s Branch
Davidian ranch |
Endangered
Stories
From "I Was a Teen
in the 1930s and Some More Stuff" by Harold Bell
Miss
Bell
Nobody
in the world, dead or alive, knew how long Miss Bell taught the fourth grade in
and around Decatur, Texas...
The
Sheriff
"You never know when somebody
says something, or does something, that it may have a big effect on you the rest
of your life."The
Tight-Wire Walker
"She's very daring.
They put her wire up to the very tiptop of the tent thirty-five feet above the
ground, and she does exciting maneuvers without using a net." My
Date with Mary
Mary was the cause of the most exciting week of my young
life. |
Texas Books
Books
about Texas that you may be unaware of.
Include independent publishers and
the presses of various universities.
Titles are chosen from a wide range of
topics we feel would be of interest to our readers, including architecture, ghosts
,people, places, history, war, law, outlaws...
|
History
& War "Alex
Sweet’s Texas: The Lighter Side of Lone Star History" University of Texas
Press, 1986
Alex
Sweet and His Siftings by Clay Coppedge
8-26-09
In
terms of popularity and a reputation for being a real Texas wise guy, Alex Sweet
could be called the Kinky Friedman of his day. Sweet’s day was roughly the last
half of the 19th Century, a time when Texas was by all accounts wild and wooly.
To Sweet, it was also funny... Texas
Sketchbook by Mike Cox 3-26-09
Humble,
a Texas oil company created in 1911 which in the 1970s became Exxon... published
thousands of copies of the “Texas Sketchbook” and distributed them for free to
anyone who wanted one, including school kids...Everyone
was GTT: Gone to Texas
by Delbert Trew 3-16-09
"Going
To Texas - Five Centuries of Texas Maps" by the Center For Texas Studies at Texas
Christian University. It is published by TCU Press, Fort Worth. Miss
Lockhart and the Comanches by Maggie Van Ostrand 2-16-09
"Comanches:
The Destruction of a People," by T.R. Fehrenbach.
The
Devil’s Triangle by Bob Bowman
“The Devil’s Triangle,” a new book by James
M. Smallwood, Kenneth W. Howell and Carol C. Taylor, provides a fascinating look
at the turbulent era after the Civil War
491
Days by Archie P. McDonald
William Williston Heartsill's Fourteen Hundred
And Ninety-One Days In The Confederate ArmyJane
McManus Storm Cazneau by Archie P. McDonald
Mistress of Manifest Destiny:
A Biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau by Linda Hudson"Texas
Women in World War II" by Cindy Weigand
NURSES, WACS, WAVES, and
SPARS, Uniformed Women of "The Greatest Generation""Soldiers
of Misfortune" by Sam W. Haynes
"The
Reluctant Warrior, Former German POW Finds Peace in Texas" by Heino R. Erichsen
"Wings
Over the Mexican Border: Pioneer Military Aviation in the Big Bend" by Kenneth
Baxter Ragsdale |
Law
& Disorder
“Death
by Rope” by Bob
and Doris Bowman 2-26-10
Explores
49 lynchings and legal hangings in East Texas between 1862 and 1942. "Traveling
History with Bonnie and Clyde" by
Robin Cole-Jett
Driving
Around with Bonnie and Clyde
by Robin Cole-Jett
5-15-09
Her book offers a history
of Bonnie
and Clyde, plus 5 tours, with directions originating
from Dallas, of the old places they used to visit and the things they might have
seen.Bonnie
and Clyde Slept Here by Mike Cox 7-23-09
Don
Wayland Crowley tells a great “Bonnie and Clyde slept here” story in his self-published
2005 book “West Texas Tales: Stories About My Father.” “The
Fiddler Changed His Tune” by Carl L. Stewart
Clyde
Barrow’s Funeral by Mike Cox 2-5-09
Stories
can turn up in weird places. For instance, who would expect to find an account
of the Depression-era outlaw Clyde Barrow’s funeral in the self-published memoir
of a long-time fiddler-turned-preacher?
Bertillion
Method early way to track criminals by Delbert Trew 10-7-08
In the book "Texas Gulag" by Gary Brown, the history of Texas prisons, jails and
even the early-day chain gangs is presented from the years 1875 to 1925. The book
outlined in detail how criminals were identified as they processed through the
old systems."The
Mexican Mesta," by William H. Dusenberry
There
were rules in good-old days, too by Delbert Trew 8-5-08
"They
Rode for the Lone Star" by Thomas W. Knowles
Texas
Rangers and the Battle of Plum Creek by Murray Montgomery
"My
Life with Bonnie & Clyde" by Blanche Caldwell Barrow
Reviewed by
Robin Jett"Elmer
McCurdy: The Misadventure in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw" by
Mark Svenvold"Over
the Wall, The Men Behind the 1934 Death House Escape" by Patrick M. McConal"Tales
of Bad Men, Bad Women, and Bad Places : Four Centuries of Texas Outlawry"
by C.F. Eckhardt
"The
Texas Sheriff : Lord of the County Line" by Thad Sitton "Running
with Bonnie and Clyde: The 10 Fast Years of Ralph Fults" by John Neal Phillips
|
Life
and Observations Amarillo
in thick of Dust Bowl by Delbert Trew 6-9-09
"Amarillo
- The Story Of A Western Town" by Paul H. Carlson is a must read for old-timers
and those who arrived later. Most who have lived in the Panhandle very long remember
seeing or hearing of our most notorious history, but few know the little details
of how and why the stories unfolded. The book is a treasure chest of details based
on published fact... Locusts
plague settlers by Delbert Trew 3-6-08
"Locust," a book by Jeffrey A. Lockwood published in 2004, traces the history
of locust plagues from early times, around the world and into modern times. Sound
scientific research, carried out over long periods of time by renown entomologists,
finally traced the origins and demise of the Rocky Mountain Locust. Here are a
few brief facts of interest... The
Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding
The True Meaning
of Auld Lang Syne by Gael Montana
"A
Long Way from the Cotton Patch." by Jean Adele Cox
Cotton
Picking by Mike Cox
"Cottonseed
Kid Childhood Memories of a Texas Life" by Hariett Dublin"CHINQUA
WHERE? The Spirit of Rural America, 1947-1955" by Fred B. McKinley
"The
Lonesome Plains: Death and Revival on an American Frontier" by Louis Fairchild"Blow
by Blow, A Collection of Steve Blow's Award-Winning Columns from The Dallas Morning
News" by Steve Blow "Tom
Dodge Talks about Texas : Radio Vignettes and Other Observations 1989-1999"
by Tom Dodge
"I
was a Teen in the 1930s ..." by Harold Bell "Tall
Town Tales by a Country Editor" by R. E. Bailey. |
People
Davy
In East Texas by Bob Bowman 8-30-09
Much
of "Journey Into the Land of Trials" by Manley F. Corbia, Jr., deals with Davy's
travels across East Texas and his stays in landmark communities like Clarksville,
Nacogdoches, San Augustine and a fledging village that would eventually be named
for him. Indian
Emily by Mike
Cox 10-2-08
One of the most romantic stories in the lore of the Old West originated at Fort
Davis in the late 1860s...
The story goes back to 1919, when Carlyle Graham
Raht included it in his book, “Romance of the Davis Mountains and the Big Bend
Country.”
Gideon
Lincecum: King of Texas’ Wild Frontier by
Clay Coppedge 8-24-08
"Adventures
of A Frontier Naturalist: The Life and Times of Gideon Lincecum" Jerry Bryan
Lincecum and Edward Hake Phillips’ collection of Gideon Lincecum’s writings Adventures
of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of War by Mel Brown 6-26-08
A
gifted writer by Bob Bowman 6-1-08
Landon Bradshaw wrote only one book, “These People Actually Lived in East Texas.”
People who have copies cherish it with an affection reserved only for their wives
and rich uncles. 'No
Person Shall Put Asunder' by Benard Burson
A
Texas-Norwegian-German Valentine - A synopsis 2-14-08Remembering
the Bastrop Chronicler by Murray Montgomery
This particular story originally
came from a book titled "Recollections of Early Texas" written by a man know as
the "Bastrop chronicler." His real name was John Holmes Jenkins... Kingsbury
Hall: The Genealogy of a Family
by Kenneth Kingsbury“Sam
B. Hall, Jr.: Whatever is Right,” by Jerry Summers
“Go
straight to hell.” by Bob Bowman
Sam B. Hall, Jr., the son of an East
Texas lawyer and judge who rose to a leadership role in Congress and finished
his career as a federal judge, was one of East Texas’ most interesting contemporary
politicians.
Hall’s life is profiled in a new book, “Sam B. Hall, Jr.: Whatever
is Right,” by Jerry Summers, who serves as the Sam B. Hall, Jr. Professor of History
at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall.
Please
Pass the Biscuits, Pappy: Pictures of Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel (Clifton
and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) by Bill Crawford
Pass the
Biscuits, Pappy by Bob Bowman
"From
My Mother's Hands" by Susie Kelly Flatau "Swedish
Texans"
by
Dr. Larry Scott |
Places
/ Travel Early
Movie Making by Mike Cox 4-11-09
Back in 1996 screenwriter Frank Thompson set the scene at Hot Wells at the beginning
of his interesting book, “The Star Film Ranch: Texas' First Picture Show.” The
Story of Indianola by Maggie Van Ostrand 6-30-08
On my bookshelf sat a slim volume of poems by one Jeff McLemore.... The name of
the book, published in 1904, is "Indianola and Other Poems," and its yellowed
pages, bound together by string, are as fragile to the touch as would be a human
born the same year...The
forgotten forests by
Bob Bowman 6-23-08
“Lone Star Pine” published by Jane G. Baxter of Nashville, Tennessee, and Dan
T. Barnes of Trinity, Texas, has captured the appearance of the old forests that
existed in the early 1900s. "The
Book Lover's Tour of Texas" by Jessie Gunn Stephens
Reviewed by
Jamie Engle"Splash
Across Texas!" by Chandra Moira Beal "Taking
the Waters in Texas" by Janet Mace Valenza"San
Antonio Uncovered" by Mark Louis Rybczyk"A
Field Guide to Cows" by John Pukie"Hill
Country" by Richard Zelade"Counter
Culture Texas" by Susie Kelly Flatau and Mark Dean "The
Eight Corners of Texas: A Guide to Visiting Some of Texas' Least Frequented and
Known-about Areas - The Exact Corners" by Paul McBurnett |
Boyce
House by Mike Cox 3-19-09
Chances
are, you’ve never heard of Boyce House. But he deserves to be remembered... House
improved the communities he served as a hard hitting newspaper editor, he made
a couple of generations of Texans laugh and he offered himself as an unsuccessful
political candidate. What he did best, however, was collect Texas stories --folktales,
jokes, history--and preserve them in books, articles and newspaper columns...Remembering
Claire Perry by
Robert Cowser
Wife of Texas writer George Sessions Perry
Texas'
Most Civilized Soul by Clay Coppedge
"Roy Bedichek has been called
the most civilized soul Texas ever produced... Today he is perhaps best known
as the author of Adventures of a Texas Naturalist, a book the late A.C. Greene
of Salado included in his The Fifty Best Books on Texas...
Book
Burning by Mike Cox
“'Where they have burned books,' German poet Johann
Heinrich Heine wrote in the 19th century, 'they will end in burning human beings.'
Indeed, Texans have done both...."Is
There an Edna Ferber in Your Mailbox?
or What’s a nice girl like you doing
on a stamp like this? by Luke Warm |
Miscellaneous
Bookaholic
by Peary Perry 10-7-09
I probably need to join some kind of social group to be able to restrain my book
buying, book saving compulsion. I can’t seem to help myself and am in danger of
spinning totally out of control... On
Finding a Good Book Title by Britt Towery 7-25-09
When
looking to write a book, of all the problems and headaches involved none is more
pronounced than finding a great title... The
Old Book Shelf by Mike Cox 6-25-09
This
shelf, standing in a back corner of the Coryell County Museum in Gatesville, has
a story as interesting as any of the books it ever held. A novel-in-wood, it represents
a Texas family saga extending from before the Civil War through the Great Depression
and into the modern era. The
Worst Book on Texas Ever Written by a Man
Or, His legs were a little bowed from being in the saddle since boyhood Book
Snippets by Mike Cox 5-7-09
A
stack of old books may hold much more than the titles suggest. Pick one up, check
the fly leaves and title page, thumb through it for the magic passages older books
often contain--the bizarre, the humorous, the historic, the prophetic, the philosophical.
|
See Also
"Of Books I Sing"
- "Of books I sing" is a column showcasing excerpts from “volumes of
forgotten lore.” Rescued from library sales, thrift store shelves and recycling
dumpsters, if it’s amusing, poignant or illustrates the somewhat overblown and
colorful prose of yesteryear, it can find a place here. Think of it as a home
for unwed paragraphs or a museum of resuscitated sentences.
Texas
Escapes Bibliography - Reference books |
| |
