Baffled by the stereotypes presented by Hollywood and much historical fiction, many other Americans find the contemporary American Indian an enigma. Compounding their confusion is the highly publiciz
Revisiting his earliest work with a new introduction, "What I Learned Watching the Wells Go Down," Bowden looks back at his first effort to awaken people to the costs and limits of using natural reso
The Texas Longhorn made more history than any other breed of cattle the world has known. These wiry, intractable beasts were themselves pioneers in a harsh land, moving elementally with drouth, grass
The Trans-Pecos, that huge region of Texas west of the Pecos River, is richer in recorded bird species than all but three of the United States. Hundreds of birders come here each year in search of sp
"I will make bold to say that Bowden is America's most alarming writer. Just when you think you've heard it all you learn you haven't in the most pungent manner possible....With The Charles Bowden Rea
In a state assumed to have a constitutionally weak governor, the Speaker of the Texas House wields enormous power, with the ability to almost single-handedly dictate the legislative agenda. The House
To the wild and fabulous country where the Rio Grande makes its big bend, J. O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot wh
This lyric portrait of life--and the little donkey, Platero--in a remote Andalusian village is the masterpiece of Juan Ramn Jimnez, the Spanish poet awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize for Literature.
I'll Tell You a Tale is a garland of some of Frank Dobie's best writing, put together by Isabel Gaddis, one of his former students at the University of Texas. The tales included are those the author h
Where more poignantly than in a small country graveyard can a traveler fathom the flow of history and tradition? During the past twenty years, Terry G. Jordan has traveled the back roads and hidden tr
"Monterroso's microcuentos defy social and literary categories in this collection of brilliant satires that combine the first English-language versions of Obras completas y otros cuentos (1959) and Mo
Here are observations and speculations, legends and yarns, even gossip about the habits and dispositions of these extraordinary creatures--rattlesnakes--their reported size, deadliness, and power to c
When a Texas debutante bows her forehead to the floor in the famous "Texas dip," society columnists all across the country speculate interminably over what it is that sets Texas women apart. But reall
More than a thousand species of birds occur in Mexico and in the adjacent countries of Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Of these birds, a unique mixture of temperate-zone and tropical species, less
John Henry Faulk was a popular radio and television personality during the McCarthy era. He was host of his own radio program on WCBS in New York when he publicly challenged AWARE, Inc., an ultrapatri
Remote desert locations, including the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico, southern Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, draw adventurers of all kinds, from the highly skilled and well prepared to urban
From the endless battles of sibling rivalry to the endless worries about getting indifferent students into--and then graduated from--college, raising boys is the adventure of a lifetime for any mother
Widely acclaimed as the greatest Western ever made, Lonesome Dove has become a true American epic. Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel was a New York Times best seller, with more than 2.5 mi
Doug Sahm was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist of legendary range and reputation. The first American musician to capitalize on the 1960s British invasion, Sahm vaulted to international fame leading
In April 1981, two white Texas prison officials died at the hands of a black inmate at the Ellis prison farm near Huntsville. Warden Wallace Pack and farm manager Billy Moore were the highest-ranking