As most of you know, I have been a fan of Texas and Texas Literature all my life. A friend recently asked me what I considered the best Texas fiction and non-fiction. That is truly a personal thing, what I treasure will not be the same books that others enjoy. Because my grandfather was a cattleman, I tend to follow ranchers and cattlemen. Because my other grandparents were offspring of Plain Folks, my interests lie in that genre. Because I have written about Civil War and Reconstruction, I have a great interest there. To get things straight, it isn’t Union or Confederate, but those Loyalists in the South I look at.
So, here’s my take on Texas literature. I absolutely could not tolerate H. W. Brands on the History Channel. But when I met him last fall and heard his talk about Texas history, I changed my mind. Lone Star Nation is an excellent survey of our rich history.
I grew up in Jacksboro where the 6th Cavalry and 10th Cavalry were stationed at Fort Richardson after the Civil War. Allen Lee Hamilton wrote Sentinel of the Southern Plains while David Paul Smith wrote Frontier Defense in the Civil War. Both were relative to my childhood adventures at the Fort and contributed to stories my family told.
My great-grandmother was a child during the days the Comanches and Kiowas roamed the region with intent to frighten the newcomers away. S. C. Gwynne, wrote Empire of the Summer Moon. Dr. Paul Carlson of Texas Tech questioned some of Gwynne’s statements in Myth, Memory, and Massacre, but by and large Gwynne’s book is much more readable than Carlson’s academic piece. I recommend both, though.
Trails to Texas by Terry G. Jordan has been my go-to book for many years. I use it for genealogy, history, and just interesting reading. Jordan was not a historian, but a geographer.
Our own Hunt County native Matt White, instructor at PJC Greenville, researched and wrote Prairie Time. Not really history but more about native plants, it is a great guide to use on a drive or hike across the Blackland Prairie.
It wouldn’t be an accurate appraisal of Texas literature without The Evolution of a State by Noah Smithwick. He was not scholar but wrote a perfect description of early Texas. In the late 1850 he moved to California, not to look for gold, but because he could not tolerate slavery.
Another wonderful account of travel in the Republic of Texas is A Journey Through Texas by Frederick Lawe Olmstead, a gentleman from the Northeast that reported Texas as it was at that time. You may know him as the one who created Central Park in New York City.
Now for some great work by local historians. Thad Sitton and Jim Conrad introduced the world to Freedom Colonies, homes to former slaves after the Civil War. Kyle G. Wilkison followed up with Yeomen, Sharecropper and Socialists – Plain Folks Protest in Texas 1870-1914. Both will open your eyes to conditions believed to be incredible here in Hunt County. Both must reads for everyone.
And there is Worst Hard Times by Timothy Egan. It was part of Ken Burns’ Dust Bowl series. Great research, great writing, and a great amount of tears flow as you read it. Another weather-related book is Through a Night of Horrors by Casey Edwards Greene and Shelly Henley Kelly, both archivists at the Rosenwald Library in Galveston. At the time Shelly was working on this book, I was trying to determine if my great-grandfather was in Galveston during the 1900 hurricane. She wanted to know about an ancestor J. Fred Norsworthy who was the loan officer at Tom King’s bank in Greenville. What was his connection to the King/ Austin drowning?
Shelly couldn’t find my Dr. Matthews in Galveston, but I later found him near Nacogdoches at the same time. I found Norsworthy in Sulphur Springs and later in Tulsa. All very suspicious. But, Through a Night of Horrors is one of the best regarding the Galveston Storm.
I have a lot more on my list. With summer knocking at the door, I will share more of my list for reading in those hot days of July and August. Very little is fiction, but good old Texas stories from the Spanish regime until the 1950s.