Being Texan
January 22, 2020
Fredericksburg Is the New Aspen
The jewel of the Hill Country, my hometown, is lovelier than ever. I just wish more of the natives could afford to stick around and enjoy it. Scenes from a town transformed.
19 Articles
Art
April 30, 1999
Arte and Soul
Thirty years ago, Monterrey had no galleries, no museums, and no collectors. Today, it’s an art market that rivals Dallas and Houston.
Energy
March 1, 1988
The Man Who Crushed Texaco
Judges take his money. Juries buy his bull. And when clients like Pennzoil need a tiger in their tank, they hire Joe Jamail.
Music
May 1, 1987
Every Good Boy Does Fine
In the late seventies, celebrated pianist Van Cliburn inexplicably disappeared from public life. No tortured artist in hiding, Cliburn is having the time of his life sitting around his Fort Worth mansion in his bathrobe.
Texas History
February 1, 1987
The Empress of Fort Worth
Anne Bass married one of the richest men in America. With his money and her ambition she became an important cultural force in Fort Worth and New York. Life was perfect. Then her husband left her.
Health
February 1, 1985
Leaving the Bottle Behind
Like any disease, alcoholism has specific symptoms. Like many religions, drying-out programs require abstinence, blind faith, and confession.
High Life
July 31, 1984
“My, Don’t You Sparkle!”
Elyse Robins will sell you that gaudy bauble she’s wearing at dinner for only forty. Thousand, that is.
Travel & Outdoors
June 30, 1984
The Man Who Dreamed Up Luckenbach
Hondo Crouch went from being a champion athlete to being the sad clown of Texas’s fun-and-games capital.
Books
April 30, 1984
Uncivil Wars
Civil Wars is armed with first-rate writing; Free Agents is a grab bag of Max Apple’s short fiction; Edisto is a precocious first novel; Group Therapy doesn’t probe deeply enough; Lords of the Earth is yet another Texas oil saga.
Books
December 1, 1983
Another Pilgrim’s Progress
The last book by native Texan William Goyen, Arcadio is a weird and wonderful fable about a search for self-acceptance and peace.
Art
May 1, 1983
Larger Than Life
Tom Lea, the grand old man of Texas painting, grew up among giants. No wonder he always used a big canvas.
Style & Design
March 1, 1983
Lyndon Johnson, Hairdresser, Prepares for Battle
The long afternoons of the best friend the rich women of Houston have ever had.
Being Texan
March 1, 1982
The Very Rich Life of Enrico di Portanova
Hugh Roy Cullen found the oil and made one of Houston’s great fortunes; now his grandson is spending his inheritance like there is no tomorrow, and suing for more.
Business
September 30, 1981
A Little Bit of Heaven
Once the Hill Country meant small towns and Spartan values; now it’s ranchettes and easy living.
Being Texan
July 1, 1981
A Simple Man
Archbishop Patrick Flores acts like a country priest, but he has a tough job: he is the most powerful Catholic clergyman in Texas, and perhaps the most powerful Mexican American as well.
Border & Immigration
September 1, 1979
The Promised Land
Work is tarring rooftops in the scorching Texas heat, home is a falling-down shanty visited by rats and roaches, supper is boiled potatoes and tortillas. It's the good life for two illegal Mexican immigrants trying to make it in America.
Border & Immigration
September 30, 1977
The Long Road North
Across the river and into the brush; an eyewitness account of the journey of two wetbacks.
Health
May 31, 1977
The Power
Burning a candle a day keeps the hexes away.
Health
April 1, 1977
The Lifesavers
Every night at Ben Taub Hospital’s emergency room is a night of the living dead.