Books
October 11, 2013
The Class of ’63
The good, the bad, and the most self-indulgent of this year’s JFK assassination books.
The Culture
February 12, 2013
Still Searching
A new book looks at the links between Cynthia Ann Parker and an iconic John Ford western.
Books
January 21, 2013
Friedrichsburg Revisited
The German novel, penned in 1867 and set in the just-settled Hill Country hamlet, gets a modern translation.
Books
January 20, 2013
Katherine the Great
Indian Creek native Katherine Anne Porter is the finest author ever to come out of Texas. But only recently has her home state stopped writing her off.
Books
January 20, 2013
Writers Bloc
What did Graham Greene observe about crossing the border into Mexico in 1938? Would you believe Molly Ivins was born in California? Here are my picks for the fifty greatest literary moments in Texas, plus a roster of leading lights who are from here—and some who aren't.
Books
January 20, 2013
Bohemian Rhapsody
An ambitious, sometimes bewildering, debut novel about Czech Texas.
Books
January 20, 2013
Expatriate Act
While some Texas-born writers had to leave home to do their best work, for John Graves the reverse was true.
Film & TV
January 20, 2013
Picture Perfect
Why Peter Bogdanovich filmed in black and white, who discovered Cybill Shepherd, which onetime soap opera diva read for the role of Jacy, and other secrets of the making of The Last Picture Show .
Books
January 20, 2013
Catcher in the Raw
Forty years after its publication, Horseman, Pass By is still one of Larry McMurtry's finest novelsand as groundbreaking as J. D. Salinger's masterpiece.
Books
January 20, 2013
Nation State
Does anyone outside of Texas care about Texas history? H. W. Brands hopes so, and he's not the only one.
Books
December 1, 2011
Father Knows West
Is it time to revisit Larry McMurtry’s Berrybender Narratives?
Books
July 31, 2011
Gunfire and Brimstone
Fort Worth preacher J. Frank Norris paved the way for today’s televangelists. But he’s probably best known as the defendant in a wild 1927 murder trial.
Books
May 31, 2011
The Book of Elmer
Texas Christian University Press, long the hub of Elmer Kelton hagiography, has just released its newest paterikon, Elmer Kelton: Essays and Memories ($19.95), a collection of pieces written in honor of the beloved West Texas author, who died nearly two years ago. Among the memories are those of the Reverend
Don Graham
June 30, 2007
Dunces of Confederacy
What to do about those controversial statues on the University of Texas at Austin campus.
Don Graham
November 1, 2005
You’ve Got Mailer
The famously crotchety writer’s hate-love relationship with Texas.
Texas History
February 1, 2005
Fallen Heroes
One riot, one Ranger, one much-maligned historian: rereading Walter Prescott Webb.
Books
November 1, 2004
Accentuate The Negative
To read a Patricia Highsmith novel is to suspend one’s moral judgments. She irresistibly persuades us to side with killers and other amoral characters.
Don Graham
July 31, 2004
White Like Me
Growing up in segregated Collin County, I was oblivious to the impact of Jim Crowuntil I read John Howard Griffin's American classic.
Feature
December 1, 2003
Alamo Heights
So much is at stake that we almost—almost—believe the release date of Disney's epic-to-be was delayed from Christmas Day to April for the reasons the studio claims. But given the way historical movies usually turn out, can you blame us for smirking?
Books
September 30, 2003
Not-So-Great Plains
Suzan-Lori Parks gets the culture and cadence of West Texas right, sort of; Annie Proulx doesn't.
Books
April 30, 2003
Not Moving On
Fifteen years after Larry McMurtry announced he was through writing novels, he shows no sign of letting up. For this we should be thankful.
Books
January 1, 2003
Master Class
No one took the literature of Texas or the Southwest seriously until J. Frank Dobie put it, and us, on the map.
Politics & Policy
December 1, 2002
The Secret History
Did Richard King cheat his partner's heirs out of a chunk of the King Ranch nearly 120 years ago? He may have—and if the Texas Supreme Court permits Chapman v. King Ranch, Inc., to go to trial, the past could come back to haunt the state's most storied spread.
News & Politics
April 30, 2002
Giant
Master of the Senate, Robert Caro's third volume on the life of Lyndon Johnson, is an exhaustive study of power, persuasion, and private parts.
The Culture
February 1, 2002
Mission: Impossible
Rumor has it that director Ron Howard and screenwriter John Sayles are coming to Austin this spring to make a $100 million movie about the Alamo. It may be too much to ask that they get Texas' defining battle right (since no one knows what really happened), but I've got
Web Exclusive
January 1, 2002
Now That’s Comedy
What's so funny about an oilman, a rancher, a golfer, and a carnival hobo? Watch the following top ten funniest Texas movies to find out why these main characters (and others) are so hilarious.
Books
July 31, 2001
The Write Brothers
A memoir conjures up Donald Barthelmeand sheds light on his talented siblings.
Books
April 1, 2001
Knightmare
Aaron Latham's new novel about a cowboy Camelot gets lost in the bull.
Texas Classics
March 1, 2001
And The Earth Did Not Devour Him
. . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him.
Books
December 1, 2000
The Sportswriter
Confessions of a Washed-up Sportswriter (Including Various Digressions About Sex, Crime, and Other Hobbies.)
Books
September 30, 2000
The Pits
The problem with Mary Karr's latest confessional memoir, Cherry, is that she won't stop confessing.
Feature
March 1, 2000
Wayne’s World
A flood, a fire, a car accident, a murder, and of course, a restaging of the battle for Texas’ independence: scenes from the making of The Alamo.