The Class of ’63
The good, the bad, and the most self-indulgent of this year’s JFK assassination books.
The good, the bad, and the most self-indulgent of this year’s JFK assassination books.
A new book looks at the links between Cynthia Ann Parker and an iconic John Ford western.
The German novel, penned in 1867 and set in the just-settled Hill Country hamlet, gets a modern translation.
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.
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.
Dobie, Bedichek, and Webb were the leading Texas writers and intellectuals of their age. But as ribald raconteurs, they were ahead of their time.
An ambitious, sometimes bewildering, debut novel about Czech Texas.
While some Texas-born writers had to leave home to do their best work, for John Graves the reverse was true.
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.
Our selections for some of the best contemporary Texas books.
A Prince of a Fellow
Does anyone outside of Texas care about Texas history? H. W. Brands hopes so, and he's not the only one.
Is it time to revisit Larry McMurtry’s Berrybender Narratives?
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.
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
Larry McMurtry’s new memoir plays it close to the vest.
63 things that all Texans must do before they die.
Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives.
Cormac McCarthy’s ubiquity problem.
What to do about those controversial statues on the University of Texas at Austin campus.
The famously crotchety writer’s hate-love relationship with Texas.
Cormac McCarthy’s latest is bloody good.
The awful truth about The Liars’ Club.
One riot, one Ranger, one much-maligned historian: rereading Walter Prescott Webb.
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.
Growing up in segregated Collin County, I was oblivious to the impact of Jim Crowuntil I read John Howard Griffin's American classic.
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?
Suzan-Lori Parks gets the culture and cadence of West Texas right, sort of; Annie Proulx doesn't.
Fifteen years after Larry McMurtry announced he was through writing novels, he shows no sign of letting up. For this we should be thankful.
No one took the literature of Texas or the Southwest seriously until J. Frank Dobie put it, and us, on the map.
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.
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.
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
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.
A memoir conjures up Donald Barthelmeand sheds light on his talented siblings.
Larry McMurty's latest.
Aaron Latham's new novel about a cowboy Camelot gets lost in the bull.
. . . And the Earth Did Not Devour Him.
The Perfect Sonya.
Confessions of a Washed-up Sportswriter (Including Various Digressions About Sex, Crime, and Other Hobbies.)
Strange Peaches.
Alpaca
The problem with Mary Karr's latest confessional memoir, Cherry, is that she won't stop confessing.
Blood Meridian.
Sam Chamberlain's My Confession.
My First Thirty Years.
The Time It Never Rained.
Rules for movies about music.
The Log of a Cowboy.
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.
Viva Max!