Although fall is my favorite season, spring is none too shabby itself. In fact, when we are blessed with the generous rains we often are in spring, Central Texas explodes into lush greens and bursts into wild blues, yellows, reds, whites, and pinks along roadsides, parks, and throughout pastures. It is a glorious time of … Continue reading Spring
Category: American Literature
Why We Write
The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life. Zadie Smith I have just completed the Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference in Colorado Springs. No, it was not atop the famous mountain. I am high-altitude and deep drop-offs averse, though admiring the snow-crested Pike’s Peak with my feet firmly … Continue reading Why We Write
Literary Texas: John Graves, Part 2
A limestone ledge on a stream near Hardscrabble, John Graves’ former ranch. “April and May can be magnificent with birdsong and wildflowers and greenery gone crazy, and if good rains come in late August or September, as they often do, early fall can be a sort of verdant second spring before frosts turn red and … Continue reading Literary Texas: John Graves, Part 2
Alone
There are those times in our lives when the crushing throngs around us become too much to deal with, and we seek the calm of solitude or the society of a select few. One need not be a misanthrope to desire the quiet and still, the company of “old dogs and watermelon wine,’ or the … Continue reading Alone
Literary Texas: John Graves
Texas State University in San Marcos owns an interesting item, for an institution of higher learning, that is. It is an old, maple canoe paddle and is highly valued there. "The paddle, part of the university's Wittliff Collections of papers and artifacts from Southwestern literature, was used by John Graves on a trip down the … Continue reading Literary Texas: John Graves
Literary Texas: Larry McMurtry, Part 2
The main building of McMurtry's famous bookstore Booked Up. Who would think that Larry McMurtry’s world and that of Chip Gaines’ (former star of HGTV’s Fixer Upper) would ever collide? But as of December 2022, it has. More about that later. Larry McMurtry left Houston and Texas in 1969. By this time, he had published … Continue reading Literary Texas: Larry McMurtry, Part 2
Literary Texas: Larry McMurtry
Archer City's "Last Picture Show." I have a confession to make as I write this piece. I have read only one book by Larry McMurtry and that a nonfiction book titled Paradise. I cannot now find the book (a common problem for me) nor can I remember it well. I did, however, see the movie … Continue reading Literary Texas: Larry McMurtry
Literary Texas: Robert E. Howard, Part 2
The home of Dr. and Mrs. Howard and their son Robert. Robert Ervin Howard--creator of Conan the Barbarian and the Sword and Sorcery genre of fiction, a prolific writer of pulp fantasy, speculative fiction, extreme sport fiction, westerns, and other heroic narratives--also wrote poetry. It will likely surprise no one, therefore, that much of that … Continue reading Literary Texas: Robert E. Howard, Part 2
Literary Texas: Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard, another rural, small-town Texan born around the turn of the twentieth century, made a lasting mark on the fiction world. He was, though, quite different from both the high church architect of literary fiction Katherine Anne Porter and the son-of-the-Texas-soil Fred Gipson despite this fact of time and space, a space that … Continue reading Literary Texas: Robert E. Howard
Literary Texas: Fred Gipson, Part 2
Fred Gipson (1908-1973) published his most famous work Old Yeller in 1956. A prolific author of short stories, fiction and non-fiction books, articles, and movie scripts, he was born in the ruggedly beautiful Texas Hill Country. It was a place he loved and could never leave for long. When, after its publication in 1956, Walt … Continue reading Literary Texas: Fred Gipson, Part 2