Böcker i Texas Tradition Series-serien

In the 1870s, buffalo hunters moved onto the High Plains of Texas. The Plains Indians watched hunters slaughter the animals that gave them shelter and clothing, food and weapons. The author presents both sides of a clash between cultures. With a firm grasp of Comanche life, he describes 'The People' as very human and very threatened.

As he flees to the sanctuary of Mexico, Chacho Fernandez is unaware of the fuel he has added to the already simmering racial hatreds in and around the quiet town of Domingo, Texas. Through events set in motion by a misunderstanding, Chacho becomes a folk hero to his people and a dangerous fugitive to a group of zealous lawmen.

Hewey is back; older, wiser, and badly banged up trying to break a renegade bronc. His wandering days are over because of his injuries, because of fences that cut up the range, because of trucks and automobiles. But how will Hewey handle the new circumstances of his life? And how will Spring react to his return?

Cile Tate is leaving her Presbyterian preacher husband to return to the early love of her life, Drew Williams. When Cile decides to leave Eben Tate, she is amazed that he announces her abandonment of him and their two daughters from his pulpit. All this makes Cile a fallen woman in the eyes of the church members and the citizens of Waco.

Actress Pauline Terry is so successful in a performance of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya that one critic calls her "the perfect Sonya." But her life is not what she expected when she left Texas for Broadway. She swims in a fish tank in a New Jersey bar to make a living, most auditions do not result in callbacks, and her marriage is shaky. Called home by her father's imminent death, she confronts both the past she thought she'd left behind and her uncertain future. For solace she turns to her aunt's former husband, Will Hand, a professor and nature writer. But their affair is brief and leaves her more uncertain than ever. Back in New York, Pauline realizes that her life onstage cannot make up for the emptiness of her life offstage. Her return to Texas was a transforming experience, leading her ultimately to come to terms with her childhood memories, her marriage, her dramatic ambitions, and finally, herself. The Perfect Sonya, first published in 1987 by Viking Penguin, won the Jesse Jones Award for the Best Novel of 1987 from the Texas Institute of Letters.

Ellen Marshall, divorced and remarried, is troubled by her son's refusal to accept her second husband, but takes great comfort from her five-year-old daughter of her second marriage. She hopes to help little Ellen see that women need to break the bonds that society has forced upon them.

The story of Sam Bass, both outlaw and romantic figure, has become a familiar part of Texas folklore and is well documented in nonfiction. But in this novel, Bryan Woolley creates a compelling story by giving the antihero fictional life.

In a play that is realistic, sometimes humorous, and always profoundly moving, Larry L. King deals with the problems of aging and our mistaken stereotypes and impersonal treatment of the elderly. Cowboy Bennett, long a resident of the Golden Shadows Senior Citizens Home, is a man with not only memories of the past but also dreams of the future for himself and his companions--especially the charming widow, Flora Harper. At the play's end, you'll want to stand and yell, "Ya! Ya!" with Cowboy. Best known as coauthor of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Larry L. King as both essayist and play-wright consistently demonstrates an uncanny ability to use Texas settings and characters successfully to explore universal themes. Author of five plays, one novel, and eleven nonfiction books (including Warning: Writer at Work and Larry L. King: A Writer's Life in Letters, Or, Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye, both from TCU Press), King has won numerous awards for his writing, held a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, and has taught at the university level. The Golden Shadows Old West Museum is based on Michael Blackman's short story, which was named the Best Short Fiction of 1973 by the Texas Institute of Letters. The text of the short story is included in this edition. Cover drawing by Pat Oliphant.