Texas Christian University Press has introduced a series that has much potential in the marketplace.
Called "Texas Small Books," the volumes are hardcover, 96 pages and priced at $8.95. They're intended as last-minute gifts or stocking stuffers, or for readers wanting a quick read about a Texas topic.
The first three books in the series deal with Texas women, movies and country singers. All were written by authors with great literary credentials.
Judy Alter, editor of TCU Press and author of many books, wrote Extraordinary Texas Women. Don Graham, the J. Frank Dobie professor at the University of Texas, penned State Fare ... An Irreverent guide to Texas Movies. Writers Phil Fry of Austin and James Ward Lee of Fort Worth teamed for Texas Country Singers.
Coming this fall are two more small books: Texas Football Legends by veteran author Carlton Stowers and Great Texas Chefs by Judy Alter.
The books are not intended to be complete treatises on their subjects. Think of them as literary appetizers.
Alter's book on Texas women begins with pioneers such as Jane Long and Susanna Dickinson and concludes with modern-day women in politics, such as Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards and Lady Bird Johnson.
In between are writer Katherine Anne Porter, pilot Bessie Coleman, Alamo benefactors Adina de Zavala and Clara Driscoll, sports heroine Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and bakery founder Ninnie Baird.
The book covers 26 women, and Alter notes that "this is but a sampling, an invitation to explore more deeply."
In his book on Texas movies, Graham points out that the films mentioned in his book deal with Texas subjects but were not necessarily shot in Texas.
The first Texas movie, Texas Tex, was actually filmed in Denmark.
Graham begins with a silent film, Martyrs of the Alamo; or the Birth of Texas, from 1915, and profiles 37 altogether while mentioning dozens more, including some not yet released.
You will recognize some of them, such as Giant, Hud, Bonnie and Clyde, Tender Mercies (one of my favorites), and various versions of The Alamo. Others might be less familiar to the average reader.
Fry and Lee begin Texas Country Singers with a disclaimer: "Before anybody gets worked up, we know a lot of great Texas singers are missing from these pages," a point they go on to explain -- not all that satisfactorily -- in seven introductory pages.
It's kind of hard to justify not including, for example, Billy Joe Shaver, Gary P. Nunn, Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Red Steagall, Michael Martin Murphy and Kenny Rogers.
But when you get to the 25 who made the cut, it's a worthy list. They include Gene Autry, George Jones, Barbara Mandrell, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens, Tex Ritter, George Strait, Ernest Tubb and Tanya Tucker.
Maybe the writers will follow up with a More Texas Country Singers volume.
• Glenn Dromgoole writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@ suddenlink.net.
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