Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole
12.24.2017 Hall of Fame Ranger lawmen profiled in new series
The University of North Texas Press has published The Ranger Ideal, Volume 1: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, 1823–1861 by Darren L. Ivey ($39.95 hardcover, 650 pages).
This first book in a planned three-part series offers 40- to 70-page profiles of such early-day Ranger luminaries as Bigfoot Wallace, John C. Hays, and Lawrence Sullivan Ross, with about 250 pages of endnotes, bibliography and index. The Texas Ranger Museum and Hall of Fame is in Waco.
Pecos stories: Spur Award-winning Midland author Patrick Dearen writes about the history, legends and folklore of the Pecos River region of West Texas in Castle Gap and the Pecos Frontier, Revisited (TCU Press, $22.50 paperback). Stories in the collection include the ghost of Fort Stockton, the Lost Wagon Train, and Will Sublett’s lost gold mine.
Vietnam summit: The Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas has published A War Remembered: The Vietnam War Summit at the LBJ Presidential Library by Mark K. Updegrove (UT Press, $39.95 hardcover).
The oversized volume includes speeches and panels from the April 2016 summit as well as historic photos from the Vietnam War era. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick talked about their then-upcoming ten-part documentary series on the Vietnam War, aired on PBS this fall.
Ranger novel: Novelist Jon Land’s ninth thriller featuring fearless fifth-generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong is Strong to the Bone (Forge, $26.99 hardcover).
His series of action-packed novels made its debut in 2009 with Strong Enough to Die and he has followed up with one every year since. Even if you haven’t read any of the previous novels in the series, you can still plunge right in with Catlin’s latest adventure.
Seguin namesake: Bill Neely has written A Tejano Knight: The Quest of Don Juan Seguin (neeleybooks.com, $29.99 hardcover), a comprehensive account of a military and political leader of the Texas Revolution who fought Santa Anna at San Jacinto, served as mayor of San Antonio, fled to Mexico where he claimed he was forced to fight for Mexico in its attempt to retake Texas, then returned to Texas to clear his name. The Texas town of Seguin is named for him.
* * * * *
Glenn Dromgoole is the author of Coleman Springs, USA, a collection of small town short fiction with no sex, no violence, no bad language, and no plot! Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.