40 ESSENTIAL BOOKS ABOUT TEXAS - A Reader's Anthology

I am an avid reader and my favorite topic, hands down, is any and everything about Texas. Texas is a state of mind and common threads run throughout. Cattle ranches, Oil Wells, Texas Rangers, Bigger than life Politicians, Bordellos, Comanche Indians, Mexican Bandits, Beer Joints, BBQ, Football, Hunting and Fishing, Religion, Money, Unique Literature and the list goes on and all form the colorful tapestry of past and present Texas.

I have tried to fashion a fun list of classic books and authors who have best painted the picture of Texas. I am a reader not a writer and these books are for regular folks who like to read. Enjoy!

TEXAS SPECIALS

Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch. Jayme Lynn Blaschke writes the Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. It’s OK for me to include it in the list, after all, it was made into both a musical and a movie.

The Train to Crystal City. Jan Jarboe Russell writes about the World War II family internment center in Crystal City. Thousand of Japanese families were housed there during the war. They book was an award winning New York Times best seller.

No Country for Old Men. This is a crime novel about violent drug-runners set in the Texas-Mexico border country. Unfortunately, little has changed along the border. Cormac McCarthy is a Pulitzer prize winning author of The Road and The Border Trilogy.

The Last Sheriff in Texas. Chronicle of the rise and fall of an iconic sheriff of Bee County in the 1940s when Texas County sheriff’s wielded almost total life and death power. James P. McCollum, who grew up in Beeville, writes a great story of rural Texas in the 1940s and 50’s as society begins to change.

Friday Night Lights. Classic story of Texas high school football written by Pulitzer Prize winning author H. G. Bissinger. Named Sport’s Illustrated best football book of all time and also #1 NYT bestseller.

Blood and Money. Thomas Thompson writes a murder thriller based in 1970s Houston high society. It is a true story of greed, violence, and obsession involving a plastic surgeon, his society horsewoman wife, her father, a prostitute, a professional killer among many others.

Pecos Bill. Steven Kellogg writes and illustrates this version of the fabled Texas cowboy hero. Mythology at its best. Bill was a ring tail tooter (until he met a girl named Sue). Every grandchild should learn how to read with this book.

Candy Barr. Small Town Texas runaway, Dallas stripper, Las Vegas and Los Angeles burlesque dancer, prisoner at the Goree State Farm for Women, Huntsville Prison and back home to Edna all by the time she was 28. Texas Monthly magazine refers to Candy Barr as one of history’s “Perfect Texans”. Written by Ted Schwarz and Mardi Rustam.

Midnight Assassin. Story of unsolved Austin serial murders in 1884 and 1885. Skip Hollandsworth is the Author. Fascinating background of Austin transforming into a city.

Black Cowboys of Texas. Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students Texas A&M University. My favorite chapter is about Bob Lemmon a cowboy legend who lived in the brush country town of Carrizo Springs which is my hometown.

NONFICTION

King Ranch. Generally considered to be the quintessential history of the King Ranch. Beautiful photographs and illustrations. Two volume set. The author was Tom Lea well known as a muralist, illustrator, artist, war correspondent, novelist and historian. Lea had complete cooperation from the Kleberg family and access to their archives.

Texas Rangers. Walter Prescott Webb wrote this history in 1935. There are many, many accounts of the famed Texas Rangers but this book is considered to be the classic. Webb, a well known historian, is also the author of The Great Frontier among many other works.

Empire of the Summer Moon. An historical account written by S. C. Gwynne of the 40 year battle between the Comanche Indians and the Anglo settlers of Texas. Detailed treatment of Quanah Parker the last chief of the Comanches.

The Longhorns. Longhorn Cattle are central to the history of Texas. J. Frank Dobie’s book about them, written in 1941, is perhaps his best known work. No library is complete without several of Dobie’s books. Mustangs, Coronados’ Children, Cow People and A Vaquero of the Brush Country are among his best known. He also wrote The Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest.

Southwest. John Houghton Allen grew up on his family ranch near the Randado community in Jim Hogg County. It is a collection of tales about the brush county between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers during the 1920 to 1950 time period. His beautiful writing style blends fiction and non fiction. It is definitely worth the read.

The Big Rich. Story of four oilmen who made their fortunes in the Texas oilfields. The book focuses on; Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson. The Big Rich provides a fascinating overview of the early days of the oil business in Texas history. Written by the best selling author Bryan Burrough.

Adventures with a Texas Naturalist. Written by Roy Bedichek who is widely considered one of the Texas Triumvirate of literature along with J frank Dobie and Walter Prescott Webb. The book is a combining of politics, philosophy, history and nature into a classic about the impact Texas Land has on our culture.

Goodbye to a River. John Graves writes this book of a canoe trip down the Brazos River in North Central Texas which a series of dams has changed. His narrative is about the history of the land the rivers runs through. Larry McMurtry said, “John Grave’s writing is invaluable … The reader who misses Graves will have missed much”.

Issac’s Storm. Erik Larson writes about the 1900 Galveston hurricane, the nations deadliest natural, disaster which killed as many as 10,000 people. It is told through the experiences of Issac Monroe Cline who led the US Weather Bureau station in Galveston at the time. The award winning book was a NYT best seller.

The Deer Pasture. Rick Bass writes 17 essays about the 956 acres in the Texas Hill Country his family has leased for over 50 years. The deer hunting is really just a backdrop for the traditions and family good times. You can’t help but compare the deer pasture with a high fenced, scientifically managed deer ranch of today.

COLLECTIONS

In a Narrow Grave. A collection of essays written by Larry McMurtry in 1968 not long after writing his first novel Horseman Pass By (popularized in the movie HUD). The essays are very personal, self contemplative and give significant insight on other Texas authors of that time period. He includes a list of his favorite books about Texas.

God Save Texas. Lawrence Wright explains why he is a Texan and where he thinks our state is going in a series of insightful essays. They are some of the best writing I have ever enjoyed.

Lone Star Literature. Don Graham assembles a collection of work written by authors from O. Henry to H. Frank Dobie on thru Kinky Friedman.

NOVELS

Love is a Wild Assault. The beautiful and colorful Harriet Moore Page is a legend of early Texas. Elithe Hamilton Kirkland writes a wonderful historical novel based on the autobiography written by Page for her grand daughter.

Old Yeller. Fred Gipson wrote this beloved children’s classic in 1956. Old Yeller has won countless awards. A coming of age story about a young boy and his dog in early post civil war Texas.

The Gay Place. A trilogy of novellas with interlocking characters about Texas politics. The setting is Austin during the 1950s. A group of young progressive newcomers (mostly rich) interact with a crafty experienced governor. Lots of drinking, partying and scheming make for an interesting plot. Billy Lee Brammer is the author. He was on LBJ’s staff in Washington but writing was his first love so he moved to Austin. The Gay Place refers to the American literary scene in Paris during the 1920s. Brammer wrote only the one work before succumbing to drug addiction. Many believe The Gay Place to be the premier work about Texas politics ever written.

Giant. Written by Edna Ferber in 1952, the novel is about a lady from Virginia who marries the scion of a West Texas cattle ranch empire. Ferber uses the novel to describe the vastness of Texas in all respects. The setting is West Texas and covers several generations from the 1920’s thru the 1950s. Giant was made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean.

The Time It Never Rained. Elmer Kelton is the author. Kelton is an accomplished author about ranching in Texas. This novel is the one he is best known for. It is as good a depiction of the 7 years drought as any ever written. Ranchers are a hardy lot but they cannot compete against nature. The social, physical, psychological, and economic ravages of the 1950s drought in Texas are not often written about but Kelton brings them alive. This novel is in a class with Larry McMurtry’s Horseman Pass By.

Lonesome Dove. This novel by Larry McMurtry needs no introduction. No list of books about Texas is complete without it. The four book series includes; Streets of Laredo, Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon. A television miniseries was based on them but read the books.

The Iron Orchard. Novel about the struggle of a young man to survive and then become wealthy in the Texas Oil fields of the 1950s. The book was written by Edmund Pendleton Van Zandt who personally experienced much of what the story is about. The Iron Orchard was a cowinner of the 1967 Texas Institute of Letters along with The last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry.

HISTORY

Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans. Countless histories of Texas have been written but this one by T. R. Fehrenbach is considered by many to be the quintessential story of the Lone Star State.

Big Wonderful Thing. A recent (2019), widely acclaimed popular history of Texas. According to one review (Texas Monthly), “it reads more like Lonesome Dove than something you might have been assigned in your seventh grade history class”. The author is award winning Stephen Harrigan a long time writer for Texas Monthly and a faculty fellow at the University of Texas.

13 Days to Glory. Written by Lon Tinkle, this a well researched and documented history of the siege of the Alamo. He spends a great deal of time developing many of the main characters particularly Santa Ana and William Barret Travis.

BIOGRAPHIES & MEMOIRS

The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston. This Pulitzer Prize Winner was written by Marquis James in the 1920s. It is a comprehensive work of the life of the Hero of San Jacinto.

Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas. Gregg Cantrall is the author of this detailed study of this complex man who was instrumental in the foundation of modern Texas.

The Years of Lyndon Johnson. LBJ was bigger than life and dominated Texas and American politics like no other politician. Pulitzer Prize winner Robert A. Caro has written a four volume history of Johnson’s life; The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, Master of the Senate and The Passage of Power. He is currently engaged in the fifth and final volume.

Let the People In: Life and Times of Ann Richards. Biography of Governor Ann Richards written by Jan Reid. Texas has had a lot of colorful governors but Ann Richards wins the title hands down.

Charles Goodnight. J. Evetts Haley is the author. No history of Texas is complete without reference to Charles Goodnight. Just a few of his exploits and accomplishments include; emigrating to Texas at nine, hunting with Caddo Indians at 10, wagon drover in his teens, cattle rancher at 20, Texas Ranger at 24, established the 2,000 mile Goodnight-Loving cattle trail, owned and managed a nearly 20 million acre cattle ranch and conservationist (preservation of almost extinct buffalos.

Bigfoot Wallace. The Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace: The Texas Ranger and Hunter was written by John C. Duval a fellow ranger. Wallace epitomizes the iconic adventurer of early Texas. He came to Texas to revenge the killing of his brother and cousin by the Mexican Army. Wallace fought in the Texas Revolution, the Mier Expedition and was a famous Texas Rangers during the Comanche Wars.

The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean. C. L. Sonnichsen is the author of Judge Roy Bean: Law West of the Pecos. Judge Roy Bean was perhaps the most colorful character in Texas history and that is saying a lot. There are several other biographies available as well.

SUMMARY

Each of these books ls a valuable stand alone piece of literature. Warning, if you read any one of them, you will quickly become addicted to reading about Texas.

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