The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990 Page: 545
598 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
support throughout her life. Her story reveals the variety of ways fe-
male networks functioned on the frontier.
Dumont wrote her autobiography in 1927-1928 and tried for years
to get it published by a company that would pay royalties. She always
had a sharp eye out to make money but was not successful in negotiat-
ing a publication contract. Perhaps it is just as well; her autobiography
is more timely today because of interest in women's history. The pub-
lication of primary sources is essential to research in women's history.
The half-century delay means also that the autobiography comes well
documented and therefore much more useful for historians and the
general public.
In her introduction Emily Fourmy Cutrer ably places Dumont's auto-
biography in the broader context of women's history, noting the tension
between cultural expectations in prescriptive literature and the reali-
ties of frontier environment. Cutrer observes that while Dumont's life
"corroborates many of the standard generalizations about nineteenth-
century culture" (p. xiii), she was neither a "type" or a "case study"
(p. xv). Ella Dumont's "constant struggle between her inner longings
and the opportunities her environment offered" is for Cutrer and this
reviewer one of the "most compelling" dimensions of this autobiog-
raphy (p. xv).
McMurry College FANE DOWNS
Turn Your Eyes Toward Texas: Pioneers Sam and Mary Maverick. By Paula
Mitchell Marks. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1989.
Pp. xvi+323. Preface, acknowledgments, illustrations, maps, charts,
conclusion, notes, bibliography, index. $27.50.)
The lives of Sam and Mary Maverick spanned much of the critical,
early period of Texas history. Given the prominence of the Maverick
name in the state's history and the significant records that both left of
their experiences-he in the form of correspondence and business
records and she in letters, diaries, and memoirs-it is surprising that,
prior to this one, there has been no full-scale biography of either of
these stalwart Texans. Paula Mitchell Marks has ambitiously set out
to correct this double oversight by writing a dual biography of the
Mavericks. For the most part she has succeeded admirably.
The author performs well the difficult task of blending the highly
public life of Sam with the intensely private one of Mary. Noting that
historians once would have paid little attention to Mary, Marks writes:
"Today, social historians will be far more interested in Mary's rich
record of her emotional life than in her husband's empire building"
(p. xii). Nevertheless, Mrs. Maverick's life after marriage was largely de-545
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990, periodical, 1990; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101213/m1/615/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.