The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 531

This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Southwestern Historical Quarterly and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association.

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Book Reviews

frequent errors of typography-do not detract from Santerre's
work. Under the scars of their white cliffs lies evidence of his
industry, research, and love.
E. C. BARKSDALE
Arlington State College
Tales of Old-Time Texas. By J. Frank Dobie. Boston (Little,
Brown and Company), 1955. Pp. xiv+310. Illustrations.
$5.00.
J. Frank Dobie has never swallowed the belief held in some
quarters that Texans are a race apart, nor has he ever flirted with
that too numerous group of Texans and/or storytellers who be-
lieve that the best Texas stories are those that "brag." But he has
been blessed with an eye for the unique and an ear for the un-
usual and a writing talent that, in the words of Lon Tinkle, knows
how to build a sentence. And he knows that in an area with the
extended frontier experience of Texas and in an area in which
Mexican, Anglo, Negro, and German cultures-to name just
four-collided and sometimes fused and sometimes did not, there
are bound to be some stories worth remembering and worth
telling.
So here are countless Texas stories told in twenty-eight chap-
ters by the dean of Texas storytellers. Not much more need be
said. I could, for instance, point out my delight at the tales of the
cold-nosed hound, my amazement at the literal rivers of honey
which once flowed in Texas, or my fascination with the Booth-
Gedrie feud; but if I start on that tack, I will have to list at
least fifty stories. Suffice it to say that this is a good book to have
handy, for it can be picked up and read for five minutes or fifty,
at the start or in the middle, every day or with a gap of months
between readings; a good companion on a drizzling winter's night
or a lazy summer's afternoon; a book every bit as ample as the
man that wrote it and the people he has written about. Rather
than say more, let me close with the last two sentences of Dobie's
introduction: "Well," he writes, "I have gone in one canyon and
come out another. The way to spoil a story is to talk about it
rather than tell it." You will not catch me spoiling any stories here.
JOE B. FRANTZ
The University of Texas

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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/563/ocr/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.

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