Research Catalog

Title

Texas literary outlaws : six writers in the sixties and beyond / Steven L. Davis.

Author

Davis, Steven L.

Publication

Fort Worth, Tex. : TCU Press, [2004], ©2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 511 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"At the height of the sixties, a group of Texas writers stood apart from Texas' conservative establishment. Calling themselves the Mad Dogs, these six writers - Bud Shrake, Larry L. King, Billy Lee Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Dan Jekins, and Peter Gent - closely observed the effects of the Vietnam War; the Kennedy assassination; the rapid population shift from rural to urban environments; Lyndon Johnson's rise to national prominence; the Civil Rights movement; Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys; Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, and the new outlaw music scene; the birth of a Texas film industry; Texas Monthly magazine; the flowering of "Texas Chic"; and Ann Richards' election as governor." "In Texas Literary Outlaws, Steven L. Davis makes extensive use of untapped literary archives to weave together a fascinating portrait of writers who came of age during a period of rapid social change. With Davis' eye for vibrant detail and a broad historical perspective, Texas Literary Outlaws moves easily between H. L. Hunt's Dallas mansion and the West Texas oil patch, from the New York literary salon of Elaine's to the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin, from Dennis Hopper on a film set in Mexico to Jerry Jeff Walker crashing a party at Princeton University. The Mad Dogs were less interested in Texas' mythic past than in the world they knew firsthand - a place of fast-growing cities and hard-edged political battles."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Shrake, Edwin
• American literature > Texas > History and criticism
• King, Larry L
• Authors, American > Homes and haunts > Texas
• Cartwright, Gary, 1934-2017
• Jenkins, Dan
• Brammer, Billy Lee
• Texas > In literature
• Texas > Intellectual life > 20th century
• Gent, Peter

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 492-501) and index.

Contents

Texas literary outlaws -- 1. A rebel in West Texas -- 2. A Texas Oasis -- 3. The gay place -- 4. Fort Worth's new journalism -- 5. The Texas beats -- 6. Big D meets the Flying Punzars -- 7. A gathering force -- 8. A long way from Beaumont -- 9. Dallas, 1963 -- 10. A new beginning -- 11. The doors of perception -- 12. Literary Comanches -- 13. These happy occasions -- 14. The one-eyed man -- 15. Cowboys and Indians -- 16. Harper's on the rise -- 17. Obscure famous Arthurs -- 18. Absurdism in the Southwest -- 19. Busted in the Oasis -- 20. Harvard's "White Racist" -- 21. Land of the permanent wave -- 22. Mad Dog, Texas -- 23. King's road -- 24. Outlaws -- 25. Hack observations and literary feuds -- 26. Redneck hippies -- 27. Strange peaches -- 28. Semi-tough -- 29. A new view of Texas -- 30. The cowboy professor -- 31. Live music capital -- 32. North Dallas forty -- 33. The regenerator erection laboratory -- 34. Challenging Texas -- 35. Changes at Sports Illustrated -- 36. Texas' Gonzo journalist -- 37. Texas brain fry -- 38. LBJ, speed, and paranoia -- 39. Hollywood vs. Sports Illustrated -- 40. Whorehouse -- 41. A fraction of his talent -- 42. Measures of success -- 43. Hitting the wall -- 44. A recovery -- 45. "Ever a bridegroom" -- 46. Third coast -- 47. Faces in the fire -- 48. Jenkins -- 49. King -- 50. Cartwright -- 51. Shrake -- 52. "Doing indefinable services of mankind"

ISBN

0875652859 (alk. paper)

LCCN

2003018984

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries