The Last Liberal
As Jan Reid's new biography makes clear, Ann Richards was one of the most magnetic politicians of the past thirty years. So why didn’t she leave much of a legacy?
As Jan Reid's new biography makes clear, Ann Richards was one of the most magnetic politicians of the past thirty years. So why didn’t she leave much of a legacy?
Robert Caro on LBJ. Marcus Luttrell on war. Douglas Brinkley on Walter Cronkite. James Donovan on the Alamo. Steve Coll on ExxonMobil. Ben Fountain on a surreal Dallas Cowboys halftime show. Dan Rather and Sissy Spacek on themselves. For some reason, May has turned out to be a month like
Why doesn’t Texas’s greatest movie actress get the respect she deserves?
The latest Alamo chronicler offers a glimpse of his reference library.
The author of Cronkite answers the question: What’s the most surprising thing you learned about Walter Cronkite?
Six interesting facts about the retired CBS news anchorman found in his new book, Rather Outspoken.
The fourth volume of an epic LBJ biography stirs more controversy.
What lies beneath the hood of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest oil company?
The author of Private Empire: ExxonMobile and American Power answers the question: In terms of difficulty, how would you compare reporting on Exxon with the reporting you did for your previous book, The Bin Ladens?
The acclaimed author is publishing his first novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. And some of his neighbors may not be happy.
The author of Lone Survivor still has his gun at the ready.
The New Yorker writer talks about his latest book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power.
In the forthcoming Ron Paul’s rEVOLution, journalist Brian Doherty takes an up-close look at the libertarian Texas congressman.
Bizarre similes pour forth from debut novelist Jonathan Woods’s fingers like wine from a bottomless bottle that is also missing its cork.
The German novel, penned in 1867 and set in the just-settled Hill Country hamlet, gets a modern translation.
Before the End, After the Beginning, the author's first collection since his stroke, draws on his personal crisis for inspiration.
Joe R. Lansdale has made a career out of a hard-boiled vision of East Texas.
His stories are grotesque, disturbing, and award-winning: Meet Nacogdoches’ Joe R. Lansdale, the most twisted writer in Texas.
Indian Creek native Katherine Anne Porter is the finest author ever to come out of Texas. But only recently has her home state stopped writing her off.
Why a lavish two-volume attack on the border fence, with photos by Maurice Sherif, misses the mark.
What did Graham Greene observe about crossing the border into Mexico in 1938? Would you believe Molly Ivins was born in California? Here are my picks for the fifty greatest literary moments in Texas, plus a roster of leading lights who are from here—and some who aren't.
Dobie, Bedichek, and Webb were the leading Texas writers and intellectuals of their age. But as ribald raconteurs, they were ahead of their time.
It's the question on everyone's mind now that the former attorney general is suddenly running for governor. The answer could determine whether his political prospects go up in smoke.
On his new novel, Kings of Colorado, and more.
Read an excerpt from the new novel.
An ambitious, sometimes bewildering, debut novel about Czech Texas.
On their new book, Desert Duty: On the Line With the U.S. Border Patrol.
Read an excerpt from the new book by Bill Broyles and Mark Haynes.
Jeff Dunham speaks for himself.
Twenty-five years ago, Larry McMurtry published a novel called Lonesome Dove—and Texas hasn’t looked the same since. Listen in as more than thirty writers, critics, producers, and actors, from Peter Bogdonavich and Dave Hickey to Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, and Anjelica Huston, tell the stories behind the book (and
TEXAS MONTHLY is proud to be a sponsor of the Texas Book Festival, which is held in Austin on October 16 and 17. For a complete listing of events, check out the official schedule. To see which sessions TEXAS MONTHLY editors and writers are participating in, see the schedule
Rick Riordan greeks out with a Percy Jackson spin-off.
“You have to have action, you have to have humor, and you have to have emotional situations. And you have no time to waste. You have to get it all in there economically.”
Texas football heroes Darrell Royal, Doak Walker, Sammy Baugh, and John David Crow are off the field, but they’re still having a ball.
While some Texas-born writers had to leave home to do their best work, for John Graves the reverse was true.
A cool, brilliantly blue day in early February found me driving north from Austin on a sort of pilgrimage. I was going to see John Graves, the writer and gentleman farmer, now 73 years old, at his place on four hundred acres of rocky blackland prairie near Glen Rose.My visit
In this excerpt from Means of Ascent, the shy, withdrawn young wife of Lyndon Johnson reveals a presence and command that took everyone by surprise—including her husband.
Working on his memoir one day in 1969, LBJ spoke more frankly into a tape recorder about the Kennedys, Vietnam, and other subjects than he ever had before. The transcript of that tape has never been published—until now. Michael Beschloss explains its historical significance.
The opening scenes of Lonesome Dove take place at the Hat Creek Cattle Company, a small ranch in Lonesome Dove, Texas, just north of the Rio Grande. Hat Creek is operated by two old Texas Rangers, the taciturn Woodrow Call and the talkative Augustus “Gus” McCrae. Among their hands are
– 1 –Gus and Call’s friendship may be at the heart of Lonesome Dove, but the book’s ending points in another direction. When Call returns to Lonesome Dove after burying Gus, he encounters the town’s barber, Dillard Brawley. “What happened to the saloon?” Call asks, having noticed that the local
Forty years after its publication, Horseman, Pass By is still one of Larry McMurtry's finest novelsand as groundbreaking as J. D. Salinger's masterpiece.
Larry L. King is at work on a novel about minor league baseball in Texas in the fifties. Breaking Balls is a fictionalized account of his experiences covering the “miserable 144-game schedule” of the Midland Indians as a $55-a-week reporter for the Midland Reporter-Telegram in 1951. “I went to all
Our selections for some of the best contemporary Texas books.
As Sandra Scofield, Shelby Hearon, and Janet Peery are proving, you don’t have to live in Texas to be a Texas writer.
“All you’ve got is a famous name,” a Republican operative told George W. Bush. But six years later he was governor, and six years after that he was president. And six years after that, his place in history—not to mention the fate of the world—is a little uncertain.
Does anyone outside of Texas care about Texas history? H. W. Brands hopes so, and he's not the only one.
It took me half my life to figure out that most of what I thought I knew about J. Frank Dobie was wrong.
Once upon a time, Molly Ivins was just a kid from River Oaks with an internship at the Houston Chronicle. Her time there set her on the path to becoming the most famous firebrand in Texas.
Recipe for a great new cookbook: Combine a celebrated chef, a veteran food writer, and an innovative approach to contemporary Tex-Mex; serve.
A pivotal loss in the 1970 Senate race shaped George Bush’s future. An excerpt from a new book on the 1988 presidential campaign.