Consortium Book Blog

Texas Music History on a Radio Near You

Gary Hartman, author of The History of Texas Music is involved in a new radio program entitled "This Week in Texas Music History." The 90-second show airs each Monday morning on Austin's KUT 90.5 FM during NPR's Morning Edition at 6:33 a.m. and 8:33 a.m. Hartman expects many other NPR affiliate stations across the state to pick up the show and begin broadcasting it on a weekly basis. Hartman, who writes and hosts the show, is considered one of the nation's pre-eminent scholars on the subject of Texas music.
"'This Week in Texas Music History' has had a very positive response from audiences," Hartman said. "Some listeners have compared it to Garrison Keillor's nationally popular 'Writer's Almanac.'".
To read more about Hartman's book, visit http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2008/hartman.htm

Review of The Country Houses of John F. Staub

"Stephen Fox knows more about Houston than anyone knows about any other American megalopolis. Among historians, he is legend. . . . Richard Cheek, one of the premier architectural photographers of his generation, knows how to highlight both formal and sensuous qualities of buldings. His magnificent color photos bring out qualities of Staub's work that would go unnoticed in standard monographic studies. . . . THE COUNTRY HOUSES OF JOHN F. STAUB . . . stands well out from the crowd. Fox and Cheek have created . . . one of the most beautiful architecture books of the year."—The Architect's Newspaper, 4/16/08

"Capturing Nature" to be featured on The Martha Stewart Show

Capturing Nature
The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodríguez

In the world of Dionicio Rodríguez a tree may not be a tree, and a rock may not be a rock. His imaginative reinforced concrete sculptures that imitate the natural forms and textures of trees and rocks can be found in eight states, and many pieces still exist in San Antonio.

However, like so many artisans of his time, much of his work has fallen into obscurity or disrepair. Author Patsy Pittman Light has devoted a decade to documenting the trabajo rústico ("rustic work") of Rodríguez, and here presents a book that both elegantly displays and thoroughly describes his life, his work, and his legacy. With stunning photographs and excellent documentation of this artist's influences and those he influenced, Capturing Nature will capture the attention of a range of people who appreciate art.

Patsy Pittman Light will appear on "The Martha Stewart Show" to discuss Rodríguez's work and the book on March 14 and 17 in some Texas markets. Please check your local listings for time and station. Visit http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2008/light.htm for more details on the book.

Viewing Exotic Animals in Your State

As spring arrives and wanderlust sets in, make taking advantage of beautiful days a little easier by keeping a list on hand of places to visit and things to see.

A fun item for your list could be spotting the exotic animals living in your state, and the award-winning book Exotic Animal Field Guide can help you plan your day trip.

From axis deer to zebra, an estimated 230,000 or more foreign hoofed mammals live in the United States. These "exotics"—animals native to other places—can be found in Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Maryland, California, New Hampshire, Hawaii, and other states on ranches, in wildlife preserves, at safari parks, and sometimes just behind high fences or on a mountainside along the byroads of America.

Author Elizabeth Cary Mungall explains how these species got here, tells where people can go to view them, and gives a few simple guidelines for responsible ownership.

Exotic Animal Field Guide was recently named a winner of the 2007 Publication Award for Outstanding Authored Book by the Texas Chapter of the Wildlife Society.

To read more about the book and start planning your trip, visit http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2007/mungall.htm

Poetry book wins award

Stephen Fromholz New & Selected Poems 07 won a Silver Addy for design from the Advertising Club of Fort Worth in its annual round of awards. The Addy went to Fusion 29, the group responsible for the design of the book. The Fromholz title is part of the TCU Press Texas Poets Laureate Series. Mr. Fromholz was the state's poet laureate in 2007.

Synchronicity

Having shamefully neglected my blogging duties now for two weeks, I, red-faced, beg pardon and proceed to tell you about what I’m reading.

One of our spring titles is a fifty-year-retrospective of descant, the TCU literary magazine that has published, amazingly, such writers as Joyce Carol Oates, Charles Bukowski, and Robert Penn Warren, whose essay on learning to write I am in the process of reading. “Learning to Write” appeared in the spring 1965 issue of descant and tracks the still popular argument about whether or not writing can be learned. Warren posits two notions: “the bag-of-tricks view,” which proclaims that writing is essentially a formal process with rules that can be learned, and “the let-down-the-back-hair view,” which states that writing is a product of inspiration only, a view that has passed down to us from the Greeks.

I think it’s a combination of both, and the terrific essays in Notes from Texas: On Writing in the Lone Star State bear me out. Texas writers from James Reasoner to Don Graham all claim that they found their voice (let down their hair) only when they began to write what they knew (using their bag of tricks). It’s wonderful example of synchronicity when such disparate things come together and prove a point. Read these forthcoming titles and tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.

—  

Fifty Years of descant, edited by Dave Kuhne, et al.   
June 2008               
978-0-87565-348-8            
Cloth. $26.50               

Notes from Texas: On Writing in the Lone Star State, edited by W.C. Jameson
April 2008
978-0-87565-358-7
Cloth. $27.95

Forgotten Account Gives Window into Texas's Past

The Texas State Historical Association is proud to announce the release of General Vicente Filisola’s Analysis of José Urrea’s Military Diary: A Forgotten 1838 Publication by an Eyewitness to the Texas Revolution edited by Gregg J. Dimmick and translated by John Wheat. This long-forgotten eyewitness account of the Texas Revolution has been translated into English for the first time. There are only six known original copies of Gen. Vicente Filisola’s analysis of José Urrea’s military diary. Filisola was second in command of the Mexican army in Texas during the Revolution. After the defeat of Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna by Sam Houston's Texans at San Jacinto, Filisola became commander-in-chief of the 4,000 Mexican soldiers that remained in Texas. The Mexican army eventually retreated to Matamoros, Mexico, and Filisola became the scapegoat for all that went wrong in the campaign in Texas.

His chief accuser in this disastrous action was Gen. José Cosme Urrea, commander of one of the Mexican divisions in the campaign. In 1838 Urrea published a book he entitled The Military Diary of General José Urrea. Filisola published his ultracritical analysis of Urrea's diary that same year. Totally focusing on the actions of the Mexican army, and especially Urrea's division, Filisola critiques Urrea's every move, from his advance into Texas until the disastrous and humiliating trip back to Matamoros in May and June 1836.

After reading this fascinating account of the Mexican army in Texas the reader may well need to reevaluate his opinions of the Mexican army's generals. In spite of the fact that the work is extremely biased and at times blatantly unfair, Filisola does make valid points that at least make one wonder if Urrea deserves the high respect that has been generally accorded him by Texan scholars.

New book from State House Press called "the most comprehensive volume on the Alamo . . ."

Just released from State House Press, The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey has already garnered praise from several noted historians throughout the state.

Richard Bruce Winders, Historian and Curator at the Alamo states:

"Many visitors to the Alamo know only its iconic postcard image. Those who realize there was more to the old mission compound are surprised to find that so much has been lost over time. Alamo aficionados long for resurrection. Mark Lemon has produced something for all of them—the curious and the serious. The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey is a must for anyone who wishes to visualize the Alamo as it appeared at the time of the battle."

Jesus Francisco de la Teja, State Historian of Texas notes that by

"Combining the artist's imagination with a scholar's attention to detail, Alamo enthusiast Mark Lemon has produced the single most comprehensive volume on the Alamo as it was at the time of its rendezvous with history.The Illustrated Alamo 1836 will bring hours of pleasure to anyone wishing to gain an understanding of how a dilapidated Spanish mission became the stage for the most famous event in Texas history."

 To see what others have said about Mark Lemon's The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey, or to purchase a copy of the book, click here.

McCain, Obama, and Clinton and the American Campaign

As the remaining presidential hopefuls maneuver and position themselves to get their parties' nominations, campaign strategy becomes increasingly important.

The past week has seen John McCain all but shore up the Republican nomination while Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to go head to head for the Democratic nomination.

Regardless of your political persuasion or preference of a presidential candidate, much can be learned by  taking a closer look at what James E. Campbell calls the "theory of the predictable campaign," which incorporates the fundamental conditions that systematically affect the presidential vote: political competition, presidential incumbency, and election-year economic conditions.

In The American Campaign: U.S. Presidential Campaigns and the National Vote (Second Edition), Campbell includes updated data and predicting trends through the 2008 campaign, presenting a
readable survey of presidential elections and political scientists' ways of studying them.

To read more about the book, visit http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2007/campbell.htm

Award Winning Author to Speak on UNT Campus

Author Aimee LaBrie, winner of the 2007 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction will speak at the Denton campus of the University of North Texas on February 12. LaBrie will read from Wonderful Girl in the Golden Eagle Suite in the Union at 8:00 PM. Admission is free. Reception and booksigning to follow. Read about the book at:
http://web3.unt.edu/untpress/catalog/detail.cfm?ID=276

Purchase a copy of Wonderful Girl at:
http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2007/labrie.htm