J. Frank Dobie
The first Texas-based writer to gain national attention, J. Frank Dobie proved that authentic writing springs easily from the native soil of Texas and the Southwest. In best-selling books such as Tales of Old-Time Texas, Coronado's Children, and The Longhorns, Dobie captured the Southwest's folk history, which was quickly disappearing as the United States became ever more urbanized and industrial. Renowned as "Mr. Texas," Dobie paradoxically has almost disappeared from view—a casualty of changing tastes in literature and shifts in social and political attitudes since the 1960s.
In this lively biography, Steven L. Davis takes a fresh look at a J. Frank Dobie whose "liberated mind" set him on an intellectual journey that culminated in Dobie becoming a political liberal who fought for labor, free speech, and civil rights well before these causes became acceptable to most Anglo Texans. Tracing the full arc of Dobie's life (1888–1964), Davis shows how Dobie's insistence on "free-range thinking" led him to such radical actions as calling for the complete integration of the University of Texas during the 1940s, as well as taking on governors, senators, and the FBI (which secretly investigated him) as Texas's leading dissenter during the McCarthy era.
A crisp, reliable, and thorough biography. . . . Steve Davis gives us a much richer understanding of Dobie than we have had previously. All in all, a fine effort.
Steven L. Davis is the Assistant Curator at the Southwestern Writers Collection/The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University–San Marcos and serves as editor of the Southwestern Writers Collection book series, published by the University of Texas Press. His previous books include Texas Literary Outlaws: Six Writers in the Sixties and Beyond.
- Acknowledgments
- A Liberated Mind
- Part 1: Rebel of the Lost Cause
- Chapter 1: Along the Ramirenia
- Chapter 2: The Education of a Brush Countryman, 1904-1912
- Chapter 3: From Texas to New York, 1913-1914
- Chapter 4: Fighting Conformity, Courting Bertha, 1914-1916
- Chapter 5: The Great War, 1915-1919
- Part 2: The Rising Star
- Chapter 6: A Rangeland Epiphany, 1920-1921
- Chapter 7: The Making of a Folklorist, 1921-1923
- Chapter 8: The Rising Star, 1923-1926
- Chapter 9: Voices of the Southwest, 1926-1930
- Chapter 10: Regionalism Goes National, 1929-1930
- Part 3: Mr. Texas
- Chapter 11: Dobie in Bloom, 1930-1934
- Chapter 12: Into Mexico, 1933-1935
- Chapter 13: The Flavor of Texas, 1936
- Chapter 14: The Austin Liberals, 1936-1938
- Chapter 15: Apache Gold vs. Pale Horse, 1937-1939
- Part 4: Texas Needs Brains
- Chapter 16: The Longhorns, 1939-1941
- Chapter 17: True Patriotism and the Singing Governor, 1940-1941
- Chapter 18: The Liberal Hero, 1941-1943
- Chapter 19: A Contemporary of Himself, 1943-1946
- Chapter 20: A Texan in England, 1943-1946
- Chapter 21: Texas Needs Brains, 1946-1947
- Part 5: Elder Statesman
- Chapter 22: Coyote Wisdom, 1948-1953
- Chapter 23: Elder Statesman, 1951-1958
- Chapter 24: Literary Dictator, 1952-1960
- Chapter 25: End of an Era, 1955-1959
- Part 6: Twilight
- Chapter 26: One Touch of Nature, Plus, 1960-1962
- Chapter 27: Sunset, 1962-1964
- Chapter 28: Dobie's Legacy
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
