Non-Fiction Books
The seminal collection of paintings from Howard Terpning, master painter of the Plains Indians.
Briefly traces the artist's career and presents a selection of his paintings of the old West and its mountain men, Indians, soldiers, and cowboys
James Bama is one of the best contemporary artists working today. His portraits - of people from the smallest child to the greatest hero - have garnered the respect and captured the imagination of art collectors and critics around the world. The Art of James Bama is a new, comprehensive collection of his finest work, showing real people of the new West recreating their history, and descendants of the Old West paying homage to their heritage. Bama's ability to convey their emotion gives his paintings a resonance like no other. The artist has long been acclaimed for his fascinating studies of the contemporary West embracing its traditional culture - portraits that seem to go beyond the surface of the model to the essence of the inner person. In these pages you will meet the oldest living Crow Indian, a man who would be Buffalo Bill, and even Doc Savage, as well as men and women of the new West keeping the traditions of the Old West alive. James Bama's art has been collected and exhibited in major museum shows, in many prestigious collections, and now in this beautiful book, which presents works from throughout his fine art career, many seen for the first time here. All are splendidly reproduced in full color under the auspices of The Greenwich Workshop, Bama's exclusive limited edition print publisher and the largest fine art print publisher in North America. "The way people feel inside is not always the way they appear outwardly," says the artist. "In my paintings, I try to capture their innermost feelings. I would like to think that the body of work I produce makes a valid statement about life and is unique in that it is not something that has been done before."
Some who treasure Elmer Kelton's novels - Time It Never Rained, The Good Old Boys, Slaughter and over thirty other titles - may not realize that he led another professional life as a livestock journalist. For forty-two years, he wrote fiction by night and traveled West Texas by day to report on livestock auctions, range conditions, and rodeo results. To those who know him as the retired associate editor of Livestock Weekly, his novels are less important than his knowledge of ranching.
My Kind of Heroes was first published by State House Press in 1995 as a collection of four selected speeches by Elmer Kelton. This revised second edition, or Signature Edition, includes three of those pieces plus two new ones. The five essays are: "My Kind of Heroes," "Real Cowboys," "Oil Boom Days in West Texas," "The Truth of Fiction," and "Politically Correct or Historically Correct?" The signature on the front cover is Elmer Kelton's. As an author, he has always been generous about autographing books for his thousands of fans. This time we asked him to put his signature right up front. In many ways, these speeches, essays, or stories are his signature statement about many of the things he believes about the West, about writing, about history. Kelton fans, old and new, will cherish this keepsake edition.
Texas is unique, not only because it is the only state to enter the Union by way of a treaty, but because a clause in that treaty gives Texas the right, in perpetuity, to divide into as many a five separate states. These "Five States of Texas" reflect the remarkable geographic variety of this vast landscape. From the plains and mountains, beaches and deserts, forests and rugged canyons, the Texas terrain is as diverse as its many-faceted culture. With engaging intimacy, the images of Laurence Parent reveal this diversity of life, and terrain in the Lone Star State. You will see the compelling splendor of the Trans-Pecos region, the unparalleled veriety of the world's largest gulf, the grandeur of the East Texas woods, and the vastness of the northern prairies. Here too are the skylines of the world-class cities of Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, Austin and San Antonio along with images of cowboys, oil rigs, and ten gallon hats. From the Rio Grande River and Big Bend National Park to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the landscapes of Texas unfold in the pages of this handsome book.
In Texas Cattle Barons, Their Families, Land and Legacy thirteen families discuss the reality of owning and working some of the largest land holdings in the state of Texas. Most have owned some or all of their land for generations, others bought into their properties over time, all have risen to the challenge of taking the cattle industry into the next millennium. Learn firsthand from ranchers like Al and Mike Micailef, Jim and James McAllen, and Jon and Jackie Means about the hard work, discipline, and faith required to make a cattle ranch work in this age of big business. Join the owners of the Broseco, Moorhouse, and Williams ranches as they discuss breeding programs, grazing patterns, and the pursuit of the ultimate "beef animal." Listen as the Gibsons and the Ryans reveal their passion for the land and their hope for the future.
Prairie Gothic is full of Texas lore. Erickson tells the story of people in the context of a specific place. This place, instrumental in shaping their lives, is the flatland prairie of northwestern Texas that has gone by various names (High Plains, South Plains, Staked Plains, and Llano Estacado), as well as the rugged country on its eastern boundary, often referred to as the “caprock canyonlands.” One branch of Erickson’s family arrived in Texas in 1858, settling in Parker County, west of Weatherford. Another branch, sturdy Quaker farmers from Ohio, helped establish the first Anglo settlement on the Llano Estacado in 1881, near present-day Lubbock. Erickson’s family interacts with significant historical figures, such as Cynthia Ann Parker, and includes members of the Estacado Quaker colony. There is the story of Martha Sherman, who died at the hands of the Comanche, and the tale of the notorious outlaw Tom Ross. Prairie Gothic also includes Erickson’s encounters with famous Texas writers, such as John Graves and J. Evetts Haley. Burrowing deep into his West Texas roots, Erickson discovered people of substance and strong character, made that way in part by the challenges they faced in a harsh environment. He has created a fascinating blend of family and regional history. Excerpts from journals, letters, and other original sources enrich the narrative.
Sandhills Boy is the story of "a freckle-faced country boy, green as a gourd," growing up in the wild sandhills of West Texas and becoming author of many well-loved and critically-acclaimed Western novels: The Time It Never Rained, The Good Old Boys, The Day the Cowboys Quit , and some 50 others. The son of a working cowboy and ranch foreman, Elmer Kelton learned at an early age that he had no talent for horses nor any of the cowboy's trade . . . but he did have a knack for story-telling. He graduated from the University if Texas and before becoming "the greatest of all Western writers" (by vote of the Western Writers of America, Inc,) was a soldier in Europe and a journalist in Texas. Kelton writes with warm, nostalgic humor of his life in ranch and oil patch Texas during the Great Depression of his service in WW2 in France, Germany, and Czechoslovakia, and of the romantic circumstances which changed his life in the village of Ebensee, Austria. At a boat landing there, in October, 1945, he met a young woman, Anni Lipp, who became his wife and remained by his side for 60 years. Filled with Kelton's sly humor and memorable anecdotes, Sandhills Boy is destined to be a classic in Western autobiography, a companion to Charlie Siringo's A Texas Cowboy and We Pointed Them North by Edward. C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott.
Depicts full series of 14 original paintings by Tom Lovell, commissioned for Permain Basin Petroluem Museum, Midland, Texas, 1969-1975, showing notable historic scenes of early settlement. Oblong, green buckram, sketches, detail images, small maps, history behind each painting.