Oklahoma Books and Authors

book which should soon be ap- possible for the mileage covered. Detailed pearingAin thousands of homes information about historic spots, even those and data about and libraries is Oklahoma : A Guide to the on out-of-the-way sideroads, valuable Sooner State, released in December by the tourist camps and hotels provide Press, Norman. aid for the traveler . "Nothing seems to have been overlook- This volume on Oklahoma is the last of ed," Mr. Kaufman says. "This book ought a series of 51 guidebooks prepared under to be in the hands of every intelligent the sponsorship of the WPA writers' pro- Oklahoman and of everyone else who gram. For $2.50 the purchaser receives a would like to know about the Sooner state. big book of 548 pages, containing detailed something more than another book; information about Oklahoma interspersed It is it is the book about Oklahoma . Nowhere with some sixty pages of illustrations and else is there so much of Oklahoma between maps. book covers." Kenneth Kaufman, '16ba, '19ma, Uni- versity professor of modern languages and authority, well known Oklahoma literary Possum Trot says of the guidebook in comparison with others of the series, "The last, and without The real South-not the one portrayed much doubt, the best. There may be half in The Grapes of Wrath, Tobacco Road Now Available For Wind-but the one a dozen of the others which equal it in and Gone With the Delivery scope, completeness, care, and accuracy, but which should gain much from the spread- Immediate none excels it." ing movement of industry is described in by H. C. Nixon, NOT MERELY A GUIDE to the his- Credit for producing the first complete, a new book, Possum Trot, by the University Press. wonders of the informative work on Oklahoma goes first just published toric sites and natural of all to John M. Oskison, journalist and ($2.50.) Sooner State but a guide to the Okla- holds the short story writer, and , '18ba, The small town in the south homa spirit and its achievements in sci- who were key to American prosperity and points the '33ph.d, historian and researcher, ence, agriculture, industry, culture and editors in direct charge. Laurels also go to way to a bright future for the region, Mr. to all fields of civilized endeavor-a veri- the Washington, D.C ., staff which super- Nixon believes. He feels that to really know . vised the entire series and the members of about conditions in the south since ante table encyclopedia to Oklahoma the Oklahoma office who gathered material bellum days you must know about the per- Compiled on the spot by hundreds of like his own through long reading, research and talking sonal lives of real southerners Oklahoma men and women who know the family and neighbors-white and black- to pioneer Sooners. state's locale in all of its rich tradition. with a foreword by Pres- whom he tells about in his book. The book opens Special contributions by E. E . Dale, John ident Emeritus W. B. Bizzell, of the Uni- These people and thousands like them, Oskison, Angie Debo, W. B. Bizzell, Ken- versity, and a brief chapter of general in- scattered from the Carolinas to Texas and formation followed by three main parts. Oklahoma, are the real backbone of the neth C. Kaufman, and many others. Part I, The General Background, contains south. Political demagogs-Huev Long and an essay by Edward Everett Dale, 'llba, others-long ago realized this and gathered Published by the University of Oklahoma head of the University history department, their followers from the crossroads . Press, in co-operation with the American and a carefully compiled, well written his- By taking industry to these communities, Guide Series and the WPA Writers' Project. tory of the Sooner state from the prehis- a sounder agricultural economy will follow 544 pages. 64 pages of illustrations . toric Indian era to the present day. and the disastrous practice of ruining the Chapters on literature, transportation, land by growing only cotton will give way $250 industry, agriculture, education, sports and to diversified farming, Mr. Nixon believes . recreation, newspapers, art, architecture, Adequate highways will develop ; schools music and folklore are found in Part I . Fol- will be built; a dairy industry will grow lowing the general plan used in all the up-and most important, the migration of guidebooks, Part II contains "biographies" millions of southern workers to the indus- J. C. Mayfield, Mgr. of 12 of the state's principal cities-Ard- trial centers of the north will be allayed for University Book Exchange more, Bartlesville, Enid, Lawton, Musko- opportunity will be found at home. Norman, Oklahoma City, Okmulgee, gee, Norman, Oklahoma Possum Trot is said to be the first book send _ . cop(y) ies of the and Tulsa. Please Ponca City, Shawnee, Stillwater about the south to tell of its problems since Oklahoma Guide to the address below. the guidebook lists every- the Civil War as they have affected the For each city, [ ] $2 .50 enclosed . thing from traffic regulations to prominent people of one rural community, a com- residents, past and present. Space is given munity which is like countless others in the [ ] Send C. O. D. to a short history of the city, information south. Name ------__-___-_-_-_----___--_-- about its businesses, schools and even the Mr. Nixon believes that the true fiber of favorite anecdotes of the locale . these towns will be shown by the way they Address __-______-__--_--_------__--- Part III, by far the largest section, out- meet the problems of the present emergency City and State ------_------lines some 22 tours of Oklahoma, all plan- and the readjustment of the post-war pe- ned to cover as many points of interest as riod yet to come. 39 JANUARY, 1942