Texas Literature in the 1960S

Steven L. Davis. Texas Literary Outlaws: Six Writers in the Sixties and Beyond. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2004. 511 pp. $35.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-87565-285-6. Reviewed by Jeff Roche Published on H-1960s (December, 2005) Anyone who has seen Richard Linklater's cult of hippie Texas writers took on the establishment. classic, Dazed and Confused, has an idea of the It's much more nuanced than that as it tells the nostalgia that surrounds 1970s Texas. Emerging story of how a group of ambitious and talented in‐ from the twin shadows of the Kennedy assassina‐ tellectuals emerged from the buttoned-down tion and the LBJ presidency, it was an era in world of 1950s Dallas and embraced the values of which at least a few Texans loosened up a bit and the liberal sixties. Davis has produced a book that, didn't take themselves quite so seriously. Fueled in many ways, is a cultural (and political) history by cheap drugs and punctuated by a soundtrack of postwar Texas as well as a literary group biog‐ heavy on Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings raphy. (who appealed to both freaks and rednecks), a Davis focuses most of his effort in relating the unique Texas counterculture radiated out from professional details of his six "outlaw" authors, Austin. Steven L. Davis, curator of the Southwest‐ which is unfortunate. Weighing in at over 500 ern Writers Collection in San Marcos, Texas, has pages, the book bounds back and forth, chroni‐ produced a fne history of the group of Texas writ‐ cling the careers of each man and tracing their re‐ ers perhaps best associated with this Texas coun‐ lationships to one another. In the frst few chap‐ terculture. ters, just trying to keep up with which man writes Tracing the literary (and occasionally politi‐ for which Dallas-area newspaper can prove frus‐ cal) careers of the Mad Dogs--Dan Jenkins, Larry trating. More problematic is the difficulty that this L. King, Gary Cartwright, Billy Lee Brammer, Bud structure has in maintaining a specific narrative. Shrake, and Peter Gent--Davis demonstrates how As Davis leads the reader from Dallas, to Fort these six men reflect the history of those who Worth, to Washington, to New York, and from came of age just after World War II and who wel‐ Shrake, to Brammer, to Jenkins, to Cartwright, comed the changes of the 1960s. Make no mis‐ and back to Jenkins, the book loses its focus. take--this isn't the mythic tale of how some gaggle Nowhere are the faults of this approach more ap‐ H-Net Reviews parent than at the end of the book, when Davis become the stars of Sports Illustrated during that limps in with wrap-up chapters for King, Shrake, magazine's literary heyday. (And yes, SI had a lit‐ Cartwright, and Jenkins. erary heyday.) Jenkins went on to write several Another shortcoming of the writers-as-institu‐ popular sports novels, including Semi Tough tions approach is Davis's failure to offer any seri‐ (1973) and Dead Solid Perfect (1974). By the end of ous examination of each man's personal life. This the book, however, he has become the embodi‐ becomes most problematic when discussing their ment of the angry white male--the literary equiva‐ marriages. Several were married many times and, lent of a right-wing radio host. with few exceptions, Davis ignores this side of After a professional football career with the their lives. The women appear, when they do ap‐ Dallas Cowboys, Peter Gent wrote a semi-autobio‐ pear, as hindrances or casual asides in the March graphical account of his experiences with "Ameri‐ Toward Fame. Consequently, his subjects come ca's Team" that exposed the brutality and across as blatantly insensitive towards women at hypocrisy of professional football. North Dallas best and openly misogynist at worst. In a book Forty (1974) was quickly made into a well-re‐ where the author is trying to paint his subjects as ceived flm, but Gent reacted poorly to fame. He sensitive to the oppressed, the lack of any sus‐ too fell easily into a life of drugs and parties. Un‐ tained comment on their treatment of women is like Brammer, however, he became paranoid and all the more inexcusable. potentially violent. After a bitter divorce, he left Again, these problems derive from the dual Texas and the Mad Dogs far behind. goals of the book--Davis seeks to portray his au‐ With a writing career that seemed to lurch thors as emblematic of a significant cultural shift forward in fts and starts, Gary Cartwright, in in Texas (and the United States) and as the cata‐ many ways the most sympathetic of the bunch, lysts for an equally important transformation in found his niche as a Texas-gonzo writer for Texas Texas letters. But when push comes to shove, Monthly. After accepting a position on the editori‐ Davis chooses to emphasize the latter. Although it al staff, Cartwright earned a solid reputation as is ostensibly about the six writers, Davis focuses perhaps the best magazine writer in Texas. primarily on Brammer, Shrake, and King. Billy The self-described "star" of the book, Larry L. Lee Brammer is the tragic fgure. Older than the King is, of course, one of the best writers of the rest and perhaps the most naturally gifted, he last forty years. In his years writing for Harper's published his frst novel, The Gay Place (1961), to and other magazines, he penned penetrating ex‐ much critical acclaim. Wallowing in the life of the aminations of race, father-and-son relationships, small-city intellectual, he and his wife Nadine sports in American culture, politics, and a host of were the toast of Austin's hip community. It was other topics that made him, for a time, one of Brammer who dropped acid with Ken Kesey and America's most read and respected essayists. Al‐ Timothy Leary, and Brammer who most appreci‐ though perhaps best known for writing the musi‐ ated the social and cultural changes wrought by cal Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1978), he re‐ the sixties. But after working for years to publish ceived a National Book Award nomination for a second novel, Brammer eventually slipped into Confessions of a White Racist in 1971. His for‐ a hazy world of drug abuse and died of an over‐ tunes declined in recent years, however, and al‐ dose in 1978. though still an excellent writer, the King name The others enjoyed greater success. Dan Jenk‐ simply doesn't resonate the way it once did. And ins and Bud Shrake, lifelong friends, emerged as Davis points out, that is more a reflection of the from their years as Fort Worth sportswriters to 2 H-Net Reviews unpredictable and constantly changing literary world than of King's talents. It is clear, however, that the author most re‐ spects the work of Bud Shrake. Always restless as a sportswriter, Shrake would go on to write sever‐ al novels and screenplays. His Blessed McGill (1987) and Strange Peaches (1987) are two of the best examples of postwar Texas literature. Strangely enough, he is best known for helping to bring golf legend Harvey Penick's simple wisdom to grateful golfers everywhere. Harvey Penick's Little Red Book (1992), which Shrake not only edited but helped market, is one of the best-selling golf instruction books of all time. Shrake also en‐ joyed modest success as a writer of the "as-told-to" autobiographies of Willie Nelson and football coach Barry Switzer. The best asset of Texas Literary Outlaws is Davis's infectious enthusiasm for these writers and their work. He seeks to have them taken seri‐ ously by the literary establishment and, as impor‐ tantly, by the guardians of Texas literature. He is at his best when explaining how and why a par‐ ticular novel or essay was crucial to the develop‐ ment of a regional voice. And it is that voice, sounding clear and strong out of 1970s Austin that Davis wishes us to hear. It is a voice that stresses tolerance for difference and intolerance for hypocrisy--especially the hypocrisy practiced by politicians. It is a voice that cries for justice, but also sparkles with a keen sense of humor. But per‐ haps most importantly, it is a voice that demands that Texans (and Americans) move beyond sim‐ plistic conflicts between rural and urban America and focus on the very real problems of racism, economic inequality, generational divides, and po‐ litical as well as social apathy. If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-1960s 3 H-Net Reviews Citation: Jeff Roche. Review of Davis, Steven L. Texas Literary Outlaws: Six Writers in the Sixties and Beyond. H-1960s, H-Net Reviews. December, 2005. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10972 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 4.

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