A crowd of almost 200 recently gathered at the Texas State University Alkek Library for a reading and book signing by New Braunfels author Steven L. Davis who serves as Assistant Curator for the University’s Southwestern Writers and Wittliff Collections.
His latest book, “J. Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind” is selling fast.
“It’s not my writing,” Davis said, “but the lingering affection for Dobie.
“He was a literary hero to a generation of Texans,” Davis said.
This particular generation included students in Dobie’s “Life and Literature of the Southwest” course at the University of Texas in Austin, as well as younger Texas writers he mentored, and the many public school students whose required reading included Dobie’s stories.
From the 1930s through the early 1950s, J. Frank Dobie’s writings established the literary merit of Southwestern topics, especially folklore and regional characters.
His stories featured Texas people and their life on the state’s rugged land. Dobie was proud to be called “Mr. Texas.”
The current term “Liberated Mind” might also be a point of pride.
His own childhood growing up on a family ranch nurtured his demand for freedom so that, as a professor, he was suspicious of business influence on academic freedom.
In the 1940s, he also campaigned for the racial integration of The University of Texas.
Steven Davis’ interest in J. Frank Dobie emerged from his own 15 years as Wittliff Collection curator.
In 2004, Davis published “Texas Literary Outlaws,” which chronicled the 1960s “mad dog” antics of Texas writers such as Bud Shrake and Gary Cartwright for whom Dobie paved the way.
Bill Wittliff, collection founder and screenwriter for the film version of “Lonesome Dove,” urged Davis to complete this cycle of Texas literary history.
How can someone maintain a writing life with two busy school-aged daughters in a home right downtown in New Braunfels and a wife employed full-time with Texas Parks and Wildlife?
Davis’s easy answer is that his working life and writing life intertwine each day since he labors in the archives essential for his research.
Another easy answer comes with the question, “Why did you choose New Braunfels?”
As college sweethearts, for he and his wife, Georgia, “life in San Marcos was terrific fun in our 20s and even our 30s, but for raising a family, New Braunfels is the perfect family-friendly Texas town.”
