Bücher veröffentlicht von University of North Texas Press,U.S.

Drawing on the fields of dramaturgy, music theory, and historical musicology, this book answers a question about twentieth-century music: Why does tonality persist in opera, even after it has been abandoned in other genres?

James ""Jim"" Davis lived what he considered ""an impossible dream"" as he piloted a B-24, as part of the 8th Air Force, on nearly thirty missions in the European Theatre during World War II. While he and his crew survived without serious injuries, they witnessed the destruction of many of their friends' planes.

Originally published in 1979, this book explores the plant biology, ecology, geology, and environmental regions of the Big Thicket National Preserve. It covers the ecological and geological history of the Big Thicket and introduces its plant life, from longleaf pines and tupelo swamps to savannah wetlands and hardwood flats.

Short as the life of the Southern Overland Mail turned out to be (1858 to 1861), the saga of the Butterfield Trail remains a high point in the westward movement. This work offers a history and guide to retrace that historic and romantic Trail, which stretches 2800 miles from the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast.

The cowboy remains today a feature of range life in western America, an iconic historiographical figure who has not only survived, but prospers in the 21st century. John Erickson takes a look at what defines the modern cowboy and at the place occupied by these remarkable people in contemporary society.

This title presents the stories of people living in the Big Thicket of southeast Texas. Stories concern robbing a bee tree; hunting wild boar; ploughing all day and dancing all night; wading five miles to church through a cypress brake; and making soap using hickory ashes.

This Publication of the Texas Folklore Society contains African-American baptizings; adventures of a ballad hunter; Carrie-Dykes, a midwife; Big Sam and De Golden Chariot; tale of the two companions; Mexican Münchausen; some odd Mexican customs; legend of the tengo frío bird; leaves of mesquite grass; dancing makes fun; dancing makes rain; Indian sign on the Spaniard's cattle; ear marks; white Comanches; panther yarns; more about "Hell in Texas"; oil patch talk; Old Newt, the practical joker; moron jokes; the musical snake; the song of the little Llano; the threshing crew; and the low down on Jim Bowie.

Variety and richness are indeed found in this Publication by the Texas Folklore Society. The first folk type to appear in the book is the hunter, in Francis Abernethy's account of the East Texas communal hunt, which he sees in relation to man's ancient hunting habits. Folk medicine is the topic of the second article, in which Doctor Paul W. Schelder tells about his discovery of the cures used by some of his patients in Denton. In all, this volume consists of sixteen folk tales, with topics ranging from traditional ways of doing things to popular entertainment.

In 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States found itself in a total war, the people of Texas rallied to the war effort. Men and women rushed to join the armed forces. Those who remained behind--men, women, and children--were soldiers on the home front: They rolled bandages, spotted aircraft, trained for air raids, filled jobs left vacant by service men, collected scrap scrimped and saved and got by with rationed sugar, meat, shoes, tires, and gas. Texas became a center for training and equipping the greatest war machine the world had ever seen. World War II changed Texas from oil and cattle and cotton to industry and agribusiness.The technology that grew out of the war--radar, television, jet aircraft, air conditioning for the masses--made a Texas that had not been imagined before 1941. And the Texans themselves changed, as they left the state for foreign places and for other parts of the United States. They left the country for the city to work in industry and most would never return to the farm except in retirement years.

The poems in Circles Where the Head Should Be are full of objects and oddities, bits of news, epic catalogues, and a cast of characters hoping to make sense of it all. Underneath the often whimsical surface, however, lies a search for those connections we long for but so often miss, and a wish for art to bridge the gaps.

Thomas Reid traces the Civil War history of the 13th Texas Cavalry, a unit drawn from 11 counties in East Texas. Reid researched letters, documents, and diaries gleaned from more than one hundred descendants of the soldiers, answering many questions relating to their experiences and final resting places.

Lucy Holcombe Pickens was not content to live the life of a 19th-century Southern belle. Wife of Francis Wilkinson Pickens, the governor of South Carolina on the eve of Civil war, Lucy was determined to make her mark on the world. This work offers an initmate portrait of the great lady.

Features a collection of poems that address the suppressed pain and shame of living as a childless woman in a world of mothers, the dissociation attendant on depression and fraught family relationships, and the search for a sense of belonging in the face of dislocation.

Three weeks after Mary Lou's Gypsy husband dies, her fourteen-year-old daughter, Echo, runs away. Numbed by grief and grounded only by her job at the Dairy Queen, Mary Lou impulsively signs up for Anne Hamilton's single-parenting class at the nearby community college. Anne, complex and passionate, has avoided the risks that come with commitment.

In the east Texas town of Cold Springs in 1944, the community waits for the war to end. In this place where certain boundaries are not crossed and in a time when people reveal little about themselves, their problems, and their passions, this title exposes the heart of each of four families during the last year of World War II.

As the great-great-granddaughter of Sam Houston and Margaret Lea, Madge Thornall Roberts played in her great-grandparents' home in Independence, Texas, which had Santa Anna's saddle in the upstairs hall, the San Jacinto sword over the mantle, and where she kept her doll's clothes in an old chest of Margaret Lea's. Trunks of documents sat unattended in the barn. Some of those papers later were burned, and what remained were divided among descendants. Madge Roberts has gathered these documents together again and, along with other Houston letters and interviews, woven them into the story of the Houstons' marriage. Much is known about Sam Houston's political and military career, but the influence of his wife and children on his life has been overlooked. The letters are astonishing in their emotional honesty, revealing a deep interdependency as well as a close and loving marital partnership.

The secretive beauty and mystery of the Big Thicket of East Texas would inevitably inspire tales. This is a collection of stories about the history and folklore of the area, including a collection of Alabama-Coushatta tales, a Civil War episode and a travel account from the 19th century.

These stories, running the gamut of human relationships, the colorful panorama of Texas settings, and a bountiful catalog of unique characters, are evaluated and interpreted by women who each has her own special connection with the state and her own private ringside seat for viewing the tragicomedy we call human experience. Topics, all written by women, include place affecting attitude, feisty women challenging traditional roles, masculine points of view, the sensibilities of children, the gap in understanding between grandparent and grandchild, the tenuous nature of ties between men and women, the ambivalence of family relationships, and contemporary preoccupations of women.

"Square dancing is friendship set to music," says author Betty Casey. Just take four couples, old or young, put 'em on a good floor, turn on the music, and you're all set. Whether you've done it before or you're just starting out, this book tells you everything you need to know--85 basic movements used all over the world, the spirited calls unique to square dancing, the costumes and equipment that are best, and music (from "Red River Valley" to "Mack the Knife") that will set your feet in motion. Down-to-earth details and anecdotes give a taste of the good times in store for you. Find out how native folk dances grew out of European quadrilles, jigs, and fandangos. Open this book and get ready to: "wipe off your tie, pull down your vest, and dance with the one you love best." This book includes: 50 basic movements, 35 advanced movements, variations, dances that are a part of the American heritage, Contra and Round Dances, polkas and reels, and calls, past and present.

This is an extensive work on international folk dancing as practiced in the United States. It is a must for folk dance enthusiasts--novice to expert. Never before has such a wide variety of entries on this popular, multi-faceted social phenomenon been brought together. It tells how to do the hopak, czardas and the bamboo pole dance; plan an international folk dance program; do the little finger hold and the hambo swing. International Folk Dancing U.S.A. presents historical vignettes on pioneer folk dance leaders; instructions for 180 dances from 30 countries; contributions from 60 folk dance authorities; easy-to-follow dance step descriptions; a Glossary of folk dance terms; many helpful illustrations. "A tremendous achievement," writes Miriam Gray in her Foreword, "a resource book par excellence, an encyclopedic treasure trove of folk dance information from the people and the countries who have done the most to influence the growth of international folk dancing in the United States. More than sixty authors, teachers, leaders, and folk dancers have contributed their thoughts, their knowledge, and their unique historical perspective. Leaders--whether you are associated with local folk dance clubs, large urban community center, or recreation departments--this book is for you! Authors, dance students, international folk dancers, researchers, teachers (amateur and professional)--in fact, anyone who likes to dance or to read about dance--this book is for you, too! Every library, personal and public, should own a copy. You may never need to buy another folk dance book."

For more than a hundred years, American cowboys have made their living through the skilled use of horse and rope. Whole libraries have been devoted to the horse, but no one, until now, has written a thorough study of the origins and evolution of ranch roping--which differs from arena roping as practiced by rodeo cowboys. Author/cowboy John Erickson studies ranch roping from every angle: its origins in the Old World; old-time loops and throws; the influence of modern team roping; and the endless debate between those cowboys who rope 'hard and fast' and those who 'dally.' Mixing scholarship with his working-cowboy's knowledge of the subject, Erickson tells stories of cowboys who could not resist fitting their loops on "things that ort not to be roped," such as elk, deer, badgers, bears, and bobcats. He tells of jackrabbit roping contests, and of cowboys who roped mice, geese, hogs, wives, or a runaway milk wagon. Anyone who has ever "built a loop" or even thought about it will find this book hard to put down.

"Reading Kathy Greenwood's account of growing up on a small ranch in southeastern New Mexico, I kept wondering where she had heard the story of my life. From her ill-starred introduction into the fine art of milking a recalcitrant Jersey cow to her uneasy homecoming from graduate school, she kept reflecting incidents out of my own West Texas experience. In many ways she reflects the life of almost everyone--man or woman--who has grown up on a ranch . . . She writes with a sparkle and a keen wit."--Elmer KeltonHeart-Diamond describes the author's experiences growing up on a working cattle ranch in Southeastern New Mexico. In a series of sketches that begins with an incident in her childhood and concludes with her return to the ranch after a lengthy absence, the book features various members of her family in settings and situations typical of daily life not only on the Heart-Diamond but on any small, family-operated ranch: rounding up cattle, fixing windmills, helping a heifer to calve. At the same time that the sketches celebrate western culture and the love that holds the family together, their touch is light and humorous.As a book written from a woman's point of view, Heart-Diamond offers some unique commentary on the "cowboy" way of life.

The story of Emil Henry Marks and the LH7 Ranch he founded records not only the history of a unique family but also tells something of the cattle business on the coastal prairies of Texas when ranching was the principal industry of the region, before Houston became a major metropolitan center and industry became king. It also chronicles the beginning of the Salt Grass Trail, one of Houston's most enduring traditions. Marks registered the LH7 brand in Harris County in 1898 and started the ranch with 63 acres of grass west of Houston and a few Longhorn cattle. By the early 1930s the LH7 was running 6,670 head on 36,000 acres. The city's shadow loomed over the LH7 in the 1940s and 1950s, and eventually a big bite of the ranch was condemned to protect booming Houston from flooding along Buffalo Bayou. At age seventy, Marks made the first Salt Grass Trail ride in January, 1952, which is reenacted each February to kick off the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Like the more than a dozen other contributions in this volume, "The Golden Log" typifies the combined universality and fresh and authentic regional flavor of southwestern lore and legend. The Texas Folklore Society offers these tales of early Texas days, told as they were told of old.

A collection of articles from the Texas Folklore Society. The title comes from J. Frank Dobie's chapter on "The Traveling Anecdote." Also included are Roy Bedichek on "Folklore in Natural History;" "The Names of Western Wild Animals," by George D. Hendricks; "Bonny Barbara Allen," by Joseph W. Hendren; "Aunt Cordie's Ax and Other Motifs in Oil," by Mody C. Boatright; "The Western Ballad and the Russian Ballada," by Robert C. Stephenson; "The Love Tragedy in Texas-Mexican Balladry," by Americo Paredes; "Emerson and the Language of the Folk," by John Q. Anderson; "Tales of Neiman-Marcus," by James Howard; "The Devil in the Big Bend," by Elton Miles; and others.

This volume contains Ruth Dodson's many stories of Don Pedrito Jaramillo: The Curandero of Los Olmos; in addition Soledad Perez offers his Mexican Folklore from Austin; Wilson Hudson and J. Frank Dobie add to the richness of this collection. Jose Cisneros provided the illustrations. A Publication of the Texas Folklore Society.

Most of the essays among the twenty-nine making up this collection salute taletellers, furnishing demonstrations by way of tall tales and short sayings, ghost stories and family stories, anecdotes of frontier preachers and hound dogs, and superstitions and folk medicine. Add tales of outlaws, buried-treasure searches, ethnic lore localized in the state, and many other subjects, and you have something to suit anybody's taste. A Publication of the Texas Folklore Society.