A Texan's Story: The Autobiography of Walter Prescott Webb ed. by Michael L. Collins

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Texan's Story: The Autobiography of Walter Prescott Webb ed. by Michael L. Collins Richard B. McCaslin A Texan's Story: The Autobiography of Walter Prescott Webb. Edited by Michael L. Collins. ( Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2020. Pp. 248. Illustrations, select bibliography.) Graphs increasingly define academics today. In one popular format, after a median line connecting a series of important points is established, all other performances are judged in relation to it. Like it or not, Walter Prescott Webb remains that line for those who write Texas history. That centrality makes this manuscript, flawed as it is, important for anyone interested in Texas or in writing and teaching history. It does not cover every aspect of Webb's life because he wrote it in 1943, twenty years before he died. Obviously, it was also never intended for publication. It is poorly written, with many repetitions and inconsistencies. The editor does little to correct its shortcomings—there is no index, the bibliography is scant, and the only footnotes come in his epilogue. But while Michael L. Collins errs in declaring this to be a "masterpiece of literature," he correctly asserts that it is a "surprising treasure trove of folk wisdom," with "many brilliant gems scattered throughout" (3). Those seeking personal insights will find them. Webb makes it clear that what drives him, and any successful person, is "desire" (74). Reflecting on his success, he adds, "I never have been able to work to a pattern furnished by others, a trait which has brought rich prizes and deep humiliations" (113). This belief resurfaces in a declaration concerning his greatest literary prize: "Whatever success has attended the publication [of] The Great Plains may be attributed to the fact that it is based on an independent concept and executed without regard to anything that had been done before" (15). A careful reader will also realize that Webb was a prodigious researcher with an unflagging work ethic. Pondering why he wrote books instead of articles for academic journals, he quips, "I preferred to hit the public with a solid shell rather than bird shot" (134). Webb did write short pieces; however, the amount of work required for them meant he tried to publish more than one at time. Finally, country boy humility and humor explain why he never had this memoir published: "My life has been a succession of deep humiliations and pleasant surprises and just why I should feel an impulse to set some of them down on paper is something I cannot explain" (17). [End Page 113] Webb's perspectives on the events of his life are priceless. Those interested in frontier Texas should read his reflections on being a farm boy in the Cross Timbers, which he believes has "produced more schoolteachers, country lawyers, preachers, and penitentiary inmates in proportion to size and population than any region of West Texas" (60). Beleaguered graduate students must study his advice to both them and faculty on academic relationships, especially during his "tragic year" at the University of Chicago (138). Frustrated writers will gain much from his passages on writing, although those who teach English might well be offended. As to why the movie version of his landmark book on the Texas Rangers bore little resemblance to what he wrote, Webb drily admits, "By the time the Hollywood lawyers get through with an author, he has renounced everything save the fact that he wrote a book, and he may be a little uncertain about that" (182). Readers who want the facts of Webb's life should look elsewhere, perhaps to books with indexes and footnotes. But those who want to know more about Webb's perspective on his life will find it here, and for that Collins is to be commended for letting the man speak for himself. Richard B. McCaslin University of North Texas Copyright © 2021 The Texas State Historical Association