Literary Houston

Literary Houston
Author :
Publisher : Texas Christian University Press
Total Pages : 0
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0875654193
ISBN-13 : 9780875654195
Rating : 4/5 (93 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Literary Houston by : David Theis

Download or read book Literary Houston written by David Theis and published by Texas Christian University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifth in the "Literary Cities" series, Literary Houston gathers together historical and contemporary writing about this Texas city that everyone loves to hate. Rather than organize the pieces chronologically, Editor David Theis has assembled works according to themes such as biography and memoir; visitors; the city itself; events; poetry; and fiction. From Cabeza de Vaca's early experiences to the Enron debacle, Theis presents Houston in a new, critical light. After the Battle of San Jacinto, perhaps no one but the Allen brothers, land speculators from New York, could have imagined a city growing on the forlorn banks of Buffalo Bayou. But in what was the city's first, but certainly not last, work of fiction, they sold their vision of a great city growing in a place that "Nature appears to have Designated... for the future Government. It is handsome and beautifully elevated, salubrious and well watered." Well, Houston is well watered. Undeterred by the mosquitoes and the general swampiness of the land, Houston grew immediately and attracted such pen-in-hand nineteenth-century visitors as Frederick Law Olmstead and Andrew Sweet. The city has been the subject of sometimes appalled, sometimes thrilled commentary by passsers-through ever since; such vistors as H.L. Mencken, Jan Morris, Stanley Crouch, Norman Mailer, Ada Louise Huxtable, and even Simone de Beauvoir have reported on what they found. But it's in the stories of Houstonians themselves (even the temporary Houstonians) that the city's reason for being best comes into focus. It's been a city of driven, ambitious people who often made an early mark here and moved on: Howard Hughes; Barbara Jordan; Walter Cronkite; the two Albert Guerards, father and son; and musicians like Lightnin' Hopkins, Willie Nelson, and Townes Van Zandt, to name a few. Important writers have grown up here: Donald Barthelme, Vassar Miller, Rick Bass. Other authors, like prose writers Larry McMurtry, Antonya Nelson, Mary Gaitskill, Phillip Lopate, Rosellen Brown, and Max Apple, and poets Tony Hoagland, Edward Hirsch, and Mark Doty came here to study, teach, and write. The city has fostered a burgeoning writing community outside the university. Lorenzo Thomas, Rich Levy, Daniel Rifenburgh and numerous others have left their marks on a city that defies easy description.


Literary Houston Related Books

Literary Houston
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: David Theis
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010 - Publisher: Texas Christian University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The fifth in the "Literary Cities" series, Literary Houston gathers together historical and contemporary writing about this Texas city that everyone loves to ha
Houston Noir (Akashic Noir)
Language: en
Pages: 189
Authors: Gwendolyn Zepeda
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-05-07 - Publisher: Akashic Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Brooklyn Noir came first in 2004, and now, 15 years later, Houston Noir--14 stories of intrigue, betrayal and death set from Tanglewood to Third Ward penned by
Inside Roman Libraries
Language: en
Pages: 349
Authors: George W. Houston
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014 - Publisher: UNC Press Books

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country
Language: en
Pages: 288
Authors: Pam Houston
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-01-29 - Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us." On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston lea
Houston, We Have a Narrative
Language: en
Pages: 269
Authors: Randy Olson
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-09-15 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Communicate more effectively about science—by taking a page from Hollywood and improving your storytelling skills. Ask a scientist about Hollywood, and you’