Jim Bowie, and: Juan Seguin (review)

366Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary a new Houston campus situated on 134 acres in the center of the city. The Texas Medical Center was chartered in 1945. As Houston grew, die need for a facility dedicated to the care of pediatric patients became urgent. Texas Children's Hospital broke ground in 1951 on 5.75 acres donated by the Texas Medical Center and opened its doors in February 1954. Initially St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital shared facilities. The Texas Heart Institutejoined them in 1962. In 1980 the institutions separated their facilities. By 1967 Texas Children's Hospital was overcrowded, and in 1972 it expanded to a seven-story facility. Further success soon pushed additional expansion , and by 1991 Texas Children's Hospital had become a twenty-story patient tower surrounded by outpatient clinics and research facilities. TCH was lucky enough to have farsighted and dynamic leadership under Russell Blattner and, later, Ralph Feigin who served as physicians-in-charge of the hospital, and Mark Wallace as chief executive officer. These physicians attracted and retained outstanding teachers and researchers to the center and developed clinical departments that rival the best in the world. This book documents die founding and growth ofTCH in an extremely readable format. Following a general history of the development of the hospital, the book delineates the growth of the various divisions within the hospital—nursing, hematology-oncology, cardiovascular surgery, renal transplantation, and many odiers. In each of these sections the author intersperses patient stories and experiences and quotes from hospital and community leaders. This makes the book a much livelier version of the usual dull and self-congratulatory hospital histories. This is a pleasant read for diose interested in how Houston and Texas developed and supported a world-class institution. Texas Christian UniversityWatson Arnold Jim Bowie. By Robert Hollmann. (Dallas: Durban House Publishing, 2006. Pp. 1 24. ISBN 1930754817. $9.95, paper.) Juan Seguin. By Robert Hollmann. (Dallas: Durban House Publishing, 2007. Pp. 120. ISBN 1930754957· $9-95> paper.) Jim Bowie andJuan Seguin are the second and third books, respectively, in the Frontier Legends series, all written by Robert E. Hollmann of Odessa. According to die back covers of these two books, Mr. Hollmann "was selected Best West Texas Author for 2005 for his first book in the Frontier Legends series, Davy Crocfott." The Seguin volume invites the reader to visit Mr. Hollmann's web page, where it is disclosed that his selection as "Best West Texas Author" was through a poll conducted by the Odessa newspaper and the Hastings Book Store. The same web site also identifies the tides in the Frontier Legends series as novels—a designation that addresses the interesting question ofjust what kind of books these are meant to be. The acknowledgments page ofthe Bowie volume reveals Mr. Hollmann's thanks to two students (presumably from the University of Texas of die Permian Basin, 2??8Book Reviews367 where Hollmann is an associate professor of criminology) , for their "insight into what works for young readers"—but it is only when one discovers that the narrator of this book is an old dog named Gator, who tells the story of his former master's life to his two rambunctious grandpuppies, Princess and Butch, diat one begins to suspect what one is in for. Actually, old Gator does a pretty goodjob, comparatively speaking (more on the comparison in a moment). The reader learns diat Bowie was associated with a pirate named Jean Lafitte, and that he was therefore in somewhat bad odor with the law in Louisiana. Jim's brodier Rezin advises him to get out of town and suggests Texas as a good place to hunt and fish, get free land, and maybe even discover gold. He also givesJim a very large knife. Miraculously, almost everyone Bowie meets on his trip to Texas, including Stephen F. Austin, has already heard ofJim's famous knife! Bowie learns some bad news, however, from Austin: Mexico is getting suspicious that Americans coming into Texas might be out to cause trouble, and the government is no longer willing to give away land so freely. Austin recommends that Bowie try talking to the Seguins and Veramendis in...