Frank Waters: A Retrospective Anthology ed. by Charles L. Adams (review)

Reviews 147 Basic Texas Books: An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Works for a Research Library. By John H. Jenkins. (Austin: Jenkins Publishing Com­ pany, 1983. 648 pages, $65.00.) John H. Jenkins is a noted authority on and probably the foremost dealer in rare and significant Texana. Items from his company’s vast warehouse (which suffered a disastrous fire on Christmas Eve, 1985) grace the shelves and walls of private collections, libraries, museums, and rare book collections throughout the world. This volume, the result of fourteen years of meticulous research and informed by a lifetime of interest in the material (he published his first book when he was a teenager), presents for both the scholar and the casual reader not only the bibliographical data promised by the sub-title, but also a wealth of entertaining insights and anecdotes. In his lucid, informative, and sometimes whimsical style, Jenkins freely contradicts and corrects the find­ ings of his contemporaries as well as the highly regarded Handbook of Texas. Although the book arbitrarily excludes fiction and other creative writing, it is nevertheless an important reference tool for literature specialists working with Texas materials. A full understanding of Texas fiction and poetry gen­ erally requires the combined skillsof the historian, folklorist, and literary critic. In this respect, Basic Texas Books brings together the historical sources with which the scholar must be acquainted. Arranged alphabetically by author, the book annotates the 224 books (from the over 100,000 published) Jenkins considers essential for a research library. As the dust jacket blurb succinctly states: “The text, which usually runs several pages per entry, includes (1) full bibliographical details on every printing and issue, (2) quotations about the book from other scholars, (3) the story of how and why the book was written with anecdotes about the author and printer, (4) a detailed description of the contents of the book, (5) an analysis of the merits and inaccuracies, if any, in each book, (6) related books of significance, and (7) citations to other bibliographies. An additional 1017 Texas books are discussed and appraised, and an annotated guide to 217 Texas bibliographies is included. A complete author-title-subject index and 66 fullpage illustrations complement the text.” SYLVIA ANN GRIDER Texas A&M University Frank Waters: A Retrospective Anthology. Edited by Charles L. Adams. (Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 1985. 218 pages. $12.95.) In the fifty-odd years since he published his first book, Frank Waters has produced an extraordinary literature of lasting significance. Through the prism of his writings, he has illuminated the multi-cultural spectrum—Indian, ...