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Acknowledgments John Biggers spent many hours tossing about ideas on drawing, art, and life while Hazel Biggers listened, cooked, and interjected her insightful comments. I sat at the dining table with tape recorder, pen, and yellow pad, with questions in mind. I am so thankful for this friendship that grew from a serendipitous event, led into a book on his murals and now into this book. Because of Dr. Biggers’s illness and death in 2001, I had stopped working on the project and put away my tapes, notes, and slides. But thanks to Dr. D. Jack Davis’s encouragement and Hazel Biggers’s readiness, I submitted a book draft to the University of North Texas Press, which eventually was followed by a publication contract. Many of the photographs in this book were selected from John Biggers’s personal collection and I gratefully acknowledge the use of those images. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Austin, the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York, and the University of North Texas School of Visual Arts have graciously provided necessary photographs. The Texas Commission on the Arts in 1992 made it possible to photograph drawings from personal collections. At that time, Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Pierce, Jr., Dr. and Mrs. Richard Mosby, and Dr. and Mrs. Robert x Galloway kindly opened their homes and permitted photography. Photographers for the book were John Biggers, Earlie Hudnall, Sherry Fisher Staples, Ronnie Barker, Nancy Walkup, Olive Theisen, and Jessica Cook. The generous financial support of the Houston Endowment and the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation is most gratefully acknowledged. Without them, this book would not have been possible. And finally, my deep thanks go to Karen DeVinney, editor of the UNT Press, and Dr. B. Stephen Carpenter, III, for their editing suggestions. It has been a joy and a privilege. ...

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