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Reviews 311 tive. The colloquial language, homely detail, comic exaggeration, and amus­ ing anecdotes make Bigfoot’s tale a fresh version of the frontiersman, un­ curried but natively -shrewd, amused and bemused by a complex society. The Wallace of this part of the book —the Bigfoot who stretches the blanket in tales about Texas varmints and customs — is the Bigfoot who lives on as a folk hero. As an individual and as a tale teller, Wallace admirably suited the role — a huge man of remarkable endurance, open hearted but no fool, the trickster who exposes false pride, and a raconteur who can laugh at himself as well as others. Duval captured the Wallace of the mellow years, a man who could enliven his experiences with humor and fantasy and create unforgetable tales that still appeal. This new edition of Duval’s most famous work is attractively presented. The editors have provided an illuminating introduction and copious notes. If scholars, students, and general readers do not consider this book a delight, I hope I may “be kicked to death by grasshoppers,” as Bigfoot would say. Jo h n Q. A n d e r s o n , University of Houston Pioneer Surveyor — Frontier Lawyer: The Personal Narrative of O. W. Wil­ liams, 1877-1902. Edited by S. D. Myres. Introduction by C. L. Sonnichsen. (El Paso: Texas Western College Press, 1966. XII, 350 pages, illus., index, $10.00.) In the old West there occurred in a few individuals the fortunate coin­ cidence of a good education, interesting experience, a discerning sensibility, and the tendency to write. Since O. W. Williams had all these, the gather­ ing of his writings, from pamphlets and diary and personal letters, into a single book is important. A graduate of the Harvard Law School, he went West in 1877 on ac­ count of weak lungs; they did not fail him until 1946, when he was ninetythree . During that time he saw the last of the great southern buffalo herd, the opening of the ranching era on the high plains of Texas, the prospecting and mining of early New Mexico, the Apache wars of the 80’s, the develop­ ment of the Big Ben country on the Mexican border, and the early oil-boom times of the Southwest. He wrote of these things out of an intimate knowl­ edge, much of which he got while carrying a surveyor’s transit on his shoulder or a prospector’s hammer in his hand, for he never catered to his ill health. Williams had considerable foresight. He evidently realized that what he wrote would not be immediately appreciated, for he did not try to make money writing, nor particularly to gain prestige. But still he wrote, aware that he lived in dynamic, changing times, soon to be gone forever, It was 312 Western American Literature as if he told himself: People will want to know about this some day. And he was right. What he put down is dependable historical source material and, perhaps more rare, dependable impressions of a broad and perceptive mind. His style is straightforward, unpretentious, but with an effectiveness that seems to flow out of his own lively interest in what he saw around him. He transmits powerfully the sense of the Apache threat that hung over the scattered miners of southern New Mexico. Again and again he gives us brief sketches of the people he knew, and the reader is impressed with the variety and color of the characters on the frontier. He retells the campfire tales of a Mexican storyteller, Natividad Lujan, and captures the spirit of the teller at the same time that he preserves the folklore of the border region. Editor Myres ties together the original writings with interspersed sec­ tions dealing wtih necessary background. He also adds copious notes. I found myelf continuously flipping back to the notes, a testimony to some awkwardness of arrangement, but also to the value and interest of the notes. The book is gracefully designed by Carl Hertzog and beautifully illustrated by José Cisneros. B e n ja m in C a p p s, Grand Prairiee, Texas Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the...

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