Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing

9. Wyman Meinzer, “Nature Writer”

123 Chapter 8 Wyman Meinzer Nature Writer Wyman Meinzer has been a professional writer and photographer of Texana for 25 years. He is the author/photographer of eighteen books since 1993 and is currently completing five more. His photographs have graced the covers of over 200 magazines. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2003 Star of Texas (along with John Graves) from the Gillespie County Historical Society. He is also a faculty member at Texas Tech University in the Department of Mass Communication teaching Special Problems Photography. I have always admired the writing style of the pioneers and explorers from early day Texas in the voice of Marcy, Gallagher, and Kendall and although few if any contemporary authors employ such stylistic eloquence,the writers of yesteryear have impacted my writing and fascination with our wild and remote Texas for over 40 years. It would be interesting to find evidence of my first creative written endeavor, perhaps having its birth in my preteen years, and for certain with a leaning to the outdoor genre.I have retained,however,some short stories from somewhat later years, I think from the tender age of about 13. Even now, when I reread them some four decades later, I see a rough style that in time would offer our Texas land and sky and experiences therein from a slightly different perspective. Inspirational support for my early writings came from many sources not the least being sky, wildlife, weather, history and the ancient badlands of the Texas rolling plains. Having grown up on a ranch in Knox County, 124 the land graciously offered an inexhaustible source of inspiration and energy as I explored the canyons and arroyos from horseback over and afoot. A region gashed by eons of wind and water erosion and furred over by a sea of juniper and mesquite vegetation, these silt and clay red beds offered fossil and geological wonders to fuel the fascination of my youthful mind. From observing the predators and the prey or from the snows of winter to the great storms of springtime, I raced tirelessly across the 27,000 acres constantly vigilant and absorbing through osmosis the life way of this ragged piece of Texas. From this wealth of humble experiences I seemed to have developed a voice of my own. I have to honestly say that I’m not really a writer by the exact definition. Unlike many, I cannot produce significant material about any subject at anytime. Inspiration is mandatory or I will not waste my time nor that of the readers by tapping out a superficial collection of words for the sake of writing. Case in point was a paper assigned by my freshman English instructor at Texas Tech University in the fall 1969. Until about mid-semester I had effectively botched almost all of my attempts at the obligatory biographical sketches and other mundane topics and was feeling lower than the basement room in which the class was held three days a week. But a new day was dawning in this neophyte ’s writing career! In retrospect I think that John Lightfoot, the instructor, was onto something when he gave the class a list of topics on which to write a two-page paper. Perhaps he was feeling the frustration of facing an unresponsive class or maybe he was simply bored with the standard timesensitive topics (i.e. Vietnam war) assigned that year, but nevertheless I will always think that one topic was offered just for me: “An Enjoyment of Hunting”!! I was about to experience an epiphany!!! With a boundless love for the outdoors and with heightened energy and purpose, I wrote that paper with an intensity as never before.In apprehensive dread Wyman Meinzer 125 I watched as Mr.Lightfoot stood at the podium and addressed the results of the recent assignment and quite honestly sat in silent disbelief as he informed the class that my work was one of the best freshman essays that he had ever read!! From that moment on I realized that indeed I had a voice on paper. In this age of computer literacy,words flow in cyber space like endless columns of clouds in a summer sky but four decades ago my thoughts were scribbled on bits of paper, most of which had a tendency to disappear in the course of...