Book Club of Texas

The Book Club of Texas plans to publish The State Fair of Texas, an enduring Texas tradition, with photographs by Lynn Lennon and an essay by Anne Dingus, later this fall. John Crichton, proprietor of the Brick Row Book Shop in San Francisco, is at work editing a future Book Club of Texas volume, a gathering of essays in memory of bookseller Franklin Gilliam, who, in a storied career, operated bookshops in Houston, Austin, San Francisco, and Charlottesville. Contributors include David Farmer, Warren Roberts, Larry McMurtry, Peter Howard, Anthony Rota, Richard Landon. Bill Fisher in San Antonio writes that Josefina Niggli's The Defeat of Grandfather Devil, published by the Book Club in 2010, will be produced this December by the Trinity Street Players in Austin. We still have a few copies for sale of Niggli's play, based on a twelfth-century Spanish shepherds' play and performed yearly at Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The Book Club edition has charming linocuts by Artemio Rodriguez and an Afterword by Fisher. For more information about this or other Book Club publications or activities, please contact Pamalla Anderson at the DeGolyer Library, andersonp@smu.edu.