The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 42, July 1938 - April, 1939 Page: 413

Book Reviews

inate an obscure passage or reference. In addition to the obvious
value of the Houston documents themselves, this work will, in a
sense, serve as a biographical dictionary of persons associated
with Houston. The present volume is rich in biographical infor-
mation, and succeeding ones should be even richer in Texan
biography.
One wishes that the printers could have given a little more
thought to the appearance of the book as a book. I have never
been able to see a good reason why such reference works as this
should necessarily be unattractive to the eye and heavy to the
hand. The Writings of Sam Houston are surely worthy of as
pleasing a dress as a popular novel. The margins are skimpy,
and there is no half-title.
The extensive use that has been made of the various standard
biographical compilations calls striking attention to the need for
a scholarly, non-commercial, Dictionary of Texan Biography, which
some of us once hoped might be a by-product of the Centennial
celebrations. Certainly it is needed, and certainly these editors
have done a good deal of the spade work for it by their copious
biographical notes in this work.
The remaining five volumes of The Writings of Sam Houston
are promised by 1941, perhaps earlier. They will be welcomed
by all students of Southwestern history.
HERBERT GAMBRELL.
Southern Methodist University.
Leathercoat: The Life History of a Texas Patriot. By Claude
Elliott. (San Antonio: Standard Printing Company, 1938.
Pp. xiv, 315. Illustrations. $3.00.)
On the outbreak of the Mexican War, James Webb Throckmorton
volunteered to serve as a private, but, because of his training,
he was soon advanced to the rank of surgeon. Discharged for
disability in June, 1847, he was engaged in the practice of medi-
cine until he was driven by a combination of circumstances and
temperament to the law and politics. A Whig from inheritance,
he was elected to the legislature in 1851. His elevation to the
state senate in 1857 was a reward for faithful rather than for any
distinguished service. He stood courageously and prominently
with the Conservative-Unionist minority in the convention that

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