The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 67
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Texiana
by a different route. Other items in the collection were some
intimate Burr material, including the key to his secret code.
In haste (and I know now, in my weakened condition) I sent
these to a Dallas collector and left for South America. When I
returned, a month later, I found that the Dallas man, a stickler
for fine condition, had refused to buy them because they had
been repaired with Scotch tape. Meantime, the attorney left
Houston and my clerk failed to get his name. Thus, evidence
that would change the course of recorded history and merchan-
dise that might have paid for the education of my children, flew
out the window.
My exacting collector friend in Dallas remembers the text of
these letters exactly as I do and I am sure feels as sheepish as I
do about it. And now having freely confessed, I have something
else to say briefly, in conclusion.
To me the great figure among Texas collectors, a man who
gave of his knowledge and vision at a time when cultural values
in this stratum were certainly not overdone, was Sir Swante
Palm, the subject of Dr. Harry Ransom's brilliant paper at last
year's meeting. It seems to me that no acquisition has been so
valuable nor so perfectly timed. And it was not acquired by
purchase.
How Dr. Barker has lived through the last three days and kept
his poise and composure is beyond me. At the risk of boring
him but not the rest of you I want to close on the beam of the
week's dominant motif. You have heard much of Dr. Barker's
professional career and have observed firsthand the visible and
immediate fruits of his labors. But, like the poet who shot the
arrow in the air, he has incalculable and immeasurable attain-
ments. In Latin-America Dr. Barker is one of few North Amer-
icans who are thoroughly respected. He is actually revered for
his consistent fairness as a historian. I want to draw, however,
on my files of experience for a single example of his influence,
a typically extra-curricular and usually thankless act of a great
scholar.
Forty-two years ago a young man in Houston wrote to Dr.
Barker for advice. He had embarked on a writing career, wanted
to write about Texas and its history, to write about it truthfully.
To Dr. Barker he was a total stranger.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/89/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.