The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 403
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
The history of oil in Brown County and the history of Lake
Brownwood are related in detail. The bibliography is comprehen-
sive and much useful data has been confined in an appendix.
RUPERT N. RICHARDSON
Hardin-Simmons University
Thirteen Days to Glory. By Lon Tinkle. New York (McGraw-
Hill), 1958. Pp. 255. Illustrations. $3.95.
The heroic tragedy of the siege and fall of the Alamo, called
appropriately by Lon Tinkle Thirteen Days to Glory, has excited
the imagination and awed the souls of lovers of freedom for one
hundred and twenty-two years. A shelf of books, adult and juve-
nile, has been written in attempt to tell the story, but none
achieves the dramatic power displayed by the author of this
latest effort.
Tinkle's aim, while unfolding scene after scene, is to get at the
thoughts of the participants. He has thoroughly prepared himself
by intensive study of the sources and secondary works, striving
to obtain a picture of the characters of such leaders as Travis,
Bowie, Bonham, and Crockett. The result is suggestive of the kind
of psychological history and biography created in recent years by
Irving Stone and Walter Lord.
The story begins high in the bell tower of San Fernando
Church where sentry Daniel William Cloud has been placed to
report first sight of the approach of the expected columns of
vengeful Santa Anna. Before the end of Chapter I, entitled "The
First Day" (organization into thirteen chapters is thus indicated) ,
the reader is effectively briefed and braced for the ominous ap-
pearance of Mexican cavalry on the prairie. The author tells us,
incidentally, that the placing of Cloud in the tower is the one
occasion where the position of a character is assumed. Otherwise,
"movement of the participants is based on documentary evi-
dence." Although Tinkle's notes, for his purposes, provide ade-
quate account of the conflict of testimony, the reader will miss
inclusion of a plat or plan of the Alamo as it was at the time of
the attack.
The psychological wonder of the Alamo martyrdom is a prin-
cipal theme of Thirteen Days to Glory. Even casual visitors to403
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/472/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.