The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 87
672 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
number of communities; and he instituted the annual book
auction that added substantially to the income of the Association.
Webb's foremost achievement for the Association and through
the Association for Texas and the cause of history was the
Handbook of Texas. In characteristic fashion he announced the
Handbook through an article in the Dallas News of November 17,
194o. The Handbook was at that time just an idea, he said, known
to only a few. "I think it proper," he stated, "that the Handbook
of Texas, or any book, should originate in an idea and I have
noticed that those that do not so originate are birds of swift
passage." Yes, he was always working with ideas and he carried
to fruition a remarkably large number of them. The Handbook,
he thought, should and would be "the most used book in Texas
for years to come," and he thought it "ought to be the product
of the combined literary ability of the people of Texas." In spite
of wars' delays and a score of handicaps it was put out twelve
years after he announced it and a thousand people had had a
part in its making. We can vouch for its being the most used
book in Texas and the greatest literary production ever done
by Texans.
It is not expedient to attempt to list the honors accorded
Webb. We know that two great English universities honored
him with appointments to their faculties. The American Histor-
ical Association elected him president. For a historian there
could be no higher honor; for this was the verdict of his fellow
craftsmen, the men and the women who knew his work and
measured its author. Also it is not fitting that we dwell on
Webb's writings. Who is there among us who has not ridden
with him the trails of Texas Rangers and looked into the soul
of such intrepid characters as soft-spoken John B. Jones and
droll Bill McDonald? Likewise we have been made captive for
hours by his Great Plains, where he applied to a region a thesis
of such logic and clarity that one is compelled to agree with
him. We have followed his argument in Divided we Stand, and
have shared his resentment at the neglect of the South by a
nation that was dominated by other regions. And even now
scholars are debating the ideas set forth in his opus magnus, The
Great Frontier; they may differ with the author but they cannot
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/109/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.