The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 85, July 1981 - April, 1982 Page: 104

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Henry Hulme Sevier, she became a political figure; and following the
death of her brother-the last member of her immediate family-she
assumed management of an estate greatly enhanced by oil discoveries.
Along the way, she continued to give generously to special causes.
Upon her death she left her fortune for the benefit of a children's
hospital.
Clara Driscoll's last years were marred by a divorce and declining
health, but her funeral suggested her position in Texas. Her body lay
in state in the Alamo, and her pallbearers included a future president
of the United States, a former vice president, and a host of governors,
senators, and other dignitaries.
Martha Anne Turner had access to the records of the Driscoll Foun-
dation in writing this first book-length biography of Clara Driscoll.
The tone is generally uncritical, but, if the book omits the warts, it
nevertheless records the facts and revives the memory of a woman
whom Time magazine called "something... even for Texas."
Houston Baptist University MARILYN MCADAMS SIBLEY
Journey to the United States of North America. By Lorenzo de Zavala.
Translated by Wallace Woolsey. (Austin: Shoal Creek Publishers,
1980. Pp. xx+218. Preface, illustrations, biographical sketch,
index. $15.)
Lorenzo de Zavala might have been much better known in the his-
tory of early Texas, but the fates decreed otherwise. A man of ideal-
istic, if mercurial, temperament, Zavala was honored with the vice-
presidency of the Republic of Texas in March, 1836; but he died in
November of that same year, just as the curtain had risen.
Zavala was one of the several Mexican "liberals" who pledged their
fortunes with the Texas Revolution. During his early life, while serv-
ing out a prison term for his political liberalism, he studied medicine
and English. Later, in the ebb and flow of Mexican politics, he held
positions of high responsibility, including consular posts at Madrid
and Paris. In 1829, forced out of the cabinet of President Vicente
Guerrero, he found it expedient to leave the country. By way of Vera-
cruz he slipped across to New Orleans. It was from there that he set
out upon his American journey--by steamer and stage, traversing
some three thousand miles-which he describes in this perceptive
journal.
Zavala had long been an admirer of the American governmental

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