The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 93, July 1989 - April, 1990 Page: 250

Southwestern Historzcal Quarterly

his trail be followed with any precision. He preferred Indian women
until the end of his long life, and in various ways he would champion
the rights of Native Americans against crooked Indian agents and
others who abused Longstreet's chosen people. Longstreet gravitated
to lonely Nevada, where he worked gold claims, operated saloons,
raised a few head of livestock on remote ranches, and avidly raced
horses. A burly man with a murderous temper, Longstreet had a vio-
lent streak that often could not be slaked with fisticuffs. Until he was
nearly ninety he wore a single-action Colt .44, which he was known to
employ with lethal results. The hardbitten gunman-rancher-prospector
stubbornly lived exactly as he pleased, a throwback to a frontier that
supposedly had ceased to exist.
Sally Zanjani, a gifted writer, resourcefully pieced together the last
half-century of Longstreet's life. A number of decaying ranch buildings
and other sites familiar to Longstreet were photographed by the au-
thor, who collected several other interesting illustrations. A bibliogra-
phy and index are included in the book, along with endnotes that are
sometimes imprecise but that offer an interesting guide to sources
about Longstreet and related subjects. Jack Longstreet is a little-known
but fascinating refugee of the last frontier, and the rugged story of the
latter half of his life is engagingly told by Zanjani.
Panola Junior College BILL O'NEAL
The Flavor of Ed Owen: A Geologst Looks Back. Edited by Samuel P.
Ellison, Jr., Joseph J. Jones, and Mirva Owen. (Austin: Geology
Foundation, University of Texas at Austin, 1987. Pp. ix+ 142. Pref-
ace, introduction, photographs, epilogue. $ o, paper.)
Edgar W. Owen, well-known petroleum geologist and author of a de-
finitive history of petroleum geology, died in 1981 after a long and dis-
tinguished career. In this aptly titled book the editors have pulled
together selections from his notes, reminiscences, speeches, and philo-
sophical essays to provide glimpses of Owen's life. After brief discussion
of childhood memories and university studies in Ohio and Missouri,
Owen recalls incidents from his professional life as a reconnaissance
geologist for the Empire Gas and Fuel Company, the Greenwood Com-
pany, John C. Keys, and L. H. Wentz conducting field studies, pri-
marily in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, at a time when oil companies
were beginning to actively recruit and use geologists. That section of
the book would be most enjoyable to geologists familiar with the tech-
nical vocabulary that is used and with many of the dozens of individuals

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