The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991 Page: 131
692 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Revzews
shapely, with an abundance of dark red hair, sparkling black eyes, and
always comported herself in a genteel manner" (p. 393)-
Texas historians will find this set invaluable and at the same time
frustrating. By nature, it is more exhaustive than Howard Lamar's En-
cyclopedza of the American West. Some entries are far superior to corre-
sponding accounts in the Handbook of Texas. But the choice of Texas
characters weighs heavily toward Indians, cowboys, and adventurers.
Stock figures-Chief Bowles, Sam Houston, Charles Goodnight, and
Jack Hays-are well represented. Authors like Walter P. Webb and Carl
Coke Rister also appear. But others who one might hope to see in a
frontier encyclopedia do not make the cut. Mirabeau B. Lamar is not
given a separate entry. Ben McCulloch turns up without his brother
Henry. Charles D. Viele and Dan Roberts, soldier and Ranger, respec-
tively, deserve the treatment they receive in this work. But Thrapp fails
to include their wives, each of whom wrote significant books describing
their frontier experiences. Furthermore, the Spanish period seems
poorly represented. Although Gil Ybarbo and Philip Nolan deserve the
space they are attributed, empresarios like Green DeWitt and Martin
de Leon should also appear.
Some will undoubtedly find fault with certain entries. When dealing
with a work of this breadth, however, critics should be reminded that
Thrapp has done what he set out to do: provide a quick reference, a
place to begin research, and a tool for further study. This set belongs in
every university library, and in the collection of anyone interested in
America's frontier experience. Even at $175, it is well worth the price.
Corpus Christi State University ROBERT WOOSTER
Dictzonary of Louisiana Biography, Volumes i and 2. Edited by Glenn R.
Conrad. (New Orleans: Louisiana Historical Association in cooper-
ation with the Center for Louisiana Studies of the University of
Southwestern Louisiana, 1988. Pp. xviii+1132. Introduction, list
of contributors, index. $70.)
The result of almost a decade of devoted labor by four hundred con-
tributors, the Dictionary of Louzsiana Biography comprises almost 2,500
authoritative biographical sketches. Rather than taking a stylistic ap-
proach akin to the Dictionary of Amerzcan Bzography, however, the editor
chose to make each entry relatively brief and rigidly standardized, in-
cluding only the essential facts of a person's life. Bibliographical cita-
tions to sources used in research also appear at the end of each sketch.
There is a 26o-page index as well, but it consists only of the names of all
persons mentioned in the text, thus excluding other proper names and
subjects.131
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 94, July 1990 - April, 1991, periodical, 1991; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101214/m1/155/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.