The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 328
673 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
criticism aside, this study of McLeod makes a significant contribution to the his-
tory of the era and of those who made up the anti-Houston political faction.
Fort Worth Linda S. Hudson
The Roy Bedzchek Family Letters. By Jane Gracy Bedichek. (Denton: University of
North Texas Press, 1998. Pp. xvii+447. Foreword, introduction, editorial
notes, letters, appendix, index. ISBN 1-57441-032-6. $32.50, cloth.)
The Roy Bedichek Family Letters is a collection of correspondence from a family
of well-educated writers who felt the need to communicate with each other on a
regular basis. The letters are divided into decades, giving the reader a view of
the world situation from i908 to 1959. The ensuing, descriptive letters include a
variety of personal topics as the Bedicheks saw them. These topics cover socialis-
tic, political, and educational events. Roy Bedichek had many interests and was
an avid naturalist and conservationist. These letters are stored at the Center for
American History at the University of Texas at Austin.
The letters were compiled by Roy Bedichek's only daughter-in-law, Jane Gracy
Bedichek, who married Bachman Greer Bedichek. Footnotes were added by
Lillian, Roy's wife, to aide the reader. Some side notes written by Roy Bedichek
were included in the book. The letters show his great interest in literature, writ-
ing, education, genealogy, and the natural world.
Roy Bedichek graduated from the University of Texas in 1903 and taught
school in Houston and San Angelo before writing for newspapers in New
Mexico and Texas. From 1917 to 192o Roy Bedichek was the director of athlet-
ics, University Interscholastic League, Extension Division, at the University of
Texas. In 1956, his book, Educatzonal Competition: The Story of the University
Interscholastic League of Texas, was published and awarded the Texas Institute of
Letters' Carr Collins Award as the best Texas book of that year.
The Roy Bedichek Famly Letters is well organized and includes an appendix
which is a chronology starting with Roy's birth in 1878 and ending with the
death of one of his daughters, Mary Bedichek Carroll, 1995. There are gene-
alogical charts which began in 1759 for the Bedichek family and a listing of
Lillian Greer's parents and their children. Many photographs are located at the
end of most chapters.
This book is a good companion to the 1985 University of Texas Press publica-
tion, Letters of Roy Bedichek, which contains letters written to friends and col-
leagues such as Frank Dobie and Walter Webb. The Roy Bedichek Family Letters
could be included in college and university reading lists to give students insights
into the response of individuals to the events of history. In addition, anyone who
has attended the University of Texas at Austin will be intrigued by the many well-
known personalities of this campus as viewed through the eyes of Roy Bedichek.
Modern-day University Interscholastic League students would do well to read at
least parts of Educational Competition: The Story of the Unzversity Interscholastic League
of Texas.328
October
Blanco, Texas
June Waiters
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001, periodical, 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101221/m1/380/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.