The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970 Page: 123

Book Reviews

are many intriguing parallels in the programs, personalities, and
appeal of these three men. Professor Bryant also displays some re-
luctance to fix Murray's career within the broader sweep of Oklahoma
political history. Did Murray leave any legacy for his successors,
or was he an aberrant figure whose influence soon disappeared? How
did the political environment of Oklahoma make it possible for
a man like Murray to secure and hold power? What accounts for
the persistent nepotism that marks Murray's patronage policies?
On some other points, Professor Bryant is not persuasive. His
own evidence tends to disprove his claim that Murray rarely indulged
in Negro-baiting. In addition, Murray's gubernatorial and presidential
campaigns had characteristics that deserve to be described as dema-
gogic. Professor Bryan might also have attempted a more sophisti-
cated discussion of the electoral sources of Murray's political support
by using techniques of voting analysis. Despite these limitations, how-
ever, the book has much value and will interest all students of public
life in the American Southwest in this century.
University of Texas at Austin LEWIS L. GOULD
New Echota Letters: Contributions of Samuel A. Worcester to the
Cherokee Phoenix. Edited by Jack Frederick Kilpatrick and Anna
Gritts Kilpatrick. (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press,
1968. Pp. 130. Bibliography. $5.00.)
In these latter days of our apocalypse the McLuhanite trumpet
sounds taps for printed books. Others prophesy doom for libraries,
as they are transformed into computerized data banks where infor-
mation retrieval specialists feed printout sheaves to the eager scholar.
It will not be the same.
Hastening to beat the last trump are a score of major projects of
collected writings. The National Historical Publications Commission
blesses (in some cases financially) the publication of the works of
Adams, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Calhoun, Andrew
Johnson, and Wilson, among others, while plans progress for Will
Rogers. The Center for Editions of American Authors similarly is
promoting its nine series, from Irving to Crane. Other historically
worthy authors are being rescued by dedicated scholars from oblivion
in crumbling periodicals. Such a figure, and such scholars, appear
in the present case.
The Reverend Samuel Austin Worcester (1798-1859), a New

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