This is the first full-length study of the life and 
writings of the Texas novelist, William Humphrey, who 
died August 21, 1997. Based on research in Humphrey's 
vast archives at the University of Texas, it provides 
the first full picture of his life and identifies many 
untraced sources of his work. The guiding principle is 
an exploration of Humphrey's satire on life-destroying 
myths: the myths of the hunter, the South, the cowboy 
hero, the Depression-era outlaw, and, supremely, the 
myth of Texas. To his dismay, Humphrey was often seen 
as a celebrator of these myths.


The novels discussed are Home from the Hill, The 
Ordways, A Time and a Place, Proud Flesh, Farther Off 
from Heaven, Hostages to Fortune, Open Season, No Resting 
Place, September Song. Attention is also given to his 
superb sports writings.


This critical biography joins the other books in the Texas 
Writers Series: Elmer Kelton and West Texas: A Literary
Relationship; Benjamin Capps and the South Plains: A Literary
Relationship; The Texas Legacy of Katherine Anne Porter; Larry 
McMurtry and the West: An Ambivalent Relationship; Rolando 
Hinojosa and the American Dream.
  
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BERT ALMON has taught modern literature and creative 
writing at the University of Alberta since 1968. He has published 
eight collections of poetry and a Western Writers Series monograph 
on Gary Snyder. He held a Mellon Fellowship at the Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas and a 
Hawthornden Fellowship in Poetry. He lives in Edmonton, 
Alberta, Canada.

#6 Texas Writers Series