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Home Spun A Collection by Leon Hale |
What Others are Saying...
"Most newspaper columns pall in book form, but Leon Hale's pieces gain from being collected and read together. This is because we can see Hale for what he is, a true essayist, who plays virtuoso variations on theme and persona, and who rescues the minutiae of daily life and burnishes it to a tender glow. Hale's particular brilliance is to bring a master craftsman's tact to the short piece, knowing just how fully to fill it with ideas and feelings."—Phillip Lopate
"Leon Hale has always been able to write uncommonly well about common situations. These columns are affecting and provocative. They encourage reflection."—Larry McMurtry
"(Hale's) voice in writing is the voice of the man himself. Colloquial, wise, caring, closely observant, and—most often at his own expense—wrily and powerfully humorous. And instead of fading with the years, these qualities have been intensified and refined. Home Spun is Hale at his best. . . ."—John Graves
"Where I came from, we always had Leon Hale for breakfast. It's still a good idea. He talks straight and funny about real people. Nice going, Hale—classy show."—Molly Ivins
"Newspaper columnist Hale has mined Texas for forty years, finding beer joint lies and dirt-road truths for his daily column. This (Texas Chronicles) is a collection of the best of both and some of the finest short essays in modern American literature."—U.S. News, Online
" . . . Russell Baker, Ellen Goodman, and Leon Hale . . . are so good at their professional task of hit-and-run wisdom that I only wish they had the space sometimes to try their. . . wings for real." —New York Times
In Home Spun, celebrated Houston Chronicle columnist Leon Hale presents, with his easy style and unfailing eye for the telling detail, deceptively simple narratives about the struggles and epiphanies of ordinary people. Whether roaming back roads or city streets, he charms readers with his kindly, humorous, or poignant observations of daily life.
His stories are populated with the characters familiar to readers of his thrice weekly columns from which the pieces have been selected. My Friend Mel and Madame Z., the Brazos Bottom fortune teller, appear alongside O. F. Morgan, Cousin C.T., the gang at the ice house, and many more of the colorful Texans that make Hale's work memorable.
In his piece "Hobby Surfing," Hale reveals some of his own lifetime quirks and, in the process, turns gentle self-deprecation into a subtle reminder that all of us have a point of vulnerability.
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Read an excerpt from "Hobby Surfing". |
Home Spun also has tales of the old country house, a homing rat, apartment life in the city, and the old hometown. The prize-winning Mother's Day story recalling his own mother's reliance on hope is also included.
Throughout the collection, readers will encounter the warmth, humane wit, and civil sensibility that have made Hale a beloved favorite for many years.
A distinguished alumnus of Texas Tech, veteran of fifty bombing missions over Europe in World War II, and recipient of the Ima Hogg Award for Distinguished Contributions to Texas Culture among other journalism and book awards, LEON HALE has been a newspaper columnist for more than forty years. His daily column in the Houston Post ran for thirty-two years, and since 1984 his column has appeared in the Houston Chronicle. He is the author of six nonfiction books and two novels, including Addison, which won the Texas Institute of Letters' Jesse H. Jones Award for the best novel of 1979. Hale divides his time between the city of Houston and rural Washington County, Texas.
The publication of Home Spun in September will be accompanied by a broad regional promotion campaign, including radio and newspaper advertising and an author's tour. In addition, a domain address web site www.leonhale.com has been established.
Home Spun
ISBN 0-9657468-2-8 cloth $21.95
5 1/2x8 1/4. 256 pp. Index.
Texana. Literary Nonfiction. Regional Topics.
Publication Date: September 1997.
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