J. FRANK DOBIE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 12/05/1945 - HFSID 181585

JAMES FRANK DOBIE
Texan author and folklorist wrote this letter to an English fan in 1945, thanking him for a letter and about his writing: "I was speaking more for a land and a people than for anything of my own ego."
Autograph letter signed "J Frank Dobie". Pencil notations on verso in unknown hand. 1 page, 5x7½. Dec. 5, 1945. Addressed to the Shrivenham American Association, Shrivenham, Berkshire, England. In full: "Dear John Vogel - I guess it's always gratifying to a writer to find an appreciative read of his book. In this I was speaking more for a land and a people than for anything of my own ego. As a sympathetic reader among the English people on soil, you especially gratify me. Here's to you and to a civilization of tolerance!" Texan author and folklorist Dobie (1888-1964) wrote stories about cowboys the figures and natural history of Texas and helped to define the popular image of his native state. His book include A Vaquero of the Brush Country (1929), about the cowboy John Young, who fought against barbed wire; Coronado's Children (1930), a collection of folklore about lost mines and treasure; and The Longhorns (1941), a book about the Texas Longhorn cattle industry of the 19th century. A liberal Democrat, Dobie also wrote a Sunday newspaper column from 1939 until his death, where he criticized everything from state politics and professional teachers (he was a member of the faculty from University of Texas, Austin from 1921 to 1922 and 1925 to 1944 and taught in Europe during and after World War II) to bragging Texans, restraints on liberty and the mechanized world's erosion of the human spirit. Lightly stained and creased. Pen skipped in places while writing signature, which is legible. Otherwise in fine condition.