The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston. Volume I: 1839-1845
Sam Houston. University of North Texas Press, $35.95 (448pp) ISBN 978-1-57441-000-6
Roberts continues her exploration of Sam Houston's character and career (Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston) with this first volume of his private correspondence. Most of the letters were exchanged with his wife, and Roberts has done a model job of editing and annotating them. Her intellectual presence is constant but never obtrusive. The letters are valuable as a record of a loving, mutually supportive marriage that contributed much to Houston's recovery from depression and alcoholism. Their wider historical context, however, is limited. Houston's comments on the issues and personalities of pre-independence Texas politics are relatively sparse and add little to the evidence already available. Social historians and students of Texas lore will nevertheless find the collection of interest. (Feb.)
Details
Reviewed on: 04/01/1996
Genre: Nonfiction
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