Texas Longhorns: A Short Essay
Author signed! These great books make a perfect addition to dress up your home in Texas style, or to fill in a Texas-themed gift basket. By Jim Hodges.
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This brief, delightful publication is titled ‘a short essay” but is actually a series of short essays concerning the author’s admiration and perspectives of the iconic Texas Longhorn cattle. From the introduction of sharp-horned Spanish fighting cattle and rangy Corrientes into the New World, to the learning of working cattle horseback in the Panucho region of Mexico, to the diffusion of cattle northward across the Rio Grande and blending of their bloodlines to form a new breed, to their almost extinction at the end of the 19th century, Hodges regards the process and the Longhorned, slab-sided, feral, well adapted cattle breed as assuming mystic properties worthy of remembrances in art, memory, and history. He writes this series of essays from his own historical perspective, experience, and scholarly research and examines the uniqueness of the Longhorn from a spiritual perspective; from the artistic perspective whether on canvas, in print, in song, or in memory; as well as in the science of development of body morphology and adaptations. His passion is apparent and translates into easy reading, brief enough to read leisurely at one reading. His prose sums up the essays – “I was here – roaming the eroded escarpments and grazing the rich arroyo; I am history…listen to the wind….”. Careful, it may whet your curiosity to learn more about this historical breed that provided hides and tallow, fed the nation, provided the strength to carry the burdens of life, and essentially fueled the recovery of a post-Civil war Texas.
Book Introduction by C. Wayne Hanselka, PhD Emeritus, Sul Ros State University
