We Be Here When the Morning Comes is a book about people and courage and dignity striving to attain a measure of control over their lives and destinies. It is also a book about Appalachia and about the American labor movement. It describes, from the point of view of the striking mountaineers, the thirteen-month strike at the Brookside and Highsplint coal mines in Harlan County, KY—a strike marked by sporadic violence, controversial court orders, arrests of miners’ wives, the death...

The time is 1952. The place is a dusty western hamlet called Fort Appelby, a quiet town with old memories—of Indian raids and land grabs, or passions and scandal—memories that still haunt the living. 1952 is the year the polio epidemic sweeping America finally reaches this tiny town—destroying lives, upsetting established ways, creating an extraordinary need for human closeness. Time and Place is a stunning novel with the quality and feel of The Last Picture Show and the ...

For Texans and non-Texans alike, Mythic Texas is a fascinating journey into a culture that is like no other in the world. When you think of the word "Texas," vivid images come to mind. The symbols and legends that most of us associate with Texas all have their basis in the history, culture, and geography of the state. Through the eyes of the people of Texas, this book takes a look at some of these symbols--oil wells, the "leather throne" (the saddle), longhorn cattle, and the famous Lone S...

A collection of personal essays written between 1976 and 1983 for The Dallas Times Herald. They have a universality and a timelessness that makes them suitable for a much wider audience than the population of one urban area of Texas. What jumps out in these essays is not so much the actions within, so much as Bryan Woolley's reactions to these actions and events.

This third collection of true stories from award-winning journalist and novelist Bryan Woolley with an introduction by author John Nichols includes the deeply moving title story "Generations," as well as his features and personality profiles from The Dallas Morning News. In this volume of twenty-seven pieces, including the winner of a 1995 Missouri Lifestyles Journalism Award, "Poets Lariat," Woolley explores Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco and recalls the lost golden age of Mineral Wells...

A new collection of "true Texas stories" to stand alongside his earlier collection, The Edge of the West and Other Texas Stories, including such portrayals of Texas and Texans as:--The title story on his own family scandal about his uncle being charged with the murder of his new bride;--The quest for the $65,000 prize fish in the Lake Texoma Crappiethon; and 17 other stories.

Best Western Historical Novel--Western Writers of AmericaBryan Woolley creates a compelling story giving antihero Sam Bass a fictional life, bringing him alive through six alternating voices--Maude, the whore who was Bass' lover; Mary Matson, the African American who took him in and tended him as he lay dying; Dad Egan, the lawman who was once a father-figure to young Sam Bass but feels compelled to bring down the outlaw; Frank Johnson, who rode with Bass but left the outlaw life t...

A fictionalized account of the assassination of JFK as experienced by the people of Dallas and the world.Through a myriad of characters both real and invented (and some whose names have been changed) journalist and author Bryan Woolley presents one of the best dissections of Dallas life in 1963 in his novel November 22. Covering the twenty-four hours surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Woolley accurately captures the essence of the d...

First published in 1973, Some Sweet Day is the story of the Turnbolt family in 1944, as told by six year old Gatewood Turnbolt, the eldest son. His relationship with his father, Will Turnbolt, a volatile, sometimes violent man, is a combination of wariness and love."It is an evocative, painful and lovely book that captures the immediacy and bewilderment of a child facing harsh imponderables for the first time."-Publishers Weekly"Without wasting a well-chos...

From TCU Press' Texas Tradition Series, "designed to publish and preserve significant Texas literature," comes Time and Place by Bryan Woolley, a powerful novel about a small West Texas town during the 1950s. Seventeen-year-old Kevin Adams' best friend is the first polio victim of Fort Appleby. In just a few short months, Kevin's adolescence is stripped away and he must confront decisions he is not prepared to make.