“Often I get homesick for the smell of burning mesquite wood,” Dobie once observed. He adapted these tales into books and thus, Texas literature was born.Who knew that mesquite was an Aztec word? Still, Dobie understood that our state had a proud oral-storytelling tradition.
J. Frank Dobie, a favorite writer of Texas legends, recounted the story of Lafitte’s hiding a treasure along a bayou — possibly Bastrop or Chocolate — in the Galveston Bay area. Dobie, James Frank
& Fellowships Other vintage buildings in the area have been saved, from the post office to the mercantile store, and moved to the tree-shaded plaza. Wikipedia: J. Frank Dobie James Frank Dobie (September 26, 1888–September 18, 1964) was an American folklorist, writer, and newspaper columnist best known for many books depicting the richness and traditions of life in rural Texas during the days of the open range. This has recreated an atmosphere Oakville hasn’t seen in nearly a hundred years, making it a destination for weddings and family reunions.In 2011, San Antonio-based writer William Jack Sibley decided to create a literary festival honoring J. Frank Dobie. Our team currently working, we will update Family, Sibling, Spouse and Children's information. I could see, at long last, that Dobie wasn’t just a dusty old writer; he was a timeless writer. On the appointed evening, I drove the leisurely back roads to Oakville and I arrived at the old town square by late afternoon.I strolled among the renovated buildings and admired the antiques on display. Essayist and historian
One of the young writers he mentored, Jovita González, became president of the Folklore Society in 1930.
He had a bold vision for recruiting performers. He was the first public figure in Texas to stand up against McCarthyism. Dobie explained that Native Americans relied on mesquite bean pods as a food staple, that the long thorns served as pins, and that the tree’s amber-colored sap was used as a glue by Apaches to make woven baskets watertight.He described how the beans, leaves, roots, and bark were brewed into teas or made into lotions to treat everything from headaches and flesh wounds to colic and dysentery. He had been feted by the Southwestern Writers and the Texas Folklore Society.
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His fundamentalist father read the Bible to Frank and the other five children, and his mother read them Dobie returned to Austin and the university in 1921.
The 2019 Texas A&M University Press book … “It took me a long time to figure out that J. Frank Dobie could be a brilliant writer,” I said.
He makes us all paisanos.My appreciation for Dobie crystallized while working as a curator at The Wittliff Collections, a magnificent archival repository at Texas State University devoted to the writers, photographers, and musicians of Texas and the Southwest. He had grown up hearing real-life accounts of the frontier days, of epic quests for lost mines and buried treasures. Then I began reading from my edited version of part of Dobie’s book Voice of the Coyote.
I began to realize that I had underestimated his gifts as a writer.When the next autumn rolled around, in 2013, I felt the pull of Dobie Dichos and returned to Oakville, this time as an audience member. That’s how I found myself stepping up onto the back of that pickup truck last fall.I looked out at the audience and made my confession. J. Frank Dobie, folklorist, was born on a ranch in Live Oak County, Texas, on September 26, 1888, the eldest of six children of Richard J. and Ella (Byler) Dobie. I’d only read him on the page. Under the massive live oak next to the old stone jail, The Twig Book Shop, based in San Antonio, set up tables with books by the featured authors, along with Dobie’s titles. During his long life, J. Frank Dobie would live astride two worlds: a rugged life on a Texas cattle ranch and the state's modern centers of scholarly learning.
If anything could summon Dobie’s spirit back to Live Oak County, I thought, this would do it. In 1934, he invited J. Mason Brewer, an African American, into the Folklore Society. Writers recognize his historical importance and more than a few have drawn inspiration—and helpful research—from his work. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but to my surprise, they all said ‘yes.’”There is a lot of love and respect for Dobie among the Texas literati. Special editions of the
Get kids back-to-school ready with Expedition: Learn! I’d grown up in the backwash of the ’60s and was raised in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite.
By the ’40s, Dobie was one of the most prominent white Texans to champion civil rights.