Lone Star Chapters

As Texas entered the twentieth century, it was opening a new chapter in its cultural and social life, one that would see active efforts to promote not only the appreciation of regional literature but also its creation.

Author Betty H. Wiesepape examines the contributions of literary societies and writers’ clubs to the cultural and literary development that took place in Texas between the close of the frontier and the beginning of World War II. She offers an overview of literary club activity, as well as case studies of four individual writers’ clubs that functioned in the 1920s and 1930s. The first study of its kind, Lone Star Chapters: The Story of Texas Literary Clubs contradicts the common perception that early Texas was a cultural wasteland and illuminates how educated citizens sustained their interests in literary arts by meeting together in locally organized clubs to read, to write, and to criticize members’ original compositions.

The stories of the Manuscript Club of Wichita Falls, the Border Poets of Kingsville, the Panhandle Penwomen of Amarillo, and the Makers of Dallas are based on archival research, personal interviews, and an examination of the literature produced by prominent club members. Each of the stories is set within its own historical and geographical context, and together they illuminate the important role of such clubs in the development of regional arts.

This book is indispensable for students of regional history, women’s literature, and cultural studies.