Personal Correspondence Houston-I

In the April, 1971, issue of Southwestern Historical Quarterly, historian Llerena Friend wrote that there was a "need for a new editing of Houston correspondence" to complement the eight-volume collection compiled in the 1930s by Eugene C. Barker and Amelia Williams. When author Madge Roberts began research for her previous book, Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston, she began to collect just such a file of previously unpublished Houston correspondence, which soon consisted of nearly a thousand letters. Because most of these letters were until recently in the hands of Houston descendants, most of them are "personal" rather than "political." Although a few have been excerpted in various books and historical articles, none have been published in their entirety. In comparing these letters to those published in the Barker and Williams volumes, Roberts found that "the personal letters often take the historian one step further," as Houston felt more free to discuss his analyses of people and events than he did in his official correspondence. Houston was an extraordinary writer, in terms of both quantity and quality. His letters to friends and family overflow with lively details about manners, dress, medical practices, farming, transportation, family dynamics, and many other topics of interest to social historians. In her footnotes, Roberts reveals the full names of the people mentioned and the historical events taking place at the time, thus placing the letters into the broader context of Houston's life and times. Volume I, 1839-1845, covers the years of the Texas Republic.

Madge Thornall Roberts has degrees from Southwestern University and Trinity University. She spent thirty-five years as a teacher before turning her attentions to writing. She is the author of Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston, which won the Otis Locke Award in 1993.