By Hector Saldaña He was a gypsy songman passin’ by. His whole life was a song. Amid the excitement of the major new exhibit at The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos celebrating Jerry Jeff Walker’s landmark 1973 album “¡Viva Terlingua!” and the buzz around the all-star concerts at Luckenbach …
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We were saddened to hear of the passing of Al Dressen on July 22, 2023. We remember Al not only for being an accomplished musician, but also for his establishment of the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame Archive at The Wittliff in 1994. Al’s commitment to Western Swing and the celebration of the music, …
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The spirit of legendary Texas storyteller J. Frank Dobie comes alive in a brand-new audible version of The Essential J. Frank Dobie, narrated by popular radio personality W.F. Strong, host of “Stories From Texas” on The Texas Standard. This treasury of Dobie’s best writings recalls a bygone age when a crackling campfire could conjure up …
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Surveying The Wittliff’s rich literary archives, this new exhibition, I Pray You Stay Alive: Writing on the Edge, explores how our best writers have personally confronted life-or-death situations: war and murder, race riots and civil rights, perilous migrant journeys, sexual assault, domestic abuse, hate crimes, cancer, mass shootings and a pandemic. “So many of these …
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By David Coleman, Director of The Wittliff Collections When Bill and Sally Wittliff created the Southwestern Writers Collection back in 1986, Bill asked, “How better to feel the very Heartbeat of Texas?” The Wittliff’s recent special event featuring Robert Earl Keen was a testament to their vision. Keen proved he is as Texas as bluebonnets. …
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By Katie Salzmann The Wittliff celebrates all forms of storytelling from the region, and we collect, preserve, and provide contextualization for important cultural objects. Within the archive of noted New Mexico historian Marc Simmons are several kachina dolls gifted to Marc from members of the Hopi tribe. This past semester, we hosted an internship that …
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The Wittliff Collections celebrates the brand-new book in its literary series, Sassy Mamas and Other Plays, with a special exhibition highlighting the acclaimed Houston playwright Celeste Bedford Walker. One of Texas’s major literary figures, Walker has authored more than forty stage plays that include bawdy comedies, searing historical dramas, a murder mystery and more. She …
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Considered one of the world’s greatest writers, Cormac McCarthy is notoriously publicity shy. Now an extraordinary series of audio interviews with McCarthy has emerged, totaling nearly four hours of conversation. The recordings are from journalist Richard B. Woodward and have been acquired by The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, which holds McCarthy’s complete literary …
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Collections at Texas State University. The groundbreaking archive captures the faces and dignity of work of a bygone way of life. A recent interview event at The Wittliff celebrated and honored the photographer and coastal region rancher who documented them — Louise O’Connor. The photographs are large scale, colorful and vibrant, dominating the gallery in …
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The young Tejano singer onstage — clad in skintight black head-to-toe, hair dyed black in a short shiny pompadour and wearing big loop earrings — looks like she’s skipping or maybe doing a modern tango. She’s in flight, and the camera went click. In that moment, photographer Al Rendon caught the teenage Selena Quintanilla in …
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