Joined: Feb 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 219 Location: Florida Karma: 2
Re: David Crockett in Congress « Reply #62 on Nov 6, 2009, 2:48pm »
Starting Chapter Two, today. Loving it and thank you both for the wonderful footnotes and sources. You are correct, Jim, Crockett was no simpleton. A hard-ball campaigner, indeed!
Re: David Crockett in Congress « Reply #63 on Nov 6, 2009, 2:55pm »
I'm glad that's coming through, Wade, because this is not the Crockett I'd read about elsewhere for years. He's a lot bigger man and hero than anyone might have guessed.
Joined: Apr 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 1,235 Karma: 8
Re: David Crockett in Congress « Reply #70 on Nov 7, 2009, 6:05pm »
I finally got back home this morning after a whirlwind weekend in Austin and a week working in San Diego. I'm getting too old for red eye flights. Whew!
The Texas Book Festival was a great success. It was fun seeing Allen and Bill, and getting to spend a few short minutes with Ranger Rod. Both our "Crockett in Congress" presentation and Bill and Allen's "Music of the Alamo" were well attended, and Allen and I were happy that we got a number of interesting questions in the Q&A segment of the program. For those of you who were in on the office pool, "How Did Davy Die?" was the second question, but the person who asked it seemed well versed in DLP and the various accounts. Most questions were focused on specifics about the congress years, which was fulfilling. No questions about coonskin caps.
CSPAN Book TV taped the Crockett presentation, so hopefully it'll air eventually.
We signed a lot of books and heard a lot of good personal stories. I met a descendant of James Neill, a man whose GG grandfather worked for Elizabeth Crockett in Texas, and a lady who had heard that her east Texas family (who had moved from Tennessee) had hosted Crockett during his travels.
While we were quite busy both days, I did mange to attend Jeff Guinn's excellent talk about "Go Down Together," his new book on Bonnie and Clyde. I bought the book immediately afterward and would highly recommend it. If you get a chance to hear Jeff, don't miss him.
All in all it was a weekend of good food, good conversation, and great books. Pretty much perfect!
Thanks to all who were there in person and in spirit!
Re: David Crockett in Congress « Reply #71 on Nov 7, 2009, 6:17pm »
I'll only add a hearty endorsement to Jim's recollections of the weekend in Austin, and add that the weather was literally made to order, as if it had been ordered up especially for the Festival. Bill and I had a lot of fun giving our presentation on "Music of the Alamo," and Jim and I were delighted to see a full house at our presentation for "David Crockett in Congress" (in fact, the fire marshal had to turn some folks away). Bill set the tone perfectly in his introduction of us and it was smooth sailing after that. I particularly enjoyed chatting with people who came up to us after the session was over with still more good questions about Crockett and the politics of his time, as well as those whose books we signed. I must add that the Texas Book Festival was the most efficiently run event I've taken part it, coordinated down to the smallest detail. We could not have been treated with more courtesy and friendliness than we were by the Festival staff, especially the army of wonderful volunteers.
I didn't have a chance to see as much of the events as Jim, since I had presentations and book signings both days, but I did enjoy touring the Capitol and, with Jim and Bill's assistance, seeing all of the Alamo-related art in the building, including the Bowie portrait by Healy, the Crockett and San Jacinto paintings by Huddle, McCardle's Alamo and others. We also saw the house where Susannah Dickinson lived when she was married to Hanning, which is under restoration.
Austin is a lovely town for many reasons, but, above all, because it knows how to do Halloween up right! I loved it!
Re: David Crockett in Congress « Reply #74 on Nov 9, 2009, 8:08pm »
Ken, I posted a note thanking you for your support as well, but it seems to have disappeared! I hope this one gets through. We certainly are grateful for your support and hope you enjoy the book! And, yes, it would be great to see everyone in San Antonio next March!
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