The Twelve Days of Thanksgiving: Day Seven

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Lucy Chambers

Christmas is coming; the geese are getting fat. Please to put a penny in an old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny, well, it's the economy. As a country, we've done much without foresight, and things don't look pretty.

But I am still thankful.  I actually always try to be thankful, but I have been particularly focused on it these past six days, and I plan to remain officially focused on it for at least five more. Today, in light of the news from Dubai, I am thankful for Texas history.

We have just released a book called The Paper Republic. It tells the complete story of Texas money from exploration through annexation. It is filled with interesting anecdotes about the people behind the money: visionary kings, obsessive dictators, crooked politicians, counterfeiters, printers, Texas Presidents, treasury officials and forgotten heroes. It shows with precision just what happens when debt spirals out of control. 

That's not pretty, either. But it is a clarion call to this country that Texas finds herself annexed to these days to pay careful attention to the money. Debt, down-side, dark side...dum,dum, da dum...things get all Enron-y faster than some MBA tricksters would like to admit.

Texas is no longer its own country, though some feel it still should be. Personally, I like being part of the United States. And I would certainly hate to be annexed by China--or any other country--because people are wielding too-good-to-be-true financial instruments with reckless abandon and no historical perspective.

Jim Bevill, the author of this big, beautiful, amazingly researched book has spent many years tracking down information, coins and currency, and weaving them into a story that is not only fascinating numismatic and financial history, it is a timely warning about what can happen when the money goes awry. And I think anybody who's in charge of more than a ha'penny or two of somebody else's savings, retirement, college fund or country should read it.

Texas, The US, Dubai. What's next? Jim has taken the time to follow the trail of the money in Texas, and hopefully someone important in the Treasury Department or an influential seat of government will learn from his observations.

So there it is. While I'm concerned about what the news will bring on Monday when the markets open, I'm also hopeful that there are wise leaders out there who will work together to find ways to blend new technologies and financial instruments with a sound understanding of both human nature and history. And I'm thankful that Texas' history might inform the conversation.

Sometimes knowing what not to do is more important than knowing what to do.

Thanksgiving Tip #7: For a truly relaxing holiday, the news is best left folded on the kitchen table.

 

One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.
~Will Durant

 

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Will the Real Davy Crockett please stand up?

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Lucy Chambers

You learn a lot when you are a book editor.  In fact, I would categorize the work as one of the top "lifetime learning jobs."

Here are some things I have learned about because I am a book editor

  • The deeper meaning of barbecue
  • Palmreading
  • The twelve gardening zones in Texas
  • Craig Biggio
  • Davy Crockett

This is not all I have learned, either, believe me. But any one of these topics warrants a lifetime of study, and I am constantly whizzing through the interesting worlds opened up by manuscripts that come to me, trying to become momentarily an expert so I can help each book's text reflect its message in the best way possible. And though I don't ever make it to the expert  level, I have the authors to guide me and fill me in on the myriad things I don't know.

Even at the sub-expert level, there is so much to know.  Take Davy Crockett, for instance. My Davy, like most people's, materializes in my imagination in a Fess Parker sort of way.  He has a coonskin cap. He killed a bear when he was only three. He's King of the Wild Frontier. You know.

For about a year now, we've been working on a series of Texas Heroes for Young Readers.  In preparing these little books for publication, I've learned a great deal from the authors and illustrators who are quite expert on the men and women who made Texas great. Mary Dodson Wade and Joy Fisher Hein, in particular, have been educating me recently about this Crockett character. Did  you know:

  • He never went by the name Davy?
  • He never wore a coon-skin cap?
  • The persona that most of us know emerged from the stage character Nimrod Wildfire?

Mary and Joy have piqued my interest in Crockett.  David Crockett.  On beyond Disney. As we wrap up the young readers' books about him, we are beginning to work on an adult book about Crockett's time in Congress. More to read, more to know.

The wise authors of that book, Allen Wiener and Jim Boylston, have already informed me that much commonly held wisdom on Crockett is based more on the legends and lore than on the facts.  Now there are newly accessible letters by the man himself that reveal just a little bit more of who he really was.

More books, more knowledge, every day.  I'd like to get to know this man David Crockett even better.  Maybe I'll get my Gates of the Alamo off the shelf and re-enter that engaging world. Not only could Crockett escape the Alamo, but perhaps he could travel through time and fill me in on who he really was.

King of the Wild Frontier, indeed.

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