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When Phil Collins was a kid growing up in a London suburb, he would
often watch an amazing show on his family television. There, in
black and white, was Fess Parker as Davy Crockett, King of the Wild
Frontier. As he matured, Collins not only acted out the exploits of
his new hero, but he often refought the Battle of the Alamo with
his toy soldiers. Even though music came to dominate his life, it
was this love of history--and Davy Crockett and the Alamo in
particular--that was always near by. On one musical tour, Collins
encountered his first David Crockett autograph--for sale at a store
called the Gallery of History. "I didn't know this stuff was out
there, that you could own it," the rock-n-roll legend said. "It had
never occurred to him. Later, he received a birthday-present that
would change his life: a receipt for a saddle signed by an Alamo
defender. From that point forward, the drummer began building his
impressive Alamo and Texas Revolution collection. Here, for the
first time in history, are the artifacts, relics, and documents
that compose the Phil Collins collection, available in a
beautifully designed color book shot-through with stunning
photography and crisply rendered illustrations. Collins's prose
takes the reader through the joys of being a collector as he
lovingly describes what each piece in this impressive assemblage
means to him. Photographer Ben Powell of Austin brought these items
to vivid relief, and artist Gary Zaboly's masterful pen-and-ink
drawings breath life into the items. Essays by Texas historians
Bruce Winders, Don Frazier, and Stephen Hardin provide the
historical background to the collection and help make this into a
work of art that also serves handily as a serious research tool.
"The link below takes you to a crowd source funding site for Ben
Powell's short documentary, Phil Collins and the Wild Frontier. It
captures Phil Collins during the week-long book tour in June 2012."
http:
//www.kickstarter.com/projects/722972912/phil-collins-and-the-wild-frontier
Hardly were the last shots fired at the Alamo before the Texas
Revolution entered the realm of myth and controversy. French
visitor Frederic Gaillardet called it a "Texian Iliad" in 1839,
while American Theodore Sedgwick pronounced the war and its
resulting legends "almost burlesque". In this new, highly readable
history, Stephen L. Hardin discovers more than a little truth in
both of those views. Drawing on many original Texan and Mexican
sources and on-site inspections of almost every battlefield, he
offers the first complete military history of the Revolution. From
the war's opening in the "Come and Take It" incident at Gonzales to
the capture of General Santa Anna at San Jacinto, Hardin clearly
describes the strategy and tactics of each side. His research
yields new knowledge of the actions of famous Texan and Mexican
leaders, as well as fascinating descriptions of battle and camp
life from the ordinary soldier's point of view. This in-depth
coverage reveals the gallantry displayed by individuals on both
sides of the conflict, as well as the atrocities of war. Most of
all, it provides a balanced view of the Revolution that fairly
assesses the conduct of both Texans and Mexicans. Texian Iliad
belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in Texas or
military history, as well as of general readers who want the facts
behind the legends.
An Altar For Their Sons: The Alamo and the Texas Revolution in
Contemporary Newspaper Accounts is a collection of rare documentary
materials, the great majority of them not seen or referenced since
their dates of original publication. This book has been designed to
serve several audiences, among them the scholar, serious student,
casual buff, and general reader, all of whom will find much that is
"new" here in terms of the history of the Alamo siege and battle,
of the Texas Revolution in general, and of the lives of the people
involved, not to mention the events that both preceded and followed
that conflict. Aside from the book's primary focus, the battle of
the Alamo, this collection includes on-the-spot accounts of most of
the other engagements, skirmishes and massacres, descriptions of
the forts, towns, and geography, and information concerning the
armies, weapons and clothing involved. There are also word sketches
of the appearances of such important figures as David Crockett,
James Bowie, and Santa Anna that have apparently eluded modern
biographers. Included, too, are many anecdotes of their lives, both
in and out of Texas, and descriptions of pieces of their personal
property handed down in the postwar years. Newspaper accounts from
later decades present interviews with survivors, or their
obituaries, and descriptions of the Alamo itself as it evolved from
a weed-choked ruin into an iconic shrine. The book contains several
dozen original illustrations by the author, each one explained
in-depth with a footnoted, essay-long "caption". There is also a
newly created pictorial representation of the entire Alamo compound
as it looked in February and March 1836, accompanied by a lengthy
analysis of the fortifications based on a re-examination of the old
evidence and a dissection of newly found information. Included
photographs of selected Alamo- and Texas Revolution-related relics
from the extraordinary collection of singer Phil Collins.
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