big presses think so. Sinclair Lewis knew Babbitt as Babbitt
could never know either himself or Sinclair Lewis.
J. F. D.
_The time of Mexican primroses_
1952


_1_

A Declaration

IN THE UNIVERSITY of Texas I teach a course called Life
and Literature of the Southwest." About 1929 I had a brief
guide to books concerning the Southwest mimeographed; in
1931 it was included by John William Rogers in a booklet
entitled _Finding Literature on the Texas Plains_. After that
I revised and extended the guide three or four times, during
the process distributing several thousand copies of the
mimeographed forms. Now the guide has grown too long, and I
trust that this printing of it will prevent my making further
additions--though within a short time new books will come
out that should be added.

Yet the guide is fragmentary, incomplete, and in no
sense a bibliography. Its emphases vary according to my own
indifferences and ignorance as well as according to my own
sympathies and knowledge. It is strong on the character and
ways of life of the early settlers, on the growth of the soil,
and on everything pertaining to the range; it is weak on
information concerning politicians and on citations to studies