REMINISCENCES OF FIFTY YEARS IN TEXAS.

Austin: State House Press, 1986. 397pp. Index. Frontis. portrait.  Plates.  Red cloth with the title in gilt on the spine. Facsimile reproduction of the rare 1883 first edition. Fine copy in an equally nice dust jacket.  Jenkins, BTB 127:  “This volume of personal recollections, written by an early Texas pioneer leader, is one of the basic sources on the revolutionary period….I find Linn to be outspoken but not opinionated, and to be far more accurate and less prejudiced than many of the more important figures of the times….Linn’s appraisal of Sam Houston, for example, hits closer to the truth than most other contemporaries.” Dobie, Life & Literature… p.57:  “Mixture of personal narrative and historical notes, written with energy…”  The author was born in Ireland in 1798 and came to Texas as a young man. In his book, he gives an account of the early Spanish settlement and work of the Franciscan Fathers in early Southwestern Texas. Contains an account of Colonel Bryan’s statement as to Austin’s colonization, John McHenry’s narrative of Long’s second Expedition, the events of the Texas Revolution and subsequent hostilities by the Mexicans. A cornerstone work on Texas.  Graff 2503.  Howes L363.