Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole

9.10.2017   Hall of Fame author publishes his first novel at 86

James Ward Lee is a highly respected Texas author and editor, literary critic, entertaining speaker and storyteller, spinner of folk tales, and member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. And now, at the age of eighty-six, he’s a novelist.

His first novel, The Girls of the Golden West (TCU Press, $22.95 paper, $29.95 hardcover), features ninety-five-year-old retired teacher and storyteller extraordinaire John Quincy Adams the Second — no relation to the former president.

Adams, whom most folks in town call Professor, is regarded as the most distinguished resident of the East Texas hamlet of Bodark Springs. He reluctantly agrees to share his stories and wry observations with a young UT graduate student who bears a striking resemblance to a long lost, but not forgotten, ex-lover with whom he parted ways nearly forty years earlier.

Lee, professor emeritus of English at the University of North Texas and founding director of UNT Press, works in numerous literary references as Adams spins his tales and seeks to enlighten the young graduate student.

And, at ninety-five, the old man is in for a very unexpected — and pleasant — turn of events himself.

The Girls of the Golden West is an uplifting, intelligent, well-crafted novel. You can’t help but enjoy the stories and antics of John Quincy Adams the Second. And Lee is working on a sequel, so there may be more to come.

Lee is also the author of A Texas Jubilee, an exceptional collection of thirteen short stories. Published by TCU Press five years ago, it too was set in the fictional town of Bodark Springs. In 1987 he compiled Classics of Texas Fiction, a critically acclaimed summary of some of the best novels about Texas. It’s out of print, but you might find a copy in your local library.

Jim Lee, who lives in Fort Worth, will be one of the featured authors speaking on Friday, Sept. 22, at the West Texas Book Festival in Abilene, along with Jeff Guinn, Al Pickett, S.C. Gwynne, and Lisa Wingate. Read more about the festival at abilenetx.com/apl/friends.

Contents page: Often with self-published novels, but also with some novels from established publishers, the contents page will include something like this: Chapter 1, Page 7; Chapter 2, Page 14; Chapter 3, Page 22, etc.

What’s the point? If the chapters have headings, such as “Chapter 1: The Early Years,” then it’s appropriate to list the chapters and page numbers, especially with non-fiction titles. But if the chapters in a novel are just numbered, they don’t need to be listed on a contents page. It’s pretty obvious that Chapter 2 follows Chapter 1, and so forth.

Sometimes novels are divided into sections, such as Part 1: The Intruder; Part 2: Far From Home; etc. In that case, a contents page showing where each section begins could be helpful to readers so they can gauge how many pages they might plan to read on a given evening.

Glenn Dromgoole’s latest book is West Texas StoriesContact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.