Misplaced Pages

In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas is a 1968 collection of essays by American writer Larry McMurtry.

In 1981 McMurtry said the book marked a dividing line in his career after which he no longer wrote about living in the country (although he would go on to write books with country settings again).

McMutry tried to sell the book to Simon and Schuster who rejected it but it was picked up by Encino Press. McMutry later wrote the book got his publishers in "trouble with the local literary establishment... mainly because I wrote an essay about the work of the hitherto unassailable idols trio: Roy Bedichek, Walter Prescott Webb, and, of course, J. Frank Dobie. I was not unkind to any of these writers, all of whom I respected in differing degrees. But I did point out that their writings were not entirely without flaw which was heresy in Texas at that time."

McMutry called the book a "kind of summing up of what I had observed during the passing of the rural way: the way of my father and mother and their people. It also happened to be the best-designed book I will ever have. Bill Wittliff was reaching his peak as a book designer just about then."

Reception

Reviewing a 2018 reissue Kirkus wrote " McMurtry’s essays from a half-century ago possess enduring relevance... The energy of youth and intelligence and possibility thrum through these pages."

References

1. Pilkington, William T (1998). State of mind : Texas literature and culture. Texas A&M University Press. p. 109.
2. McMutry p 75
3. McMutry p 76
4. Review of book at Kirkus

Notes

• McMutry, Larry (2009). Literary Life: A Second Memoir. Simon and Schuster.

• Books by Larry McMurtry
• 1968 books