Don Graham brings together the history, color, and character of Texas' capital city since 1839 when it was selected, on the advice of Mirabeau B. Lamar, as the site for a new capital of the then - Republic of Texas. Essays, fiction, and poetry reveal the variety of literary responses to Austin through the decades and are organized in a roughly chronological fashion to reveal the themes, places, and personalities that have defined the life of the city. Austin was always about three things: natural beauty, government, and education, thus, many of the pieces in this volume dwell upon one and sometimes all of these themes. Besides O. Henry, the other most important literary figures in the city's history were J. Frank Dobie, Roy Bedichek, and Walter P. Webb: folklorist, naturalist, historian. During their heyday, from the 1930s through the early 1960s, they were the face of literary culture in the city.