Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 57

Life Arrrs Sunday, August 30, 1998 D5 Austin American-Statesman New in paperback Literary calendar iehind myths, Tuesday, 7 p.m. The science fiction book group discusses John Kessel's 1 Corrupting Dr. Nice. Adventures in Crime Space, 609-A W. Sixth SL Free, 473-2665.

Book People Book Group Wednesday, 7 p.m. The group, led by RenaKorb, discusses Katherine Dunn's "Geek Love." Book People, 603 N. Lamar. Free, 472-5050. Alamo heroes weren't saints Crockett, Bowie and Travis: Rocky paths to glory 'Old Books, Rare Friends' By Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stem Doubleday, $11.95 A joint autobiography by the Sherlock Holmes and Dr.

Watson of the rare book business. These two scholars, aged 84 and 87, tell the story of their adventures tracking down rare books. Poetry Events Book Events S. Ron Rozelle's "Into That Good Night" Wednesday, 7 p.m. Rozelle signs and discusses his book about his father.

Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd. Free, 472-5050. The Friends of the Lake Travis Community Library's book sale Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m. New, used, antique and collectible and children's books will be for sale. Community Library, Lake Travis High School, 3322 RM 620 South. Call 263-2885. Conferences, Conventions Workshops 1 Austin's Premiere Literary Science Fiction Convention Concludes todays ArmadilloCon 20 sponsors a literary convention.

Guests include Bradley Denton, Mitchell Bentley, David Hartwell, Peggy Ranson, Peter Hamilton and toastmaster Steven Gould. Omni Southpark Hotel, south- east comer of Interstate 35 and Ben White Boulevard. Call 833-5269. Memoir Writing Workshop Sept. 2, 7 p.m.

The Austin Writers' League sponsors a 10-week memoir writing workshop, taught by Virginia Watkins. The workshop is designed for students who have already begun a draft. Workshop hours are Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Cost is $165 for Austin Writers' League members, and $200 for nonroembers. Austin Writers' League, 1501 W.

Fifth Suite. E-2. -499-8914. Stirring Prose: Cooking with Texas Authors Sept 5, San Antonio, Barnes Noble (Fiesta Trails) and Sept 6, Barnes Noble (West Lake Hills). Activities include a workshop for young writers, book signihgs, a Kinky Fried-, man reading and food.

Free, (210) 561-0205 or (512) 328-3155. Third Annual Whole Life Expo Sept. 18-20, Palmer Auditorium. There will be book exhibits, musical peffor-mances, workshops and presentations by several authors, including Neale Donald Walsch, James Van Praagh and Bemie Siegel. For tickets call (800) 551-3976.

For other information call 476-5171. Group Meetings The SFFantasy Reading Group On the morning ofMarch 6, 1997, William Davis sat in a room over- looking the Alamo in the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio, putting the final touches on a book almost as extraordinary as the events that had transpired on the same site 161years earlier. 1998 Texas Poet Anthology The Library Benevolent Association is looking for people to submit original poems. Deadline is Sept. 20.

Send entries to Library Benevolent Association, 8760-A Research Blvd. No. 558, Austin 78758. The Literary, Calendar runs Fridays. Send announcements to the Austin American-Statesman, co Velda Hunter, P.O.

Box 670, Austin 78767. Fax announcements to (512) 445-3679 or e-mail calendarsstatesman.com. To request a fax form, call Inside Line at 416-5700, category 7274, option 3. Information must be received one week before desired publication date. 'Backyard Battle Plan' By Cooper Rutledge Penguin, $14.95 Billed as "the ultimate guide to controlling wildlife damage in your garden," this book by a landscape and forestry professional is arranged alphabetically, from alligators and bears to woodchucks.

There is a chapter on deer. 7 The world remembers the Alamp, and I predict it will remember Davis' JbJ book, "Three Roads to the Alamo." It is a stunning work well-written, ex- Cox Bowie was more of a scoundrel than most die-hard Texans would liketo think, that Crockett was not as much of a bumpkin as popularly believed and that Travis was more competent than generally perceived. Further, Bowie should -have ended up in prison for forg-; ery and land fraud. Crockett wasn't successful at much of anything other than talking, and Travis was a womanizer who fled to Texas to escape debt. But on March 6, 1836, Travis died game, one of the first to fall as Santa Anna's soldiers poured into, the makeshift Texian fortress, Bowie would have died fighting, too, if he hadn't been in bed racked with chills and fever, about to die anyway from typhoid.

And Crockett? Well, Davis says he could have been executed after the battle as some have claimed, he might have died swinging Old Betsy as many Texans would like to believe or he might have climbed over the wall when all was lost and died trying to run for it. We probably never will know for "Three Roads to the Alamo" has nowhere near as many flaws as the men whose lives it explores, but it could have benefited from one more edit A few but only a few sentences are a bit too convoluted and some of the paragraphs go on longer than they should. Still, these are merely a scattering of rough spots on a literary monument of, for the most part, gracefully carved marble. Davis endnotes and bibliographic essay are nearly as interesting as the text itself In a critical lookatpreviousbooksonthethree men whose lives he has captured to the extent that he could Davis wields a figurative Bowie knife in cutting the literature down to size. The principal problem with almost all of what has been written about Crockett, Bowie and Travis (withafew exceptions Davis is fair about naming) is the reliance on folklore.

As Davis said in his introductory essay, "Men and Legends," previous authors "perhaps special I i tml mJM I glfl bySUPEB SELECTION; SUPER EVERYDAY! UJ ceedingly well-researched, interesting, and enlightening. Published by HarperCollins, the 791-page book sells for $35.. "Three Roads to the Alamo" is the story of three men: David Crockett (he preferred that to Davy), James Bowie and William Barrett Travis. It is not an Alamo book per se, but it puts the Alamo in perspective and shows how its three most famous defenders got there. 'r Daniel Laney, Austin attorney and Civil War buff who knows Davis through his many books on that conflict, gets the credit for coming up with a new word to describe this biography times three: Triography.

Scarecrovs All Home Greenery Bushes, Accent 'JUiA II MANY STYLES SIZES TO CHOOSE FROM El Plants Ferns Metalware MANY COLORS TO CHOOSE FROM 13 Hi Off 13 OUR EVERYDAY LOW OUR EVERYDAY LOW PRICES OUR EVERYDAY LOW 99M9.99 -Ji Inner SIppvp Sweat Shirts 10 COLORS 5050 POLYCOTTON BLEND All Posters Matted Prints "Three Roads to the Alamo" is. the story of three men whose lives are interesting to us and generations before us mainly because of the manner of their deaths. Davis begins his book, with a chapter on Crockett, who was the oldest, then devotes a chapter to Bowie. The author advances the story of Crockett and Bowie's lives in alternate chapters until Travis enters the picture chronologically. Then he alternates chapters on all three men until, finally, they are together at the old Spanish mission in San Antonio known as the Alamo.

A novelist could not hav woven a better story, or come up with a better structure for its telling. We know howthe story is going toend, but getting there is an adventure of discovery. Because of courthouse fires, lost papers and the passage of time, there is much we will never know about these three men. But Davis has come up with enough previously unmined information (with-the help of the State Departmenty he gained access to the Mexican military archives in Mexico City) to expand what we do know about Crockett, Bowie and Travis. His research also refutes a fair amount of what we thought we knew about the Alamo triad.

One myth was easy to shoot All Deads by fl3'tiAD3P PRODUCTS CHOOSE FROM OVER 600 CRAFT BEAPSI were too enamored of the myth tQ want to supplant it with a reality that might be prosaic rather than ADULT SIZE XXL 8.44 ADULT SIZES L4XL 7.44 YOUTH SIZES S.M.&L 6.44 lurid or heroic." An unwillingnesfror inability to dig as deeply as Davis has done is OUR EVERYDAY LOW 10.09 OUK EVERYDAY LOW 8.89 OUt EVERYDAY LOW 0.09 more likely the reason that most of the previous studies of these men 1 areoflacklusterquahtyandheavy on legend. (Legend does make for interesting reading, but it should 12g Mil (Hi be so labeled.) 2oz. Craft Paints Buy One Poster or Matted Print At Full Price, Get The Next One For 1C Item must be of Equal or Lesser Value) Even though Davis has debunked many of the myths surrounding the three men whose death at the Alamo assured them a form of immortality, he reminds OUR EVERYDAY LOW 21.00 OUR EVERYDAY LOW PRICES Construction Preserved Natural us that we let go of our myths luctantly. When we do give up on a myth, he said, "we leave a hole in the story that we cannot fill with fact, for in proving something did not happen, we do not automati Polyresin Halloween -PAmri. .1 Oak Paper All Art Bins Raffia Leaves Ornaments 34" SIZE 12 PACK down: The three heroes of the Alamo never met prior to their arrival in San Antonio early in 1836.

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Crockett was and though; Bowie OUR EVERYDAY LOW 2.99 Free-lance writer Mike Cox is the author of seven Texas-related books and a collector of Texana. His column appears on Friday. Address questions or comments-to him at P.O. Box 4615, Austin 78765. Due to the volume of mail, not all letters can be answered.

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