Texas Books, Texas Readers and Texas Collectors

Living in Texas all of my life, and not venturing outward very often (admittedly, not as frequently as I may have liked), much of the uniqueness of our state and her people often seems to fly pass me. Like this, from the observation (of the facts?) by the late James A. Michener:

"An expert on regional publishing told me that if you omit California, more books about Texas are written, published and collected than about all of the other forty-eight [?] states combined, five times more than even California, also prolific in its published histories. I too can testify that there is a higher percentage of people in Texas who collect books about their state than there is among people up north who collect books about states like Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. Texas is a collector's paradise and local publishers know it, for they keep providing a constant flood of books about the Lone Star State." *

This they do, and seemingly have done since the printing presses took off in our state. I, too, am a collector of books written about Texas, but it was news to me that 'Texana' sections of libraries and bookstores may not find parallels in those of her forty-nine companions.

* J. A. Michener, 'The Eagle and the Raven,' pages 3 and 4
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves