The Big Bend, the Big Country, the Big Empty. The High Plains, the Permian and the Panhandle. Cowboys, Cowtown and the curl of a killer tornado. A place where you can stretch your eyeballs. Where the Hale-Bopp comet, hardly visible above some smoggy, light-polluted cities, looked like it could drop into the Pecos River at any moment. ""West Texas"", home to the states biggest legends, is chronicled by two authors who have spent most of their careers crisscrossing it. Mike Cochran and John Lumpkin, Associated Press journalists, bring their experiences to the pages of this handsome volume, accompanied by fifty photographs of the West Texas landscape, its people and its history. Converse with West Texas characters like Stanley Marsh 3, conman Billy Sol Estes, and Big Springs merry messiah, Marj Carpenter. Meet Gordon Wood, Friday night footballs winningest coach, and Groner Pitts, Brownwoods liveliest undertaker. Remember ranching icon Watt Matthews, the founders of Santa Rita No. 1, and Lubbocks C. W. Stubblefield, magnet to blues and country music stars. Honor Hallie Stillwell, Frenchy McCormick, and even modern arts Georgia OKeeffe, who put their stamp on Texas' most fascinating region. A West Texan once said, they show no pictures of my province or even neighboring provinces. They leave a big hole in Texas. No more is that the case, thanks to Mike Cochran and John Lumpkin.
