The first Texas-based writer to gain national attention, J. Frank Dobie proved that authentic writing springs easily from the native soil of Texas and The Southwest. In best-selling books such asTales of Old-Time Texas,Coronado_s Children, andThe Longhorns, Dobie captured the Southwest_s folk history, which was quickly disappearing as the United States became ever more urbanized and industrial. Renowned as _Mr. Texas,_ Dobie paradoxically has almost disappeared from view_a casualty of changing tastes in literature and shifts in social and political attitudes since the 1960s. In this lively biography, Steven L. Davis takes a fresh look at a J. Frank Dobie whose _liberated mind_ set him on an intellectual journey that culminated in Dobie becoming a political liberal who fought for labor, free speech, and civil rights well before these causes became acceptable to most Anglo Texans. Tracing the full arc of Dobie_s life (1888_1964), Davis shows how Dobie_s insistence on _free-range thinking_ led him to such radical actions as calling for The complete integration of the University of Texas during the 1940s, As well as taking on governors, senators, and The FBI (which secretly investigated him) as Texas_s leading dissenter during the McCarthy era.