Tom Lea (1907–2001)

I read this book as a teenager and loved it because of the horse, Lágrimas, and the bond between him and Brady, his owner.

I just finished reading it again as an adult, and found that I still loved it, and on a much deeper level. Tom Lea is a wonderful author; his descriptions of the land and the people are wonderful, and the book is further enhanced by his beautiful line drawings.

I thought that he provided an accurate description of the era. My book may be worn, but itʻs a keeper.

A fictionalized account of an incident in the early history of Anglo El Paso. The characters are well drawn and the unhappy marriage story has always hung with me.

Based on recorded interviews, this is in fact the autobiography of author and artist Tom Lea. The extensive text running to 140 of the 188 pages is illustrated in black and white with a number of photographs and examples of the artist's work. The book includes a selected bibliography which lists works written and illustrated by Lea as well as other books illustrated by the artist, it also includes a list of article with illustrations by Lea and publications about him.

The section of show more full-colour plates offers 30 examples of the artist's work in various forms, with details of the pates listed separately.

This is a well produced large format book. The entire book is printed on buff coloured paper, and while this works well for the text I do feel that it does not favour the colour plates, for there being no white in the image they are inevitably slightly subdued; and while they are presented one to a page they do not take full advantage of the page size, even with the landscape images (sensibly) turned 90° on the page they still have a great deal of blank page around them.

As a biography this is fine, but it is let down by the presentation of the artwork. show less

Excellent old time cowboy story. It is a must read for anyone who likes historical fiction. This novel recreates life in Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas as it was in the 1880's. Martin Brady is the main character and after wandering around working for various people, he meets some Texas Rangers and is asked to join. He thinks about and decides he will after his one last job.