Star of Destiny: The Private Life of Sam and Margaret Houston - Hardcover

Roberts, Madge Thornall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0929398513 ISBN 13: 9780929398518

Publisher: University of North Texas Press, 1993

Synopsis

Offers a look at the personal lives of Texas' first family

About this title

About the Author:

Madge Thornall Roberts, with degrees from Southwestern University and Trinity University, spent thirty-five years as a teacher. She is the editor of The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston.

From Publishers Weekly:

Roberts, a great-great-granddaughter of Sam Houston and his second wife, Margaret, joins John Hoyt Williams, author of Sam Houston (Nonfiction Forecasts, Nov. 30) and Marshall De Bruhl, author of Sword of San Jacinto (Nonfiction Forecasts, Jan. 11) in writing books to commemorate the 200th birthday of the so-called Father of Texas, who died in 1863. Her biography rests mainly on extensive quotations from the couple's correspondence, and although Margaret Houston (1819-1867) burned "untold numbers" of documents and others were later lost or destroyed, Roberts was able to assemble several hundred letters. These reach back to 1839, when the couple fell in love "at first sight," and cover--without illuminating--Sam Houston's service as president of Texas, as a U.S. senator and as the governor of Texas. In the language of romance novelists, Roberts glosses the letters to present the Houston marriage as a partnership, with Margaret steering Sam away from alcohol and into the Baptist Church. It is unlikely, however, that those outside the family will share the author's intense absorption in her forebears' mail. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of North Texas Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0929398513
• ISBN 13: 9780929398518
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432