A member of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium

McMurry University, Box 637

Abilene, Texas 79697

(325) 793-4682 w Fax: (325) 793-4754

The Parramore Sketches:

Scenes and Stories of Early West Texas

By Dock Dilworth Parramore

With introduction and afterword by his grandchildren

Available now

10x7. 96 pp. Sketches.

ISBN 1-880510-82-0 $18.00 paper

Number Three: Texas Heritage Series

Stories, sketches represent a cross-section of ranch life

In 1855, at the age of ten, D.D. Parramore studied art with an itinerant artist in the four-year-old town of Abilene, Texas. Although he displayed considerable talent, he was discouraged from sketching and painting by his father. He was allowed no more instruction in what was then considered an unmanly occupation, especially for the son of an enterprising frontier cattleman.

Heeding his father’s wishes, Parramore homesteaded land and bought surrounding sections in West Texas. After his retirement from active ranching, however, he returned to his early love of drawing. In the mid-1930s he began a series of pencil sketches to entertain and instruct his two young grandchildren. The activity grew into a satisfying hobby, which he pursued until his death in 1946.

The drawings depict an unromanticized and sometimes humorous version of the life of early settlers and cowboys that Parramore remembered so well. He had a wealth of favorite stories that he illustrated in words and text. Some were based on fact, some on hearsay, and some maybe considered tall tales, but taken together, they represent a cross-section of ranch life in Texas just before and after the turn of the century.

Originally published in 1976, the book has been out of print for a number of years.

The original sketches are now on display at The Grace Museum in Abilene.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact State House Press managing editor Carly Kahl at 325/793-4697 or by e-mail at ckahl@mcm.edu

State House Press is a member of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium and is operated by the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation in Abilene, Texas. For further information on The Women There Don’t Treat You Mean: Abilene in Song or other State House Press titles, please contact Carly Kahl at (325) 793-4697, by e-mail at ckahl@mcm.edu or visit the web, www.tamu.edu/upress/MCWHINEY/mcgen.html