Texas Dames

In Texas, everything is bigger—even the accomplishments of the Lone Star State’s women. The collection of biographies contained in Carmen Goldthwaite’s book Texas Dames: Sassy and Savvy Women Throughout Lone Star History admirably illustrates that thought.

She recounts the lives of driven ladies such as Peggy McCormick, a rancher who fearlessly stood up to Texas revolutionary leader Sam Houston by demanding he bury, on her land, the bodies of the Mexican men he had shot in battle. She examines the lives of professional gambler Lottie Deno, timber queen Sallie Gibbs and “Savior of the Alamo” Clara Driscoll. The experiences of these women who gave their lives to settle the Texas frontier is as vast as the country itself.

—Chris Enss, author of Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the Midwest