

0ook Revicws
James Stephen Hogg, a Biography. By Robert C. Cotner, Austin
(University of Texas Press), 1959. Pp. xxvi+,617. Illustra-
tions, maps, index. $7.50.
James Stephen Hogg was a tremendous man, physically and
mentally, and he made a deeper impression on Texas than any
other governor. And Mr. Cotner's study of his career is a massive
work-the sort of full-scale, factual tracing of the evolution of
the man and his principles that Hogg himself might have ap-
proved. It answers most of the questions-even the little ones--
that Texans are still asking about Hogg sixty-five years after he
left public office. Old-timers used to say: "Jim Hogg kivers
all the ground he stands on." The same can be said of Mr.
Cotner's book.
Unlike many public men, Hogg methodically filed his papers;
and his children preserved them intact and augmented them
through many years before turning them over to the University
of Texas Archives. Thus happily the biographer is able to know
what Hogg was doing and thinking practically every day of his
adult life. And from the papers of Hogg's contemporaries, both
friends and enemies; the reminiscences and monographs dealing
with the Hogg era; and through the newspapers he has learned
how Hogg and his program appeared to other men. By design he
has ignored the mass of Hogg myth and legend that has enriched
Texas folklore, whatever its effect on factual history. Not many re-
cent biographies give evidence of such industrious, painstaking
The temptation is strong to outline Hogg's career as public
official, lawyer, and man of affairs and to evaluate his achieve-
ments; but this is not the place for that. He was not yet forty-four
years old when he left the governorship and he never considered
holding another political office, but during the succeeding eleven
years of his life his interest in politics never lagged. He continued

Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960. Austin, Texas. The Portal to Texas History. Accessed December 10, 2013.