Author to Speak on West Texas, Civil War Books at Angelo State

Award-winning journalist and author S.C. Gwynne will discuss two of his books, including New York Times bestseller “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches,” during a pair of presentations on Tuesday, April 4, at Angelo State University.

Gwynne will speak at Noon on April 4 on his book, “Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson,” and then at 7 p.m. on “Empire of the Summer Moon,” examining the Comanche nation, which Gwynne calls the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. A book signing will follow each presentation. Both lectures are open free to the public in the C.J. Davidson Conference Center inside the ASU Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive.  

The lectures are jointly sponsored by the ASU History Department and the Friends of the Porter Henderson Library and West Texas Collection.

Gwynne’s work has appeared extensively in Time magazine, for which he worked as bureau chief, national correspondent and senior editor from 1988 to 2000, and in Texas Monthly, where he served as executive editor. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s and California Magazine. He attended Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University and lives in Austin. 

His book “Rebel Yell” examines the life of Stonewall Jackson, the brilliant but eccentric Confederate general. During the opening 24 months of the Civil War, Jackson rose from obscurity to become a military legend by the time of his tragic death after the Battle of Chancellorsville. 

“Empire of the Summer Moon” looks at the 40-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of West Texas. The book focuses on Quanah Parker, the great Comanche chief who fought pioneer incursions into Comanche lands. His mixed-blood heritage from Cynthia Ann Parker, a captive settler girl who grew up to become his mother, ultimately helped him transition his people away from their nomadic life on the plains.