B O O K S

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1991. ix, 181 pages.
0896722562
978-0-89672-256-9

Old Liberty

By Marshall Terry

“Reading Old Liberty is like realizing you knew more than you do now. You feel the sadness of this loss in the same way that you miss an old lover, their kiss, their scent, their sweet flaws. If you aren’t lucky enough to know Marsh Terry, you should meet Redwine and Bo of Old Liberty. They’ll remind you that memory is powerful as breath.”—Joe Coomer

“To anyone who has been to college, Old Liberty is Homecoming—joyous, nostalgic, triumphant, mysterious. Marsh Terry’s elegant diction, his precise characterization and description of time and place add to the mystery: why are these people so important to us? their time so unforgettable? this experience so seminal?” –Robert Flynn

“Old Liberty is a classic. Funny, real, warm. It is the work of a terrific writer with much to say and the ability to say it beautifully.”—Jim Lehrer

“In this west-meets-east tale, Marshall Terry’s fresh and vital language is a fine reflection of Redwine’s character. You may not always approve of him—he doesn’t always approve of himself—but you will know him well. A natural westerner and an emblem of liberty, his spirit pervades this book and endures to this day. Terry has defined a walking myth.”—Carolyn Osborn

Marshall Terry was born in Cleveland, grew up in Cincinnati, and spent a freshman year at Amherst and a sophomore year at Kenyon before westering to Texas. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from Southern Methodist University, where subsequently he has had a distinguished career as administrator, planner, and teacher of writing and literature. At SMU he founded the nationally recognized creative writing program and the annual literary festival, and he has served as president of the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers and of the Texas Institute of Letters, as well as book critic of the Dallas Morning News.

Old Liberty was Terry’s first novel and was published by the Viking Press in 1961 with Pat Covici as editor. His next novel, Tom Northway, won the 1968 Jesse H. Jones Award of the Texas Institute of Letters and is the first in the seven-novel Northway Series to be published by Texas Tech University Press. His other works include the novel Ringer and the collection Dallas Stories. He has directed SMU programs in Madrid, Oxford, and Taos, but mostly teaches creative writing and the “Myth of the American West” course at SMU, roams Texas, and lives with his wife Toni on Lovers Lane in Dallas.