Larry L. King

This play touches close to home with its accurate portrayals of west Texas life. The characters are true to life and are possessing of that little bit of west Texas that some writers seem to miss when writing in this area. However, the special effects necessary, such as a live gun shot and blood, could be difficult for some theaters to create.

A Play in Two Acts, with Incidental Music

The Night Hank Williams Died

"This volume brings together five essays that Mr. King considers "true facts," ten that constitute "tall tales," and four short stories that he classifies as "pure fiction." All of these pieces represent an ongoing attempt to define and understand his native place and his mind's country. They cover subjects ranging from a rape trial to dubious recipes and points between: writing, politics, Little League baseball, Texas basketball, racial integration in the military, dogs, sinning, and stories of troubled lives."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

True Facts, Tall Tales & Pure Fiction

In the 1960s when the Supreme Court rules that African Americans must be admitted to the university in an unnamed Southern state, Governor Cullie Blanton is about to run for re-election. One of his opponents is "Bayonet Bill" Wooster, an ex-marine general who bases his campaign on fear of racial integration, fear of Communists, and fear of the federal government; he presents himself as the leader in a holy war against the incumbent infidel. The other candidate is Poppa Posey, a former governor who raises hound dogs, quotes Shakespeare, and hopes to use Wooster's money to split support for Blanton. Only Blanton understands that integration is inevitable and that his task must be to make the transition as painless and bloodless as possible. That he fails may be due in part to his freewheeling, power-driven personality. But Blanton is also defeated by inertia, tradition, and demagoguery. He is, as he once describes himself, someone "who just got in the way of goddamn history." Is the state Texas and the governor Lyndon B. Johnson? King denies it, arguing that there are equal parts of Huey Long, Herman Talmadge, and Alfalfa Bill Murray. But, as Erisman says in his foreword, "Blanton, in his wheeling and dealing, his crudities and profanity, his ruthlessness and his compassion, is a dead-on portrait of LBJ in full cry." The One-Eyed Man presents a hauntingly clear picture of the 1960s in the South--the national grief over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the racial turmoil, the human dilemma faced by North and South alike. And it poses haunting questions for the reader: what separates the demagogue from the leader? What injustices are acceptable in the name of a larger justice? Who determines the greatest good for the greatest number?

The One-eyed Man

Riotously funny, King's book is a warning and object lesson in how life as a writer works. on being a writer.

On Being a Writer

None But a Blockhead

Carol Hall

Peter Masterson

The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public

In a play that is realistic, sometimes humorous, and always profoundly moving, Larry L. King deals with the problems of aging and our mistaken stereotypes and impersonal treatment of the elderly. Cowboy Bennett, long a resident of the Golden Shadows Senior Citizens Home, is a man with not only memories of the past but also dreams of the future for himself and his companions--especially the charming widow, Flora Harper. At the play's end, you'll want to stand and yell, "Ya! Ya!" with Cowboy. The Golden Shadows Old West Museum is based on Michael Blackman's short story, which was named the Best Short Fiction of 1973 by the Texas Institute of Letters. The text of the short story is included in this edition.

Larry L. King

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