ENTERTAINMENT

A Gallery of Texas Characters

Gene Fowler

(University of Texas, $19.95, paperback)

Dallas native Gene Fowler's latest book entertainingly demonstrates how many of Texas' zaniest eccentrics actually were "performance artists" long before art critics started using the term. Some of the real-life characters portrayed include Plennie L. Wingo, who attempted to walk around the world backward; Milt Hinkle, a rodeo cowboy who tried to leap from a low-flying plane to bulldog a steer; and Commodore Basil Muse Hatfield, who championed a navigable Trinity River by steering a small, one-horsepower boat from Fort Worth to Chicago and back again in 21 months.

Pekka Hamalainen

(Yale, $35)

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Comanches built a powerful empire that dominated much of the American Southwest, northern Mexico and the southern Great Plains. Yet, as the author notes, "they left behind no marks of their dominance" once they were overwhelmed by America's westward expansion. This fascinating and richly detailed study was completed, in part, with help from a research fellowship from the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University.

The Mexican Massacre of 400 Texas Volunteers

Jay A. Stout

(Naval Institute Press, $29.95)

Historian and former Gulf War fighter pilot Jay A. Stout has written a fascinating and well-balanced account of the gruesome 1836 prisoner slaughter that turned American sympathies against Mexico and more strongly toward Texas' revolutionaries. Mr. Stout blames the massacre on two factors: hesitant leadership and bad choices by James Walker Fannin; and Santa Anna's insistence that the killings be carried out, despite clemency pleas from his own commander at Goliad.

The 1978 Governor's Race

Kenneth Bridges

(Texas A&M, $39.95)

Some political observers predict a strong rebound for Texas Democrats this fall. But this well-written, well-researched book explains how Texas Democrats fell out of favor starting with the 1978 election that made William P. Clements the first Republican governor in Texas since Reconstruction. "The causes of right wing growth in Texas have stemmed largely from psychological and social factors, national events, and problems of international affairs," the author writes. Many Texans in 1978 "still saw themselves as an extension of the traditional frontier figure, a solitary figure fighting the elements to build a life for themselves," Mr. Bridges contends.

Si Dunn reviews books about Texas and the Southwest.