Rip Ford's Texas

John S. Ford

University of TEXAS Press, 1987 - History - 519 pages

The Republic of Texas was still in its first exultation over independence when John Salmon "Rip" Ford arrived from South Carolina in June of 1836. Ford stayed to participate in virtually every major event in Texas history during the next sixty years. Doctor, lawyer, surveyor, newspaper reporter, elected representative, and above all, soldier and Indian fighter, Ford sat down in his old age to record the events of the turbulent years through which he had lived. Stephen Oates has edited Ford's memoirs to produce a clear and vigorous personal history of Texas.

What people are saying

Review: Rip Ford's Texas

User Review  - Fredrick Danysh - Goodreads

John "RIP" Ford severed in the Confederate army and helped tame the Texas badlands after the Civil WAr. This is a fair biography in that it also addresses his flaws.

Review: Rip Ford's Texas

User Review  - Eotwargod - Goodreads

great history of early texas as seen through the eyes of a truly legendary man.

About the author

Stephen B. Oates is the author of sixteen books, including The Approaching Fury; With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln and Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr., the latter two books winning, respectively, the Christopher Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award. They have been translated into several languages.

Oates was a consultant and "talking head" in Ken Burns's Civil War series on PBS, and is a recipient of the Nevins-Freeman Award of the Chicago Civil War Round Table for lifetime achievement in the field of Civil War studies. A teacher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he is now writing the concluding book of the Voices of Storm trilogy, about the years of Reconstruction, 1865-1877.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Rip Ford's Texas; Personal narratives of the West
• Author: John S. Ford
• Editor: Stephen B. Oates
• Edition: illustrated, reissue
• Publisher: University of TEXAS Press, 1987
• ISBN: 0292770340, 9780292770348
• Length: 519 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / General