Page 11 - 2019 Spring Newsletter
P. 11
TCU Press Has Brought a
Classic Back to the Shelves
After many long years, Cult Classic The Iron Orchard, is back in print.
The reprint coincides coincides with major motion picture release.
The Iron Orchard garnered a cult following for its authentic
representation of the people and business of the Texas and American
Southwest oil fields. Now available again in a new edition, The Iron
Orchard tells the story of Jim McNeely, a young brash Texan in the
1930s, who is desperate to make a name for himself in the oil fields of
Texas. Told from the inside by a man who knew the oil fields intimately,
it is a vibrant, brutal story of the men who labored, sweated, lusted and
gambled their money and spirits to pump oil out of the earth. It’s the
adventure of violent men among other violent men. It’s the story of
perseverance and love in the midst of one of America’s most dramatic
industries.
The Iron Orchard was a co-winner of the 1967 Texas Institute of
Letters Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction along with Larry
McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show.
The Iron Orchard film premiered at the 2018 Dallas International Film
Festival and Fort Worth also rolled out the red carpet in February 2019.
The late Texan Edmund Pendleton Van Zandt Jr. published The Iron
Orchard under the pen name Tom Pendleton and described himself
merely as “an old roustabout type who has retired from the oil patch to
write about it.” Van Zandt, a member of the prominent Fort Worth Van Zandt family, lived through many of the oil
field experiences he described in this book.
Award Winning Books
The Press had two award winners with the Texas State Historical Association:
Tejano Tiger by Jerry Thompson received the Kate Broocks Bates Award for Historical Research.
Shale Boom: The Barnett Shale Play and Fort Worth by Diana Davids Hinton received the Al Lowman Memorial Prize
for Best book on Texas County or Local History.
The TCU press was founded in 1947 and publishes the history and literature of Texas, the South and the American West.
TCU Press titles are available in local bookstores, online at www.tamupress.com or by calling 800-826-8911.
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