Patrick Heath Library sponsors annual bookbuying bonanza on Main Plaza
Steve and Callie Garnsey meandered through the tents set up on Main Plaza Oct. 5, looking at the hundreds of books available for purchase.
A couple caught their eye. And meeting the author — hearing her describe the books’ plots, twists and turns, was definitely a selling point.
“I’ve got ‘Ghost Cave,’ a mystery by Helen Currie Foster. I was introduced to her (today),” Callie Garnsey said. “(She) was giving us a recap on her novels that she’s written. I found it quite interesting; I’m into mysteries and thought it would be a good read.” The chance to do a meetand- greet with authors at the book fair gives potential readers a chance to gain insight into a book or novel, offered by the person bringing the words to life Steve Garnsey bought Foster’s “Ghost Bones” book.
“I bought it for my wife, who’s into mysteries, murder mysteries,” he said. “She’s a fan of Agatha Christie, and this seemed to fit the teeth for that purpose.
“This is the first time we’ve met this author and it worked out very well,” he added.
Being able to interact with book authors is a big draw for the annual Boerne Book Fair, with about a dozen tents featuring statewide publishing firms and authors. More than a dozen authors took part in the halfdozen featured programs.
During the “Texas Journalist” portion of the day, the Houston Chronicle’s Joe Holley and the San Antonio Express-News’ Cary Clack spoke of the experiences included in their most recent writings.
Holley spoke to the stories included in his newest release, “Native Texan.” Thirty stories curated from column archives, Holley introduces readers to his favorite people and places across the state.
“I write about Texas, frequently about towns like Boerne that are either small or used to be small,” he said, “because Texas is what I know, even when I was at the Washington Post.”
He told tales of writing about Candy Barr, a famous 1960’s stripper in Dallas; about the black Seminole tradition of the Southwest, about breaching a fence line searching for Blas Payne’s gravesite in Marathon, Texas, and the time his 92-year-old father fell from a second-story stair landing in San Angelo.
“When I did write about Texas, wherever I happened to be or whatever the format was,” he said, “I wrote with more feeling, more verve, because I knew place, in the same way I know my family.”
Clack, a San Antonio native known for his editorial columns in the Express-News, became the newspaper’s first black editorial board member. The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors awarded him opinion writer of the year in 2021, followed by awards for editorial writing in 2022 and both general column writing and editorial writing in 2023.
Clack reminisced about previous trips to Boerne and his return to the Express-News after eight years in the political realm.
His newest book, “More Finish Lines to Cross: Notes on Race, Redemption and Hope,” contains his best columns since returning to the Express-News in 2019.
Clack told the Book Fair crowd of the story of black boxer Sporty Harvey, a less-than-successful boxer in the ring — a lifetime 10-23-2 record stands clear — who challenged the sport’s racial segregation and won the right to fight a white man, Buddy Turman, who would eventually become Texas light heavyweight champion.
“He was a terrible boxer, a horrible boxer ... but as important a boxer that ever came out of Texas,” he said.
San Antonio lawyer Maury Maverick Jr. — one of Clack’s personal mentors and heroes — represented Harvey and won the case, thereby erasing the dividing line between white and black boxers.
“The importance of that story, the first integrated fight between a black and a white fighter ... (Sporty) got knocked down three times but kept getting up,” Clack said.
“He was a bad fighter. But, in a truer sense of the word, he was the best fighter we ever had because he kept getting up” and eventually stood in court for all minority boxers, changing the course of sports history.
Texas author Joe Holley, right, listens as author and San Antonio Express-News columnist Cary Clack talks about a chapter from his new book, “More Finish Lines to Cross: Notes on Race, Redemption and Hope” during the Oct. 5 Boerne Book Fair.
Star photo by Jeff B. Flinn
Comment
Comments