Watkins Reynolds Matthews, A Biography

LAWRENCE CLAYTON

Publication: Hardin-Simmons University Press, 1990, Abilene

First edition. Quarto. One of fifty copies specially bound by BookLab of Austin, Texas, numbered and signed by the author, illustrator, and Watt Matthews. This is copy number 23. Quarter leather and marbled paper over boards, brand-decorated endpapers, 123 pp., author's preface, acknowledgements, frontis., [drawing of Watt Matthews], illustrated, notes, bibliography, index. Drawings by Paul Cameron Smith. On the half title page is a lengthly inked presentation inscription signed by the author. He basically tells about the production history of this title. An excellent history of a West Texas rancher and prominent citizen. He was the owner of the historic Lambshead Ranch, 140 miles west of Fort Worth. Throughout his life on the family ranch, Matthews made do with a simple room furnished with a bed, bureau, bootjack and chair, all the comforts needed by a man who spent much of his time on horseback, leading the roundup of the spread's 1,500 Hereford cattle and the annual group of calves at branding time. Watt Matthews was the son of Sallie Reynolds Matthews, who wrote the outstanding INTERWOVEN: A PIONEER CHRONICLE. An exceptional copy.