Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo, etc.)
Subject: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo, etc.)
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 9/27/09, 19:39
To: esmith@texastribune.org
Hi, Evan-
I wanted to check in with you to see if Texas Tribune might be interested in a piece I'm about to write.
I'm a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, TheHuffington Post, Skeptic, and The Onion, and my work has appeared in dozens of other outlets, including several based in Texas. My first book, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, was released in 2007; my second, Hot, Fat, and is scheduled for publication next year.
The article in question is an allegedly humorous examination of A Texan Looks at Lyndon: A Study in Illegitimate Power, written by historian and cowman J. Evetts Haley. The book, which came out in 1964 and appears to have been something of a statewide success, covers much of Johnson's early career, obviously with a negative slant. The book itself is interesting for a number of reasons. It's packed with accounts of mid-20th century Texas corruption and written by an equally colorful fellow who ran for statewide office several times on a segregationist platform (indeed, he campaigned to redeploy the Texas Rangers as a means of enforcing the separation of the races). And Haley, though no doubt a fine historian when focused on the southwest, is laughable when dealing with anything beyond that - by the second paragraph of the preface, he has already asserted in passing that Julius Caesar was feared by the people and feared them in turn, when in fact he was so extraordinarily popular that he was appointed dictator several times, his assassins were in turn hunted down by mobs, and his adopted son was eventually made both an emperor and deity by virtue of that inherited popularity. Elsewhere, he sprinkles the book with observations of the following intellectual caliber: "History indicates that illegitimate power cannot afford to let rebellion grow and spread." And a portion of the book consists of complaints about people who have allegedly screwed him over on business deals.
I was originally planning on writing the piece for some or another national pub, but was recently told that you'd left Texas Monthly to start what sounds like a pretty innovative new outfit, so I thought I'd check to see if you might have any use for this piece, in which case I would obviously write it for a Texan audience. Please let me know if this idea interests you, or if you'd like to get other queries from me down the line.