Dudley Richard Dobie, Sr., antiquarian bookseller, was born on August 6, 1904, at old Lagarto in southern Live Oak County, Texas, to William Neville and Mary E. (Mills) Dobie, prominent South Texas ranchers. Family pioneers had first settled in Harris County in 1828. Dudley’s branch moved to Live Oak County in the late 1860s. Dudley’s first cousin, J. Frank Dobie, grew up on a nearby ranch, but their sixteen-year age difference inhibited the development of close friendship until Dudley reached maturity. He received his childhood education in the Lagarto school and graduated as valedictorian from Mathis High School in 1923. After a year of unsuccessful job seeking, he entered Southwest Texas State Teachers College, and from that time he considered San Marcos his home. He received his degree in history in May 1927 and that fall was named principal of Westover School on the west side of San Marcos. Two months later he married Deborah Galbreath, who became the mother of his three children. He later looked back on the winter of 1927-28 as the time he began to get serious about book collecting. In the summer of 1928 he embarked upon a graduate degree in history at the University of Texas, where he returned each summer for the next four years. Walter Prescott Webb supervised his thesis, “A History of Hays County, Texas.” In 1933 Dudley left teaching to become an educational advisor for the Civilian Conservation Corps. He had already begun free-lancing newspaper and magazine articles about historic persons, places, and events for sundry Texas publications.

            He became a bookseller in 1935 and further supplemented his uncertain income by scouting artifacts for the Hall of State, which opened in Dallas the following year. Throughout the 1930s he systematically expanded his knowledge of books and his acquaintance among book people. He attended annual meetings of the Texas State Historical Association, the Old Trail Drivers Association, and on occasion the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He also kept membership in the Texas Folklore Society, where his cousin J. Frank was the secretary-editor. In all of these groups, Dobie quickly identified the authors and collectors. During the winter of 1940-41 he helped the Texas State Historical Association organize its first book auction, now a traditional feature of its annual meeting. Following his debut as a bookseller, and while working for the Texas Centennial Commission, he was also running a mail-order book business out of his home. He would periodically load his car with books and head for San Antonio, Austin, or elsewhere, and collar potential customers in their homes or businesses. In 1941 he began a ten-year career at Southwest Texas State Teachers College as a nontenured, part-time history instructor and part-time museum director. His status was such that he was able to continue his bookselling and, in 1947, issue his first printed catalogue, Spirited Southwest: Roundup No. 1. From 1949 to 1951 he served as a San Marcos city alderman.

            Dobie’s connection with the college ended in 1951. A year later he opened a bookstore in Austin on the site of what is now Dobie Center, near the University of Texas campus. Not achieving the hoped-for success, he closed his Austin store and later made an unsuccessful race for school superintendent in Hays County. In 1955 he opened a bookshop and gift store in San Marcos, but again the time and place weren’t right. At this time he unexpectedly received the opportunity to teach history and direct the Big Bend Memorial Museum (later the Museum of the Big Bend) at Sul Ross State Teachers College in Alpine. Except for the 1958-59 academic year, Dobie remained at Sul Ross until his retirement and return to San Marcos in 1966. For most of that time, however, he was affiliated with the library. From 1966 until his death, he sold books by mail order from his San Marcos home. He served a term as county Democratic chairman and was for ten years a member of the county historical commission. He made notes for the memoirs he always intended to write, but never did. He also regaled many a novice reporter with tales of frontier life that he knew not only from a wealth of reading, but from personal and family experience. Aside from various newspaper and magazine features, his publications include A History of San Marcos and Hays County (1948) and Adventures in the Canyons, Mountains and Desert Country of the Big Bend of Texas and Mexico (1952), both privately printed. He died of colon cancer on April 17, 1982.

Al Lowman

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Al Lowman, Remembering Dudley Dobie: The First Bookseller to Enrich My Life (and Empty My Pockets) (Austin, Boerne & San Marcos, Texas: Lagarto Press, 1992)^*. Vertical Files, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.

SOURCE: “DOBIE, DUDLEY RICHARD, SR.” The Handbook of Texas Online:  http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/DD/fdo31.html

*Copies of Al Lowman’s book, Remembering Dudley Dobie: The First Bookseller to Enrich My Life (and Empty My Pockets) are available from Dorothy Sloan—Rare Books, Inc. Please inquire

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(Following is an article written by Dudley R. Dobie, Sr. which appeared in the Dallas Times Herald, Sunday, Oct. 7, 1945)

About Cattle and Horses, and Men Who Live with Them

by Dudley R. Dobie, Sr.

Folks from other states and from other parts of the world sometimes tire of much of the materials poured through the book factories dealing with the history of the Lone Star State. However, the reading world always has an appetite for good books devoted to horses, cattle, cowboys, and ranching in general. And a great majority of such books relate to Texas. It’s a fascinating subject, mostly because horses and cattle themselves are fascinating.

True enough, too many people read the sorry “blood and thunder” stories dished out by the pulp writers, but even most of these readers appreciate a range book with the proper setting which is true to life.

Old Charlie Siringo’s A Texas Cowboy; or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (1886) was one of the first authentic narratives about cowboys. A mint copy with its attractive pictorial cover and colored plates will make any range collector’s mouth water. Some copies had double plates, but they are as scarce as hen’s teeth. As time wore on, Siringo had further experiences to relate. He added them to his first creation and gave the book a new title. This went on and on. After all, each book is worthy of possession because Siringo had seen and heard a lot.

The writings of Andy Adams, like those of Siringo, are always in demand. He used the novel form, but his material is authentic. Adams’s best book is his The Log of a Cowboy(1903). It is fine trail-driving reading for young or old. His other books are: The Outlet; A Texas Matchmaker, Cattle Brands; Reed Anthony Cowman; Wells Brothers; and The Ranch on the Beaver. Collectors prefer first editions of the Adams titles. Reprints may be obtained at all bookshops.

James H. Cook’s Fifty Years on the Old Frontier (1923) is good reading. Cook punched cattle across much of Texas and over the trails into other states. As his life drew to a close, he “collaborated” with Howard R. Driggs on Longhorn Cowboy.

Perhaps Philip Ashton Rollins’s The Cowboy should have appeared at the top of this partial list of good books. Anyway, this work first appeared in 1922, with a Charlie Russell illustration. In 1936 it was revised and enlarged, thus becoming superior to the earlier edition. It is a standard work.

Four foundation stones of the cattle industry of the Southwest are the following:

Cox, James, The Cattle Industry of Texas and Adjacent Territory, 1895;

Hunter, J. Marvin (compiler), The Trail Drivers of Texas, 1925 (reprint);

McCoy, Joseph G., Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest, 1874;

Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry of the United States, 1905.

These four items are well packed with good meat. Unfortunately, the Cox and the Prose and Poetry are exceedingly scarce and cost a lot of money. The McCoy book was reprinted in 1932, but this edition is already out of print. However, it has been incorporated into the Southwest Series, published by Arthur H. Clark. Trail Drivers of Texas may still be obtained.

A work deserving a niche on the standard shelf is Cattle by William MacLeod Raine and Will C. Barnes. This book appeared in 1930, was reprinted several times, but is now out of print.

Another possible foundation stone is Sam P. Ridings’s The Chisholm Trail, 1936.

Jack Potter had many experiences with cattle. He makes use of this in Cattle Trails of the Old West (1935 and 1939) and Lead Steer (1939).

John Culley’s Cattle, Horses and Men (1940) is pleasant reading and is strong enough to lean on.

J. Frank Dobie published his A Vaquero of the Brush Country in 1929. The reading public still demands it. And there is his On the Open Range (1930), written primarily for youngsters but charming to older readers. The Longhorns appeared in 1941. This book has gone into a number of libraries. No doubt it is a landmark in the range field.

It is unfortunate that Dr. E. E. Dale’s The Range Cattle Industry (1930) and Cow Country (1942) are out of print. They should be kept before us, and perhaps the University of Oklahoma Press will reprint them when paper becomes plentiful.

J. Evetts Haley’s The XIT Ranch appeared in 1929, but “arguments” in court soon withdrew it from circulation. It is now on the scarce list. Haley’s Charles Goodnight, Cowman and Plainsman (1936) is also out of print, but it is hoped that this work will be reprinted.

E. S. Osgood’s The Day of the Cattleman (1929) is another splendid book that is no longer plentiful.

Frank Hastings’s A Ranchman’s Recollections (1921) is assured a safe place on the range shelf.

Jack Thorp’s Pardner of the Wind (1944), edited by Neil M. Clark, should be listed here. It is a fine range book. And so is Wyman’s Wild Horse of the West, which came out just a few months ago.

J. Frank Dobie, Mody C. Boatright and Harry K. Ransom of the Texas Folklore Society edited Mustangs and Cowhorses (1940). This outstanding contribution is already out of print and should be restored to the current shelf.

A range library would show a big gap if it did not house Ramon Adams’s Western Words (1944). It is a first-class range dictionary.

In 1933, William R. Leigh published The Western Pony. His illustrations are striking. Unfortunately, the book is out of print. Another fine work illustrated by its author and also OP is Dan Muller’s Horses (1936).

Mody C. Boatright’s Tall Tales from Texas Cow Camps (1934) is one of our much-sought-after books. It should be reprinted.

E. Douglas Branch’s The Cowboy and His Interpreters (1926) is a standard work which is no longer in print. Ross Santee’s Men and Horses (1928) is very pleasant reading. Santee’s Cowboy (1928) has a wide appeal.

Walter Prescott Webb’s The Great Plains (1931) is a standard work, which is a “must” item. It’s bibliography alone is a fine guide.

Many choice books in the range herd remain unroped, but the pen is getting crowded. It’s time to get the iron hot.