Edwin A. "Bud" Shrake, Jr. (September 6, 1931 – May 8, 2009) was an American journalist, sportswriter, novelist, biographer and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. He co-wrote a series of golfing advice books with golf coach Harvey Penick, including ''Harvey Penick's Little Red Book'', a golf guide that became the best-selling sports book in publishing history.Bud Kennedy, “Texas novelist ‘Bud’ Shrake dies in Austin,” '' Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' (05/08/2009) Called a “lion of Texas letters” by the ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Gannett. The paper prints Associated Press, ''New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times'' internation ...

'',Patrick Beach "Versatile author 'Bud' Shrake dies at 77," ''

'' (May 09, 2009) Shrake was a member of the Texas Film Hall of Fame, and received the Lon Tinkle lifetime achievement award from the Texas Institute of Letters and the Texas Book Festival Bookend Award.TxState's Southwestern Writers Collection Exhibit Honors Texas Book Festival 2002 Award Winners
/ref>

Early life

Shrake was born in

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, Texas, and attended Paschal High School where, along with Dan Jenkins, he wrote for the school newspaper the ''Paschal Pantherette''. He served in the Army and attended the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Christian University.Associated Press “Edwin ‘Bud” Shrake dies at 77” (05/09/2009) In 1951, Shrake joined Jenkins at the ''Fort Worth Press'' while he completed his degree in English and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at TCU. Shrake started on the police beat for the underdog ''Press'' while Gary Cartwright covered the same beat for the mainstream ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''. According to Cartwright, he and Shrake usually could be found hanging out at a bar across the street from the police station; a copy boy monitoring police calls would alert them to stories.Joe Holley, “Novelist Was a Texas Fixture,” ''Washington Post'' (05/10/2009) Looking back at his job interview at the ''Press'', Shrake would write “it was a rackety, dirty city paper, with the teletypes clacking and a sense of urgency everywhere. A copy editor was eating tuna fish out of a can, and the bowling writer was drinking bourbon, and I thought, 'This is the world I want to be in.' " At the ''Press'', he also worked under legendary sports editor Blackie Sherrod who said about Shrake, “he immediately showed talent and went on to remarkable success and acclaim far beyond the pressbox."Jane Sumner, “Edwin ‘Bud’ Shrake: Famed writer remembered as a giant in Texas literature,” Dallas Morning News (05/09/2009) In 1958, Shrake moved to the ''

Dallas Times Herald The ''Dallas Times Herald'', founded in 1888 by a merger of the ''Dallas Times'' and the ''Dallas Herald'', was once one of two major daily newspapers serving the Dallas, Texas (USA) area. It won three Pulitzer Prizes, all for photography, and t ...

'' as a sportswriter, followed by a move in 1961 to the ''

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...

'' in order to write a daily sports column. Shrake wrote about the

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

’s final battle against the United States Army in his first novel, ''Blood Reckoning'' (1962). ''But Not For Love'', published in 1964, looked at the post-war generation.

''Sports Illustrated''

In 1964, Shrake moved to New York City, following Jenkins, to join the staff of '' Sports Illustrated,'' where editor André Laguerre considered him a "literary" sportswriter. Accordingly, Laguerre often allowed Shrake to write "bonus pieces"—long feature stories sometimes barely related to sports.''Land of the Permanent Wave, An Edwin "Bud" Shrake Reader'' Table of Contents and Excerpts
University of Texas Press Online Catalog Among the notable feature articles Shrake wrote for ''Sports Illustrated'' ar

(1965), a profile of life in the

Texas Hill Country The Texas Hill Country is a geographic region of Central and South Texas, forming the southeast part of the Edwards Plateau. Given its location, climate, terrain, and vegetation, the Hill Country can be considered the border between the Ameri ...

, and “The Tarahumaras: A Lonely Tribe of Long-Distance Runners” (1967), which he wrote after spending several weeks with the Tarahumaras in Northern Mexico.

Return to Texas

Shrake returned to Texas in 1968 and continued his association with ''Sports Illustrated'' until 1979 while also writing

novels A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

and

screenplays ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fea ...

. His 1968 book ''Blessed McGill'', set during Reconstruction, is often cited as a classic of Texas fiction, as is his 1972 novel ''Strange Peaches''. ''Strange Peaches'' is set in Dallas just before and after the Kennedy assassination. The novel's lead character is a TV Western star who quits his show and returns to Dallas to make a documentary. The book is based in part on Shrake's own life story: in November 1963, he was dating Jada, the star dancer at

Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...

’s Carousel Club. ''Strange Peaches'' includes Ruby as a supporting character, and borrows the real-life moment when Shrake, standing with his camera at Main and Houston, locked eyes with Kennedy. In 1969, Shrake wrote what is perhaps his best-known article,
Land of the Permanent Wave
, about a trip to the Big Thicket in East Texas, where he encounters environmental destruction, as well as xenophobia, bigotry and a sense of living in the past, exemplified by the

permanent wave A permanent wave, commonly called a perm or permanent (sometimes called a "curly perm" to distinguish it from a " straight perm"), is a hairstyle consisting of waves or curls set into the hair. The curls may last a number of months, hence the ...

hairstyle still popular among women there. He intended the article for publication in ''Sports Illustrated'', but it was rejected, possibly because an East Texas lumber company was a stockholder. It was instead published in the February 1970 issue of ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

''. ''Harper's'' editor Willie Morris later called it one of the two best pieces Morris ever published during his tenure at the magazine. Morris wrote that Shrake's story "struck a chord in me that I have never quite forgotten, having to do with how clean, funny, and lambent prose caught the mood of that moment in the country and mirrored with great felicity what we were trying to do at ''Harper's''. To me few finer magazine essays have ever been written." Shrake’s acidic look at his home state continued in ''Peter Arbiter'' (1973), a retelling of

Petronius Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Gaius Petronius Arbiter"
Satyricon'' that compares oil-boom Texas to Rome’s decadence. In 1976 Shrake and Jenkins published ''Limo'', a satiric look at network television executives struggling to produce “Just Up The Street,” a reality show showing four families live for three hours in prime-time.

Mad Dog Inc.

During the 60s and 70s, Shrake, Jenkins, Cartwright (who would go on to write for '' Texas Monthly''), Billy Lee Brammer ('' The Gay Place''),

Larry L. King Larry L. King (January 1, 1929 – December 20, 2012) was an American playwright, journalist, and novelist, best remembered for his 1978 Tony Award-nominated play ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'', which became a long-runni ...

(" The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"), Peter Gent ('' North Dallas Forty'') and Texas journalist/professor Jay Milner were part of a “ragtag assemblage” of Texas writers known as Mad Dog Inc. Jenkins would describe Shrake as "an easy writer, a fast writer, a creative writer." "We were into smoking and drinking and hanging out, like most writers in the old days," Jenkins said. "I think journalism was a stopover for him. But he was awfully good at it." Cartwright would later say that " were fairly wild, untamed, uncontrolled boys.” Shrake and Cartwright eventually incorporated a company named Mad Dog Productions. According to Shrake’s archives, the company’s motto was “doing indefinable services to mankind" (, and its only documented service was giving $1,000 to the Armadillo World Headquarters in 1970 to help it financially. Mad Dogs Shrake and Cartwright often subjected unsuspecting strangers to the antics of the Flying Punzars, an alleged circus act; they occasionally were joined in these antics by musician Jerry Jeff Walker. Other Mad Dog antics included games of “naked bridge” at Dan and June Jenkins’ house in Fort Worth; a pissing contest between Shrake, Don Meredith, and George Plimpton held on the balcony of Shrake’s third-floor apartment in New York; and a multi-day bender in Austin that saw Cartwright drop out after about 27 hours,

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

folding some 10–12 hours later, and Shrake and Walker being still on the town on the morning of the fourth day.Gary Cartwright, “Shrake’s Progress,” ''Texas Monthly'', April 2000. Shrake’s Mad Dog adventures while on the ''Sports Illustrated'' staff include the time he hired

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...

to go to Europe to photograph a heavyweight boxing match — Sinatra received press credentials but missed his flight;Garry Valk, “Letter From The Publisher,” ''Sports Illustrated,'' 08/29/1966
/ref> the time he was saved from a mob by Mohammed Ali;Twister Marquiss, “Edwin ‘Bud’ Shrake, 1931-2009,” ''The Official Blog of the Western Literature Association'' (05/10/2009)
/ref> the time a London soccer team elected him honorary captain after winning an important contest — Shrake led celebrating team members and supporters on a midnight parade; and the time he selected the Houston Oilers’ draft picks, choosing André Laguerre (his boss at ''Sports Illustrated'') with the 25th pick.

Screenplay writing

Shrake's screenplays include the thriller ''

Nightwing Nightwing is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character has appeared in various incarnations; the identity was adopted by Dick Grayson when he left his role as Batman's vigilante partner Robin. Although ...

'' (1979), '' Tom Horn'' (a

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

Western written in collaboration with Thomas McGuane; 1980), ''

Kid Blue ''Kid Blue'' is a 1973 American Comedy Western film directed by James Frawley and starring Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates, Peter Boyle and Ben Johnson. Plot Bickford Waner, who has failed as a train robber, decides to go straight and get an honest ...

'' (an "acid Western" vehicle for

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in ''Giant'' (1956). In the next ten years ...

; 1973) and '' Songwriter'' (1984), which starred Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and

Rip Torn Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. (February 6, 1931 – July 9, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned more than 60 years. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his part as Marsh Turner in '' Cross Creek'' ...

. Shrake's play "Pancho Villa's Wedding Day" (1983) started as a movie project with Hopper that never found funding. Nelson, Kristofferson and Torn would be reunited in two made-for-TV movies written by Shrake and Cartwright, “Pair of Aces” (1990) and “Another Pair of Aces” (1991). Shrake played a bit role in the latter; he had appeared in a “small, but significant” role as “Sodbuster Two” in “ Lonesome Dove”.

Later novels and biographies

Shrake began to write celebrity as-told-to biographies in the 1980s, beginning with his friend Willie Nelson, which was followed by a biography of Barry Switzer and four books with Penick. Shrake smoked, drank and used drugs until the mid-1980s, when a doctor told him he might live a year if he didn't stop. He quit in one day, and then wrote ''Night Never Falls'' just to see if he could do it without cigarettes and booze. ''Night Never Falls'' was published in 1987, and became his favorite of his novels. It featured foreign correspondent Harry Sparrow (a stand-in for Shrake) trapped with the French in Dien Bien Phu and was the only one of Shrake’s novels not set in Texas. The success of ''Harvey Penick's Little Red Book'' in 1992, and its sequels, left him financially stable, enabling him to pursue his fiction writing. Shrake returned to the Comanche, the subject of his first novel, in ''The Borderland: A Novel of Texas'' (2000). His 2001 ''Billy Boy'' is a coming-of-age story set in Fort Worth that features

John L. Bredemus John L. Bredemus (November 20, 1884 - May 8, 1946) was a track and field athlete, teacher, principal, and golf course designer from the United States. He finished second in the 1906 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) all-around competition, won in 1908, ...

as a guardian angel, golf champ Ben Hogan, and several rounds at Colonial Country Club. Shrake’s 10th novel, ''Custer's Brother's Horse'' (2007), is set in Texas in 1865 right after the Civil War ends. Shrake's 2006 play ''The Friend of Carlos Monzon'' is based on the time he was briefly held in an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

prison during the 1970s while on assignment for ''Sports Illustrated''.

Critical reception

''Blessed McGill'', ''Strange Peaches'' and ''But Not for Love'' are ranked by literary scholars as among the best ever written about Texas." George Plimpton called ''Blessed McGill'' “ absolutely first-rate account of the rambunctious life and times of the Reconstruction years in Texas—an enthralling era of derring-do which finds its perfect chronicler in Mr. Shrake.” United Press International’s review of ''Strange Peaches'' stated that it was “not only one of the best-written American novels since World War II, it entertains…a great book, not just for critics, but for readers.” Screenwriter and photographer Bill Wittliff said that Shrake “was one of those who took the raw material of our history and was making real literature of it. He was one of the greats with Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy. We were fortunate indeed to have his voice." McMurtry himself said in 1981 that "Shrake has always been an intriguing talent, far superior to his drinking buddies.” University of Texas professor Don Graham, a leading critic of Texas literature, has said that whenever anyone asks him what Dallas was like about the time of the Kennedy assassination, he sends them to ''Strange Peaches.'' In 2008, the University of Texas Press published ''Land of the Permanent Wave: An Edwin "Bud" Shrake Reader'', an anthology named after Shrake's ''Harper's Magazine'' piece. Shrake's personal papers and literary archive, dating to 1936, are stored at the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University-San Marcos;Edwin “Bud” Shrake Papers
at the Southwestern Writers Collection, the Whittliff Collections, Texas State University-San Marcos a portion of the archive had been held by the Austin History Center
/ref>

Personal life

Shrake was twice married to and twice divorced from Joyce Shrake, with whom he had two sons, Ben Shrake of Fort Worth and Alan Shrake of Los Angeles. His marriage to Doatsy Shrake also ended in divorce. His survivors also include his brother, Bruce, of Houston, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Shrake was Texas Governor Ann Richards' companion for 17 years, until her death in 2006. ("We always said we'd get married when we were older," Shrake said in 2007.) As the "first gentleman of Texas," he escorted Richards to her inaugural ball and to other social events, and organized card games inside the Texas governor's mansion. Shrake was raised in Fort Worth's Travis Avenue Baptist Church, but that did not stop him from obtaining ordination by the Universal Life Church and officiating at the wedding of friends such as Cartwright.

Illness and death

Shrake suffered from both

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

and lung cancer in his final years. At a Southwestern Writers Collection event in 2008, Shrake urged friends to heed

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallich ...

's lyrics: "You've got to accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on the affirmative. Don't mess with Mister In-Between." Despite his advanced lung cancer, Shrake made an appearance on April 8, 2009 at a special screening of ''Songwriter'' in Austin. He was roughly 100 pages into a new novel when he died. Shrake died at St. David's Hospital in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, of complications from lung cancer. The staff at the Austin Country Club lowered its club flag to half staff in recognition of Shrake's death. At Shrake's funeral, Ray Benson sang Willie Nelson's "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone" while Nelson sang "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" and Cartwright called Shrake "my friend, compadre and mentor for 50 years. Every success I enjoyed owed directly or indirectly to Bud Shrake." At the graveside service, Jerry Jeff Walker played two songs: Charles John Quarto and Shake Russell's "Dare of an Angel" and the Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn standard "My Buddy."Jeff Salamon "Remembering Bud Shrake through song, laughter", ''Austin American-Statesman'' (May 13, 2009) Shrake’s hearse bore the Mad Dog Productions sign in the back window. Shrake is buried next to Ann Richards in the Texas State Cemetery

Bibliography

Fiction

*Blood Reckoning (1962) *But Not For Love (1964) *Blessed McGill (1968) *Strange Peaches (1972) *Peter Arbiter (1973) *Limo (1976, with Dan Jenkins) *Night Never Falls (1987) *The Borderland: A Novel of Texas (2000) *Billy Boy (2001) *Custer's Brother's Horse (2007) *Hollywood Mad Dogs (2020, posthumously)

Nonfiction

*Willie: An Autobiography (1988) *Bootlegger's Boy (1990) *Harvey Penick's Little Red Book

ith Harvey Penick The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

(1992) *And If You Play Golf, You're My Friend

(1993) *For All Who Love the Game: Lessons and Teachings for Women

(1995) *The Game for a Lifetime: More Lessons and Teachings

(1996) *The Wisdom of Harvey Penick

(1997)

Anthology

*Land of the Permanent Wave: An Edwin "Bud" Shrake Reader

teven L. Davis, editor Teven may refer to: *Teven, New South Wales, Australia *Teven Jenkins Teven Bradlee Jenkins (born March 3, 1998) is an American football guard for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Oklahoma St ...

(2008)

Filmography

* J. W. Coop (1972) (writer) (as Edwin Shrake) * Kid Blue (1973) (written by) (as Edwin Shrake) *

(1979) (screenplay) * Tom Horn (1980) (screenplay) * Songwriter (1984) (writer) * Pair of Aces (1990) (TV) (co-written with Gary Cartwright) * Another Pair of Aces: Three of a Kind (1991) (TV) (co-written with Gary Cartwright)

References

External links

Edwin “Bud” Shrake Papers
at the Southwestern Writers Collection, the Whittliff Collections, Texas State University-San Marcos. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shrake, Bud 1931 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American sportswriters American male screenwriters Texas Christian University alumni People from Fort Worth, Texas Novelists from Texas The Dallas Morning News people 20th-century American biographers 21st-century American biographers Journalists from Texas 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Screenwriters from Texas 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American journalists American male journalists American male biographers