The Texas Observer

While we were all reading Molly Ivins — her books, her columns, her quips — what was Molly reading?

That question isn’t entirely answered by the exhibit that opened a few days ago at Texas State University in San Marcos, but it’s clear she was reading, and reading a lot. “Molly Ivins’ Library,” on view at the campus’ Alkek Library, displays just a smattering of the 3,500 books from Molly’s personal library recently gifted by brother Andrew Ivins, but the collection shows a voracious reader’s catholic breadth, from the touching (a small leather-bound Bible) to the delightful (a book of pastry recipes from the Hill Country’s Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe) to the distasteful (Ann Coulter’s Treason).

Seems Molly had a fondness for biography (LBJ, Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov and Albert Camus all get shelf space) and a soft spot for fiction (novels by P.D. James and Stephen Harrigan, among others).

As befits an author of renown in her own right, Molly’s collection also held inscribed gems from colleagues, cohorts, and well-wishers.

“Wish I could write like you!” former Speaker of the House Jim Wright wrote on his own book’s title page.

“Dear Twin,” Maya Angelou’s inscription began.

“To Molly…who done knows how much I love her,” gushed John Henry Faulk.

Heavyweights like Jim Crumley and Bud Shrake weigh in with signed editions as well, but the capper has to be Nancy Reagan’s mysteriously giddy inscription on her own memoir: “Mooch all you can, baby…”

But as glamorous as the high-end literary back-patting must have been, the fact remains that Molly’s collection was no mere vanity, but a genuine working library.

How can you tell? The presence of The Idiot’s Guide to Positive Dog Training is a dead giveaway.

I was looking for something else in the Observer archive and I stumbled on a Molly Ivin’s column called Use It or Lose It from February 2006. Molly wrote that she wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton for president. She found her too inauthentic for the historical moment.

“It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership,” Molly wrote. “There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.”

It makes an interesting counterpoint to today’s Wall Street Journal cover story of Hillary. “Sen. Clinton actually is running two campaigns at once — courting left-leaning Democrats to get the nomination, but mindful even now of maintaining a sufficiently centrist course to withstand Republican attacks and win election next November.”

The atmosphere was just right for a visit by The Texas Observer to Dallas this week.

The streets were dotted with signs about the Trinity River Project. Commercials were on air saying things like “Vote Yes on Proposition One. Keep their toll road out of our park!” I swear some of the signs said, “Vote No! Pave the Trinity!” (but that doesn’t quite sound right), and at least one local weekly, the Dallas Observer (no relation), was recommending that voters “Vote Yes”, loudly, on its cover. Politics and policy were in the air.

As staffers, board members, writers, and fans of the Observer and Jimmie Dale Gilmore came together at the Lakewood Theater just northeast of Downtown, there was plenty of reminiscing about Dallas of the past and discussion of Dallas of the present and future. Gilmore kicked it off with a great version of his classic song “Dallas.” Gilmore described the song as a love-hate serenade to the city that over time has become more love than hate.

Wade Goodwyn, whose sonorous voice many will recognize from his day job as a reporter with NPR read a piece by his father, Larry Goodwyn, a former Observer editor and noted scholar of the populist movement. The piece from 1958, titled “Dallas: the personal and impersonal,” detailed the civic boosterism of a racially segregated town in love with efficiency and the notion of progress, up to a point. Dallas Morning News Columnist Macarena Hernandez read from Dagoberto Gilb’s masterful introduction to Hecho en Tejas, reminding the audience of the demographic shift underway. Former state Rep. Jesse Oliver had the crowd laughing with a deadpan reading of “The great Dallas weed trial,” by Bob Cochran and Molly Ivins. The story detailed the struggle of one Dallasite who wanted to grow his backyard so it resembled a prairie of old and the overzealous city inspector who couldn’t tolerate it. Executive Editor Jake Bernstein read Allen Pusey’s recent story on the knavish local Congressman Pete Sessions and Lou Dubose finished the readings off with Molly Ivins’ lament for the death of the Dallas Times Herald. Attendees were also treated to a showing of Paul Stekler’s “The Texas Observer at 50.” And in the end, Gilmore closed the show with a raucous rendition of “The Deep Ellum Blues.”

While driving around Dallas after the show, I couldn’t stop repeating an Ivins quote Dubose had recalled — one that I have heard before, but never really appreciated until now: Dallas is the kind of town “that would have rooted for Goliath to beat David.”

You see, Dallas has this reputation as a mean place — a place where Republicans rule. As the 2006 election showed, that’s not the case anymore. A Democratic precinct chair who is also one of Dallas’ many lawyers and a friend of mine advised me recently that more lawyers are voting in Democratic primaries in Dallas now, because the once all-GOP Dallas judiciary (district court judges and the like) has turned Democratic. This, according to Martin Frost, is part of a recent Democratic sweep in Big D:

In 2004, Bush-Cheney only won Dallas County 51 percent to 49 percent. Democrats that year won the sheriff’s office and several countywide judgeships. This year (2006), the Democratic Party swept all 42 contested judicial positions (elected county-wide) and all five contested county offices including county judge (the presiding officer of the county commissioner’s court), district attorney, county clerk and county treasurer.

Molly’s comment may still hold water in a lot of ways, but politically, this place is changing, and that’s big news for Texas and the state’s teetering, all-GOP political structure.

Harvey Wasserman, a longtime friend of Molly’s, asked us to post this message. We are happy to do so. All readers are welcome to use the comment section of this blog to send in messages.

We Love You Molly

Our beloved sister Molly Ivins is fighting for her life against cancer, and all we can do is try to send her even a fraction of the brillliance, joy and love she has given us for so many incomparable years.
This genuis daughter of Texas turmoil has stood alone for so long as a voice of clarity, wit, common sense and plain-spoken conscience that it’s hard to know even where to start.
Perhaps most important to remember is that she has not been just a writer. From her modest but gracious home in the heart of Austin, she has done anything but sit back and snipe with that unique penetrating wit of hers. She could have done it. She could have just gone to that keyboard every day, blown them all away, and built her national reputation from the sheer genius of an insulated ivory tower.
But Molly has always been a firm believer in hands-on non-violent combat, which in hands like hers is the ultimate weapon. She puts her heart and soul where her convictions are. She’s fought tooth and nail for The Texas Observer and whatever other worthwhile publications there are that can muster an audience in the Lone Star State. She’s worked with the great Jim Hightower in his climb to elected office. She supports candidates. She goes out of her way. She works hard. She makes her presence felt wherever she thinks it’ll do some good, no matter what the personal cost.
All the while being our very premier writer/humorist. If Mark Twain has a female counterpart on today’s political and journalistic scene, it is Molly Ivins. She has that miraculous ability to slice and dice an entire raft of political horse-dung with a single simple sentence, laced with wry, seeded with sweetness, and so often utterly cleansing and clarifying.
We can all be thankful that our lucky stars have placed her—where else but—in Austin. Throughout the entire horrific nightmare of George W. Bush, whom she has somehow known personally for decades, it has been Molly and only Molly who’s been on the spot to say exactly what needs to be said in exactly the right Texas tone with precisely the right down home balance of horror, outrage and utterly human wit. Nobody else could be doing it as she does, from the inside out, from the high ground lifting up the low. Could we ever INVENT anyone better suited, with a sharper wit and better sense of the jugular?
Except with Molly, it’s the spiritual center that’s the bullseye. With that wry, beautiful smile of hers and that insanely musical Texas twang, she never fails to aim for higher ground. When her eyes roll at the latest unbelievable insanity from this ghastly crew, she still manages to twinkle with that huge, heavenly light that’s only Molly’s.
In her personal life Molly has always been every bit as gracious as you can tell she is from her writing. Last time she carted me around Austin, it was in her obligatory pickup. The thing seemed a bit naked without a gun rack. But Molly behind the wheel was armed aplenty, always willing to drive the few extra blocks, even if you are willing to walk. Her southern grace just won’t think of it, no matter how many better things she has to do. And we know there are plenty.
To hear her speak is to be dazzled by the music of a true national treasure. To see her heart is to be warmed by a truly magnificent woman who embodies all this country can and should be. That she has been on the job for so long, with such persistence and valor, is something for which we can all be joyously thankful.
Molly, we are with you, and we need you, and we love you, as we have needed you and loved you now for so many years now. Get well soon!

In Molly’s honor, some of us are sending contributions to the Molly Ivins Fund for Investigative Reporting at the Texas Observer; 307 West Seventh Street; Austin, TX 78701

We’ve received a number of concerned calls and e-mails from fans of Molly Ivins. Molly is presently in the hospital but hoping to return home soon. In the meantime, thanks to all who have expressed their good wishes. Our thoughts and prayers are with Molly and her family and friends.