Cowboy historian to speak to Friends of the UNT Libraries

Writer and historian Lonn Taylor will explain what the life of a 19th-century cowboy was really like when he speaks at the annual dinner meeting of the Friends of the University of North Texas Libraries March 9. The dinner will be held in the Women's Club Building, 610 Oakland, in Denton. A 6:30 p.m. reception will be followed by the dinner at 7:15 p.m.

Taylor has written several books, including The American Cowboy.

He says that as a 7-year-old, he spent many Saturday afternoons in
movie houses, "riveted by the glamorous life of cowboys portrayed there." That was what he believed cowboy life was like — until he visited his great-uncle's ranch on the Texas Gulf Coast.

"Cowboy work was extremely hard and very dull and monotonous," Taylor says. "They didn't play the guitar for one thing, and they spent very little time rescuing pretty girls."

The dinner is a fund-raiser for the Friends of the University of North Texas Libraries and is open to the public. Funds raised are used to support special collections in the Willis Library's Rare Book Room. Tickets for the event are $35 per person. Call (940) 565-2769 before March 1 to make reservations.

BY MICHELLE HALE mhale@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• $1 million gift to help fund construction of new UNT athletic center
• UNT launches e-Campus web site
• UNT to host annual law conference March 1-2
• Faculty and staff can vote now for 2004 UNT Homecoming theme
• UNT students, alumna win Rotary Scholarships
• UNT professor finds that women's civic clubs led to suffrage movement in Texas
• Familiar faces should rule at 76th Academy Awards
• Totten named to National Commission on Libraries and Information Science

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