1323 - 1326 (2026 #33 - #36). July 2026

The Architecture of Wesley Clark Dodson:  Legacy of a Good Name by Mary Helen Dodson

I went to a local presentation about this book by its author (one of the descendants of the architect of the title), held at our local county courthouse, one of many in Texas he designed.  Although the hardbound-with-dustcover book cost $50, I decided to buy it, partly to see how the author approached her subject, given that I might someday like to write a book about my architect first cousin twice removed, Ewald Theodore Pape.

The book was published by the Texas A&M University Press, a good sign.  It's coffee-table size, about 9.5 inches by 10.5 inches and one inch thick, printed on heavy, high-quality paper, and sturdily cloth bound.  A note on the title page indicates publication was assisted by generous funding from the Summerlee Foundation of Dallas.  

The book has over 300 pages and is generously illustrated with color as well as black-and-white photographs, maps, charts, line art, and other drawings.  There are 37 pages of end notes, a five-page bibliography, and an index of slightly over eight pages.  There are also two pages of acknowledgments - at the beginning of the book, rather than at the end - identifying the many people and places who helped Dodson with her research.  

In an interview, Dodson noted that research included visits to the courthouses and county clerk offices (where she reviewed county commissioners court minutes of the years in which those buildings were being built), county histories and newspapers of those periods "so that I could fill in the surroundings of what was going on in the town at the time," and the Portal to Texas History, which had "the records of the Texas State Architectural Association, which he helped found.  And they also had the records of the Presbyterian Church there in Waco, where he was an elder for 20 or 30 years."

As is the case with me and Ewald Pape, this book, as explained in the preface, had its inspiration in genealogical research.  The author was fortunate that the book's subject, her great-grandfather Wesley Clark Dodson (1829-1914) was the also the subject of a collection at Baylor University in Waco that included photographs, letters between Wesley and his wife Sarah, as well as memoirs Wesley had written when he was in his eighties.  

Those memoirs form the framework for the first six chapters (92 pages) in the book, covering his early life in Tennessee and Alabama, his participation in the Civil War, his post-Civil War life in various towns in Texas, and settlement in Waco in 1876.

The next seven chapters (127 pages) discuss his architectural works, with a focus on the "cathedrals of Texas" - his courthouses.  He also designed jails, schools, churches, and other public buildings.  The short (seven-page) chapter seven introduces this section, with a discussion of courthouse construction in Texas in general, and ends with a map showing the 19 counties in northeast Texas where he worked.  This section ends with chapter 13, where the fate of Dodson's buildings is discussed.  Seven courthouses, two jails, and one church are still standing. 

The book ends with a chapter covering the last years of Dodson's life, followed by three appendices - one on Dodson's ancestors, a brief one on his children and grandchildren, and a third listing his buildings that have Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places designations.

Author Mary Helen Dodson retired at age 80 in 2020 from a career as a test developer for Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey, and lives in Pennsylvania.  This gives me hope that I might write a similar book in my 70s about an architect whose works (74 at latest count) are located miles away in the Portland, Oregon area.

I will be donating this book to the Tarleton State University Dick Smith Library in Stephenville.  

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I realized when I read James last month that I had probably never read this, one of its inspirations.   Twain was using satire to expose the hypocrisy, cruelty, and deep-seated absurdity of white supremacy in the American South, Jim is portrayed as a loving and ethical father and human being, and Huck chooses not to turn him in as a runaway.  However, there is frequent use of the N-word, and Jim is often characterized as being excessively superstitious, gullible, or easily duped - pretty much as expected, given the era in which it was written.  I also didn't care for Tom Sawyer's stupid game at the book's ending, prolonging Jim's final escape to freedom.  I can see why Percival Everett did not include that in James.

The Odyssey - graphic novel adaptation by Gareth Hinds

After seeing the recently-released Christopher Nolan movie The Odyssey, I wanted to read (or reread -  not sure if I ever read it in school) the book, and this was the only version currently available at my libraries.  At 248+ pages in typical hardbound graphic novel size, it's very accessible, with its detailed illustrations in pencil and watercolor, and without, in author Gareth Hinds' own words in the notes at the end, being "one-hundred-percent historically accurate."

Hinds also notes that his favorite translations of the Homeric poem are by Robert Fitzgerald and Robert Fagles, but he also used the "plainer prose" of E. V. Rieu's and Samuel Butler's translations, and that he used "near-direct quotes" from the first three in various passages in his book.  He also admires "Rodney Merrill's metrically correct verse translation," but did not discover it until he was partway through creating his book.  He also mentions translations by Lattimore, Lawrence, Cowper, and Chapman.  All versions for me to look for among the many holds I've placed.  

Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict

I went to my local public library to pick up The Odyssey and decided to look around for other things to read, and found this book on the "New" shelf (although the library has had it since April).

I'd describe this book as speculative historical fiction, because so little is known about one main character - Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh of Egypt - and much is invented about the other main character - Evelyn "Eve" Herbert, daughter of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the man who financed much of archaeologist Howard Carter's explorations in Egypt, including the one that found the tomb of King Tut.

Eve was present when that tomb was found, but the novel has her obsessed with finding the tomb of Hatshepsut.  This is entirely author Marie Benedict's invention, which she does admit in her author's note at the end of the book.  There's a little more leeway with Hapshepsut, since so little is known about her, and Benedict comes up with her own theory on how and why Hatshepsut was mostly erased from history.

The story is told through Eve (from 1919 to 1923), and Hatshepsut (from 1486 BC to 1458 BC) in alternating sections of short chapters.  Eve's sections are always labeled with her name, but Hatshepsut's instead change based on her role at the time - The Princess, The Queen, The Pharaoh, and so on.

As I've noted in other reviews of her work, I'm not particularly fond of Benedict's writing style, particularly her use of first-person present-tense for her narrators.  Each short chapter begins with a date and location, but using present tense makes the chapters seem less like the journal entries such chapter headings might imply.  The book is over 300 pages long, and feels repetitious at times. 

And yet, I continue to read her books, because she chooses interesting, little-known women to write about.  I felt this was one of her better books, primarily because Hapshepsut was fascinating.  I also appreciate her sharing of the sources she used in the author's note, as they inspire me to read more about the main characters.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!