A.C. Greene (born Alvin Carl Greene Jr.; 4 November 1923 – 5 April 2002) was an American writer – important in Texas literary matters as a memoirist, fiction writer, historian, poet, and influential book critic in Dallas. As a newspaper journalist, he had been a book critic and editor of the Editorial Page for the Dallas Times Herald when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, which galvanized his role at the paper to help untangle and lift a demoralized city in search of its soul. Leaving full-time journalism in 1968, Greene went on to become a prolific author of books, notably on Texas lore and history. His notoriety led to stints on radio and TV as a talk-show host. By the 1980s, his commentaries were being published by major media across the country. He had become a sought-after source for Texas history, anecdotes, cultural perspective, facts, humor, books, and politics. When the 1984 Republican National Convention was held in Dallas, Greene granted sixty-three interviews about Texas topics to major media journalists.[1] Greene's 1990 book, Taking Heart – which examines the experiences of the first patient in a new heart transplant center (himself) – made The New York Times Editors Choice list.[2]
Career
In 1948, Greene began working as a cub reporter for the Abilene Reporter-News and wrote book reviews and articles for the entertainment section. From 1952 to 1957, Greene owned and operated the Abilene Book Store, located at 365 Cypress Street, across the street from the Paramount Theater – its slogan: "The Book Center of West Texas." In 1957, he began teaching journalism at Hardin-Simmons University.[3]
Greene, in his teens, was known as "A.C." So, in 1953, he legally changed his name from Alvin Carl to A.C. and dropped the Jr.[4]
In 1960, Greene became a book editor for the Dallas Times Herald; and in 1963, the Times Herald promoted him to the editor of the Editorial Page, a role he performed until 1965. Of the Kennedy assassination, Greene wrote:
Within a week after the assassination, everything that was sent to the editor or to the [Dallas] Times Herald came to me. We got literally thousands of letters from all over the world, especially from all over the United States, and a lot of them had money for Jacqueline Kennedy, but most of the money was for Officer Tippit's wife, and then Marina Oswald. From the Times Herald through me, from various readers all over the world, I sent Mrs. Tippit over $200,000. I sent Marina Oswald about the same amount.
In 1968, Greene was awarded a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship from the University of Texas at Austin which included a six-month stay at Paisano, a ranch 14 miles southwest of Austin purchased by J. Frank Dobie for use as a writer's retreat. The award and retreat led to Greene's first book, A Personal Country.
In the 1980s, Greene wrote a weekly column on Texas history for the Dallas Morning News.[5]
From 1986 to 1992, Greene served as Founding Coordinating Director of the Center for Texas Studies at the University of North Texas in Denton. He retired as emeritus director. James Ward Lee – an author, professor of English at North Texas since 1958, former chairman of the English Department, and co-director of the center – called Greene "The Dean of Texas Letters."[1]
Annually, Greene's hometown of Abilene, Texas presents the A.C. Greene Award to a distinguished Texas author for lifetime achievement during the West Texas Book Festival. Past winners include John Graves, Sandra Brown, Elmer Kelton, Liz Carpenter, John Erickson, and many others.[6]
Family
Greene's parents – Alvin Carl Greene Sr. (born in Wills Point, Texas, in 1902), and Johnnie Marie Cole (born in Beaumont, Teas, in 1906) – were killed in 1964 in a two-vehicle accident while traveling from Beaumont to Dallas. Their car had been hit by an 18-wheel truckU.S. 69.[7]
Greene gave much credit for his love of reading, writing, and storytelling to his maternal grandmother, Maude E. Cole (1879–1961). Besides being a writer and poet, she was also an amateur painter. She was a prize-winning and published poet and author,[8] and from 1926 to 1946, a librarian at the Carnegie Library in Abilene, Texas.[9]
A.C. was married twice, first in 1950 to Betty Jo Dozier (1925–1989). They had three sons and a daughter.[citation needed] In 1989, Betty died from cancer. He subsequently remarried Judy Dalton Hyland (née Julia Hall Dalton; 1933–2012), daughter of the former governor of Missouri, John Montgomery Dalton. Through that marriage, he gained two stepdaughters. Judy died 8 August 2012 in Austin.[10]
Selected published works
Books (1st editions)
A Personal Country. Illustrated by Ancel Edward Nunn (1st ed.). Knopf. 1969. OCLC22512.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
A Town Called Cedar Springs. Illustrated by Barbara Whitehead. Dallas: The Springs. 1984. OCLC12858661.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
Texas Sketches. Illustrated by Paul Arthur Kolsti (1953–2003). Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company. 1985. OCLC12551975.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
One of the Pretty Ones: An Opera in Six Scenes (music score – manuscript). Music by Melvin Lucas Daniels, Jr., EdD, Libretto by A.C. Greene. Abilene Christian University. OCLC54467542.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
1973 – Friends of the Dallas Public Library Award for Book Offering Most Significant Contribution to Knowledge: The Santa Claus Bank Robbery
1974 – Co-winner, Texas Collectors Institute Award for Best Book Design: A Christmas Tree, by A.C. Greene, illustrated by Ancell Nunn, designed by William D. Wittliff
1974 – Co-winner, Texas Collectors Institute Award for Best Book Design: Dallas, the Deciding Years, A Historical Portrait, by A.C. Greene, designed by William D. Wittliff
1987 – Lon Tinkle Award, for a distinguished career in letters associated with the State of Texas
Other awards and honors
1964 – Honoree as editor of the editorial page of the Dallas Times Herald and book editor, 12th Annual Southwest Journalism Forum, Press Club of Dallas Foundation, and the Southern Methodist University Department of Journalism
The University of North Texas Press, has a series of books named The A.C. Greene Series named in his honor for books on Texas and the Southwest
A.C. Greene Award been presented annually in September 2001 to a distinguished Texas author for lifetime achievement. It is a feather of the West Texas Book Festival and is sponsored by Friends of the Abilene Public Library, the Abilene Reporter-News, and the Scripps Howard Foundation.
Chautauqua Award for lifetime achievement in preserving history, Dallas County Heritage Society
1998 – Lifetime Achievement Award, Texas Book Festival, hosted by Laura Bush
Biography Index: A Cumulative Index to Biographical Material in Books and Magazines,H.W. Wilson Company, New York
Vol. 17: September 1990—August 1992 (1992) OCLC54897719Vol. 29: September 2003—August 2004 (2004)
Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields,Gale Research, Detroit
^Crash Kills Parents of Dallas Man,Dallas Morning News, July 9, 1964, Sec 1, pg 15
^Maude E. Cole was the author of Wind Against Stone (a novel), Lyman House Press, (1941); and Clay-Bound (a book of poetry), Kaleidoscope Press (1936).
^Painter-Author, Maude E. Cole Can't Be Caught By Old Age, Abilene Reporter-News, June 2, 1957, pg 3C
^Larry McMurtry Used a Dallas Writer's 'Best Texas Books' List to Fire a Megatonnage Attack, by Homer Kint Biffle (born 1932), Dallas Morning News, September 19, 1982, pps 221 & 216
