Shrake, Edwin.

Edwin A. (Bud) Shrake, Jr., journalist, sportswriter, novelist, biographer and screenwriter, was born in Fort Worth, Texas on September 6, 1931. He attended Paschal High School where, along with Dan Jenkins ( Semi Tough, Baja Oklahoma ), he wrote for the Paschal Pantherette . In 1951, Shrake followed Jenkins to the Fort Worth Press Sports Department, run by legendary sportswriter Blackie Sherrod. While working for the Press full time, Shrake earned a degree in English and Philosophy at Texas Christian University .

In 1958, Shrake moved to the Dallas Times Herald as a sportswriter. The rival Dallas Morning News hired him away in 1961 to write a daily sports column. In 1964, Shrake moved to New York, again joining Dan Jenkins, this time as a writer for Sports Illustrated . While in New York, Shrake and Jenkins kept company with Billy Lee Brammer, Larry L. King, Willie Morris, George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, James Dickey, William Styron and many other literary lights of the day. Shrake was later to reminisce that this period consisted of "exciting, mostly idealistic times and ... everybody seemed to know everybody else among the crowd of writers" (Shrake papers, SWWC). Shrake returned to Texas in 1968, making Austin his home. He continued his association with Sports Illustrated until 1979 while also writing novels and screenplays. In addition, he wrote an occasional article for other magazines, notably "The Land of the Permanent Wave," published in the February 1970 Harper's Then-editor Willie Morris considered it one of two pieces published during his Harper's tenure that gave him "special pride. ... [It] 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" ( New York Days, 326).

To date, Shrake has published seven novels. All but one are set squarely in his home state and, as A. C. Greene once commented, "seemed to be reaching for some truth about life (Texas life) that needed to be explained" ( Texas Monthly, Aug. 1981). Representative of Shrake's fiction are the heavily-researched, wry western, Blessed McGill ; the searing portrait of Dallas during the days of the Kennedy assassination, Strange Peaches ; and the retelling of Petronius' Satyricon, Peter Arbiter, wherein Shrake translates the decadence of imperial Rome to the decadence of oil-rich Texas.

In the late 1980s, Shrake turned to the writing of celebrity as-told-to autobiographies, beginning with his friend, musician Willie Nelson. Willie : An Autobiography was followed by Bootlegger's Boy, the story of the controversial former University of Oklahoma coach, Barry Switzer, and Harvey Penick's Little Red Book, tips and tales from the accomplished golfer. All three of these works made the bestseller's list, the Penick book becoming the bestselling sports book in American publishing history.

Shrake's versatility as a writer extends to screenwriting. Productions on which Shrake is credited include: J. W. Coop (1972), with Cliff Robertson playing a rodeo star adjusting to a changing west; Kid Blue (1973), a comic western starring Dennis Hopper; Tom Horn (1980), with Steve McQueen as the legendary shootist; and Songwriter (1984), a film about the country music business directed by Alan Rudolph and starring Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Many other of Shrake's scripts remain unrealized despite the enthusiasm and support of prominent Hollywood figures. Actor/director Dennis Hopper was unable to finance a proposed production on Pancho Villa and Ambrose Bierce. The screenplay for that project was later reworked into the stage play, Pancho Villa's Wedding . Director Jonathan Demme labored to bring Big Mamoo to the screen for many years but his efforts to that end remain frustrated.

A. C. Greene listed Blessed McGill in 1981 as one of Texas' fifty best books and in so doing, fairly described much of Shrake's writing in general - it shows "an appreciation for the absurdities of existence, a recognition of irony's major role in the world, [and] highly suggestive humor" ( Texas Monthly , Aug. 1981).

From the guide to the Edwin (Bud) Shrake Papers Collection 008., 1936 - ongoing (Bulk: 1960-1993), (Southwestern Writers Collection, Special Collections, Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos)