ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MIKE COX
Mike Cox, an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters, is the author of more than a score of non-fiction books and hundreds of articles over the course of a career dating back more than forty years. In 2010 he received the A. C. Greene Lifetime Achievement Award and has earned numerous other recognitions for his writing over the years. His most noted work is a two-volume history of the legendary Texas Rangers, published in 2008-2009.
A long-time newspaper writer turned state government spokesman, Cox lives in Austin. When not writing, he spends as much time as he can fishing and hunting or traveling and otherwise enjoying life in Texas.
ABOUT THE COVER
GARY CROUCH
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1946, Gary has lived in North Texas most of his life. A self-taught artist since the age of eleven, he was professional before he could vote and has had his own business since 1966. Although fine art commissions were scarce in the early years, Gary continued to develop his abilities, working in pencil, pen and ink, acrylic and oil and extensively in airbrush. In 1969, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned as an illustrator in Vietnam. He received the Bronze Star, Meritorious Achievement, and Presidential Citation while serving in the military.
Fine art had been his focus early in his career, but as his family grew, it was necessary to diversify into advertising and marketing. He started creating brochures, logos, corporate literature, technical art and cover illustrations because it was more lucrative and there was more of that kind of business available.
Much of his reputation as an artist rests on the superior quality of the prints he has produced. In the late 1970s and early 1980s over 25 limited edition prints of his work were created and sold nationally. He also designed and illustrated educational posters on Creationism used in 110 countries at colleges and universities. Most of Gary's work today involves the history of Oil & Gas and the American West. His prints are collected nationally and even in Europe and Japan where the American West has gained significant popularity.
He is known as the “Western History Artist.” “There is a fine line,” he said, “between illustrations and fine art. I do some illustrations, some paintings, some posters, but I consider most of my prints fine art, not posters.”
Commissions for magazine designs, cover illustrations and brochures came from many Fortune 500 companies such as Xerox, American Airlines, Sony Associates, Campbell Taggart, and Johnson & Johnson.
A few years ago, he downsized, closed his commercial studio and moved his business to his home in Burleson, a suburb of Fort Worth, where he and his wife Constance currently reside.