By Gregory Hoeft/reporter
South Campus will host Breaking Barriers: The Life of Elithe Kirkland, Texas’ First Great Female Author at 11:15 a.m. March 17.
The presentation will be given by Michael H. Price, one of her collaborators, and will be held in the SSTU Forum Room. Price will discuss Kirkland’s remarkable career and will show excerpts of musical performances based on her works performed by Salt Lick Foundation.
Elithe Hamilton Kirkland of Wimberley described herself as an author, historian, poet, newspaper reporter, playwright, multimedia pioneer, wife and mother. She was recognized for her contributions to Texas literature and the influence she had on many generations of Texas writers and personalities. Kirkland also wrote for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Times Herald during her career.
Kirkland authored more than 500 dramatic documentaries for state and national radio networks during 1940-47 while at the University of Texas on the public relations staff. In addition, she wrote numerous plays, short stories and magazine articles.
As Price recalls, “She was quite a thinker … very down home but very intellectual and utterly dedicated to keeping the myths and legends and history of Texas in the public consciousness.”
Her books include The Edge of Disrepute (1984), Love is a Wild Assault (1959) and Divine Average (1952). These three historical novels were republished as a regional epic in 1984.
“She was a journalist when women were rare in the newsroom … kind of a pioneer without really trying to be — she just wanted to write,” Price said of Kirkland, who died in 1992.
Price is lead author of the longest-running film-critic franchises in commercial publishing — the Forgotten Horrors encyclopedia, in continuous print since 1980, and the creator of the Comics from the Gone World series of graphic novels. Lee Snaples, South history professor, described his friend Price.
“[Price] has been an entertainment reporter/editor for newspapers in Amarillo and Fort Worth and has written and edited numerous works,” Snaples said. “He is also a musician — keyboard, guitar and other instruments — and has played with more well [known] regionally and nationally famous people than I think I can mention in one email.”
The event is part of the Women’s History Month program and is sponsored by the Women’s History Month Committee. For more information, contact psychology associate professor Trish Light at triesha.light@tccd.edu or at 817-515-4740.
