REMEMBER BEN CLAYTON

Alfred A. Knopf

May 24, 2011

Francis “Gil” Gilheaney is a sculptor of boundless ambition, whose pride has driven him from New York into artistic exile in Texas just after World War I. His adult daughter, Maureen, serves as her father’s assistant, her own artistic ambitions set aside for his. When Lamar Clayton, an enigmatic, taciturn rancher, offers Gil a commission to create a memorial statue of his son, Ben, who was killed in the war, Gil seizes an opportunity to create what he thinks will be his greatest achievement.

As work proceeds on the statue, it becomes clear to Gil and Maureen that Lamar is guarding a secret that haunts his relationship with Ben even in death. But Gil is haunted as well: by the fear that his work will be forgotten and by a lie whose discovery could cost him his daughter’s love. As the novel unfolds, we are given a brilliant evocation of the brutal aftermath of World War I, and a deeply moving story about the bonds between fathers and children, and the purpose and power of art.

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CHALLENGER PARK

Alfred A. Knopf

April 4, 2006

A novel of extraordinary power about what it’s like, and what it means, to journey into space as one of today’s astronauts.

At the novel’s center: Lucy Kincheloe, an astronaut married to an astronaut, the loving mother of two young children, with a fierce ambition to excel in the space program. Her husband, Brian, a rigorous man whose dreams of glory have been blighted by two star-crossed missions. Walt Womack, the steady, unflappable leader of the training team that prepares Lucy for her first shuttle flight.

Lucy has devoted years of intense and focused effort to win her place on a mission, but as her lifelong dream of flying in space comes true, her familiar world appears to be falling apart around her. Her marriage is deteriorating. Her son’s asthma is growing more serious. Her relationship with Walt Womack is becoming dangerously intimate. And when at last she is in space, 240 miles above the earth, and an accident renders the world she left behind appallingly distant—perhaps unreachable—her spirit is tested in gripping and unexpected ways.

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THE GATES OF THE ALAMO

Alfred A. Knopf

February 29, 2000

The time is 1835. At the center of a canvas crowded with Mexicans and Americans, with Karankawa and Comanche Indians, with settlers of many nationalities, stand three people whose fortunes quickly become our urgent concern: Edmund McGowan, a naturalist of towering courage and intellect, whose life's work is threatened by the war against Mexico and whose character is tested by his own dangerous pride; Mary Mott, a widowed innkeeper on the Texas coast, a determined and resourceful woman; and her sixteen-year-old son, Terrell, whose first shattering experience with love leads him instead to war, and into the crucible of the Alamo.

As Edmund McGowan and Mary Mott take off in pursuit of Terrell and follow him into the fortress, the powerful but wary attraction between them deepens. And the reader is drawn with them into the harrowing days of the battle itself.

Never before has the fall of the Alamo been portrayed with such immediacy. And for the first time the story is told not just from the perspective of the American defenders but from that of the Mexican attackers as well. We follow Blas Montoya, a sergeant in an elite sharpshooter company, as he fights to keep his men alive not only in the inferno of battle but also during the long forced march north from Mexico proper to Texas. And through the eyes of the ambitious mapmaker Telesforo Villasenor, we witness the cold deliberations of General Santa Anna.

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A NATURAL STATE

University of Texas Press

1994

In his introduction to the eight essays in A Natural State, Stephen Harrigan writes with a becoming modesty: "I don' t know what nature is exactly-whether it is a category that includes human beings or shuts them out-but for me it has always contained that hint of eeriness, the sense that some vital information-common knowledge to all the universe-has been specifically withheld from me."

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WATER AND LIGHT

University of Texas Press

1999

'Moving, intelligent and, in the best sense, literary. . . . Stephen Harrigan is anchored in reality; he knows that the environment he's describing is in serious jeopardy. At the same time, he has made this book sparkle with his remarkable ability to discuss the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of underwater exploration without ever sounding saccharine or murky.'' --New York Times Book Review ''[Harrigan] tells us about the people who live on Grand Turk, or come there on business, and he is given to reflecting on the subtleties of the underwater experience, but his real virtue as a writer is his ability to convey, in precise, lucid, prose, the marvels of the sea bottom.'' --New Yorker ''Harrigan . . . captures the peacefulness of being rocked by salty currents, the massive beauty of the reefs, the exhilaration of the sport, and the mental scramble to retain fast-fading memories of sights almost unimaginable on land. Fellow divers will relish his camaraderie, while those who prefer staying topside will feel as though they've taken the plunge themselves.'' --Booklist

This evocative account of the months Stephen Harrigan spent diving on the coral reefs off Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean was originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1992.

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COMANCHE MIDNIGHT

University of Texas Press

1995

"In an age in which reading seems on the decline, it is refreshing to have a collection of literate, intelligent, sensitive, and factually sound essays to help situate ourselves in the past and present."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"Writing in a state known for its enormity, Harrigan is on the side of the small men who often die victims of a history that too quickly forgets. "—Publishers Weekly

"He is able to express an indefinable nostalgia for the magic of the past as well as the realities of the present, arriving at unforgettable depictions of place and character. "—Library Journal

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ARANSAS

Alfred A. Knopf

February 1980

"Stephen Harrigan's novel is a subtly told and deeply felt story about our attempts to capture those things we hope can make life meaningful--even while fate waits to flip-flop our plans, baiting and pushing us forward. And it is comical and touching to see that the real show in Aransas is not a porpoise circus, full of farce and silliness, but the characters' ceaseless efforts to move with half those creatures' grace and mystery."—Ann Beattie

"Mysterious, noble, astounding, and quite powerful. . . "—Kirkus Reviews

"In this remarkable first novel, Harrigan. . . has a sharp eye for observing man, beast, seashore, and town in a vividly drawn setting."—Publishers' Weekly

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JACOB'S WELL

Simon and Schuster

1984

"Against the backdrop of Austin, Tex., Harrigan, author of the critically praised first novel Aransas, portrays. . .three people, all of them motivated by a need to overcome loneliness and to retrieve their submerged passions. . . At times deeply moving and wise, this novel reveals Harrigan's increasing maturity as a novelist."—Publisher's Weekly

"Harrigan has written a book which rings true, one whose principal characters are easy to recognize and never grandstand in their quest for ultimate truths. Their struggles to find direction for their lives--to death itself, if that is where meaning can be found--are authentic and compelling."—The Houston Post

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