Corner's History & Guide to San Antonio - Personalized Limited Edition

In 1890, a new history and guide to the Alamo City appeared on booksellers' shelves. It wasn't another dull and dry emigrant's guide full of weather charts and topographical descriptions. It told the story of the Canary Islanders, the Missions, the Plazas, and, of course, the siege and battle of the Alamo. 

It gathered together the narratives of old-time Bexar residents from Mrs. Maverick to Madame Candelaria, Dr. Cupples and Ferdinand Herff. It even included Sidney Lanier's melodic prose on San Antonio.

Lanier led off his 1872 sketch of Bexar with a statement with which most Texans will readily nod in smiling agreement: 

"If peculiarities were quills, San Antonio de Bexar would be a rare porcupine...it bristles with striking idiosyncrasies and bizarre contrasts." 

To sweeten the pot the book's editor added a calendar of days for San Antonio and Texas history. Plans of each of the Missions? Check. Rip Ford's writing on the fall of the Alamo? Yep. An exploration of Mission-era records with Bishop Neraz? Of course. 

Addressing what made San Antonio famous beyond Texas - the Alamo - the editor states it well:

"...San Antonio was a bone of contention, Texas was the meat and fat for the victors, and all good San Antonians believe, with some show of reason, that the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat."

The editor of this history, William Corner, a transplant himself, wanted to provide guidance to lost newcomers: where to eat, where to stay, where to congregate, how to get around on San Antonio's new transit lines in Gilded Age Bexar. His book informed visitors of the Chili Queens, advised them not to vandalize the ruins of the Missions, and encouraged them to embrace San Antonio's unique cultural hodgepodge.

Of the future of San Antonio and Western Texas, Corner in 1890 was optimistic. He found his optimism in history and the character of the folks who had a role in that history:

"...it will be a people of ideas, and yet not lose that resourceful Western character which disposes of obstacles by destroying them and dissolves difficulties in a solution of success."  

Corner offers us a somber taste of what it was like to be in Texas when the last folks who peopled the Republic were vanishing:

"Every year thins the ranks of that remnant which can claim that they were citizens of the Republic of Texas. Soon this will be a coveted family tradition."

He was correct. Thankfully, DRT and SRT have stewarded those traditions through the generations. Here's a rundown of the contents of William Corner's History and Guide:

• Railroads
• Mallory Line of Steamers
• Transfer
• Hacks and Carriages
• Hotels, Boarding and Lodging Houses, Flats
• Restaurants
• Street Car Lines and Street Railways
• What There Is to See and How To See It
• The Alamo Church as it is in 1890
• The Cathedral of San Fernando
• How to Get to the Missions
• Mission Concepcion
• Mission San Jose
• Mission San Juan
• Mission San Francisco de la Espada
• The Plazas
• Headquarters Department of Texas and Fort Sam Houston
• Military Drills
• Churches
• Educational
• International Fair Grounds
• Riverside Park, San Pedro Park
• Opera Houses, Public Halls, Newspapers
• Stock Yards
• Artesian Wells
• City Additions, Real Estate, Land Grants and Field Notes of Town Tract
• Public Buildings
• Banks
• San Antonio Club
• Young Men’s Christian Association
• Military or Militia Organizations
• The Pajalache or Concepcion Ditch
• The San Pedro Ditch
• The Alamo Madre Ditch
• The Upper Labor Ditch & the History of Its Construction
• The San Antonio River, The Water Works
• San Antonio as a Health Resort
• List of Mayors of the City of San Antonio
• Extracts from the Memoirs of Mrs. M. A. Maverick
• Interview with Mrs. Canterbury
• Talk with Right Reverend Bishop Neraz
• Interview with Dr. Cupples
• An Interview with Dr. Ferdinand Herff, Sr.
• An Interview with Mr. John Dobbin 
• Señora Candelaria
• Colonel Ford’s Memoirs 
• The Alamo Monument at Austin
• The County Records
• The Founding of the Town of San Fernando 

Corner's History & Guide is a beautiful homage to the "rare porcupine" and has been out of print since 1890. I'm pleased to bring it back into print for all modern Texans who appreciate the magic of San Antonio. 

(Inspiration for the book's dust jacket was drawn from Emily Edwards artful 1926 pictorial map of San Antonio, featured as the backdrop for my photo of the book. The Edwards map is for sale separately here.)

The Physical Details

• Hardcover in personalized dust jacket
• 232 pages 
• Limited Edition of 254 hand-numbered copies
  
• Pure Bexar Magic