Cow People, captions, introduction, mailing list, note, 1964

The first subseries, Books, contains drafts, galleys, research notes and clippings, photographs, correspondence, captions, typescripts and a record album of Dobie's books. Also included are files on posthumous books compiled by Dobie's wife Bertha.

The second subseries is entitled Research Material. The research files include correspondence, bibliographical notes, articles, clippings, pictures, and quotes on the Southwestern themes Dobie explored. Subjects covered are animals, Southwestern customs, Texas heroes, Southwestern characters, hunting, tall tales, cooking and treasure hunting. Files of old maps and guidebooks document research trips made to Mexico including the 1933 trip to Saltillo with Henry Nash Smith.

Fellow University of Texas English professor Stith Thompson invited Dobie to join the Texas Folklore Society in 1915. The third subseries contains documents relating to his involvement in the organization. Dobie claimed he had never heard of the word folklore before. "If Stith Thompson hadn't said folklore to me . . . I don't know where in the devil I'd be today. (Tinkle 37) Dobie succeeded Thompson in 1922 as secretary-editor of the society's publications. He revitalized the society after it had become moribund during World War I, and he pushed it in a direction independent of the American Folklore Society. Dobie resigned as editor in 1943, when he left Texas to teach a year in Cambridge, England, but he continued as a participant in the society and his influence remains strong to this date.

The fourth subseries is entitled Newspaper Columns. Dobie first worked for a newspaper, the San Antonio Express, the summer after graduation from Southwestern in 1910. In 1914, he reported for the Galveston Tribune to earn extra money during a summer break from teaching at the University of Texas. In September 1939, Dobie began a syndicated newspaper column which he continued writing until the year of his death. His columns touched on a wide range of areas from current events and postwar Europe to folk tales and Texas characters. This subseries contains drafts of these columns. It also contains his file on the Alamo memorial sculpture controversy, which includes articles, interviews and correspondence. In 1937, the sculptor Pompeo Coppini was commissioned to create a monument to the fighters at the Alamo. Dobie vehemently took issue with the choice and expressed his views publicly by radio and newspaper.

The next subseries, Magazine Articles, includes the typescript of Dobie's first nationally published article for The Country Gentleman. The subsequent magazine articles cover various topics of interest to Dobie--cowboy life, Mexico, herbs, animals, reading, literature, etc.

Dobie became a popular lecturer as his books and articles on Southwestern ways gained national attention. The sixth subseries, Lectures and Speeches, includes notes on his speaking itinerary and covers his lectures on folklore, the Southwest and his experience as a Texan in England.

The final subseries has been titled Radio and Television. Dobie began broadcasting from the radio in 1932 with five-minute talks on the program "Longhorn Luke and His Cowboys." His radio programs and later television appearances covered the same subjects as his books and articles but the audio/visual aspects of the technologies allowed him to enhance the tales with live narration. The files contain a letter from his original radio sponsor, fanletters, and scripts.