Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 064-Various

William Cowper Brann earned the nickname “The Iconoclast” by fearlessly attacking established beliefs and institutions which he thought to be pompous and self-serving. He settled in the wild and wooly West Texas town of Waco in the late 1800s as a newspaper man - first as a writer and then as owner of newspaper he named “The Iconoclast”. During this period, Catholics and Protestants were duking it out over the soul of Texas and there was even further sectarian strife among Protestants. Brann wrote prolifically and aired his Politically Incorrect views with vigor and colorful language. Described as a “slouch-hatted, gun-toting, beer-drinking, woman-worshiping man,” he assailed Baptists, Prohibition, blacks and universities as though engaged in a life-or-death gunfight; and actually he was killed in a gunfight at age 43. After he was shot in the back, drew his own gun and killed the man who had bushwacked him AND THEN walked directly to the jail before dying the next morning. He wrote entertaining, elevated prose; but occasionally colored his stories with barnyard terminology. Despite his blatant chauvinism, his voice was a reaction against many of the societal extremes of the day. ( William Jones )