The New Texas Reader. Designed for the Use of Schools in Texas by CUSHING, Edward Hopkins (1829-1879)

Houston: E.H. Cushing, 1864. 8vo., (7 x 4 2/8 inches). One engraved plate of the Star of Texas. Original patterned cloth backed printed paper boards (stained, front cover nearly detached); preserved in a modern brown morocco backed clamshell box. An important and rare Civil War era Texas reader, in the publisher's original binding. Cushing was the editor and publisher of the Houston Telegraph. During the Civil War, when relations were broken off with publishers of the North, and paper was in short supply, Cushing bought and hoarded scrap paper to keep his newspaper presses churning, and during that time also issued 6 juvenile readers for use in Texas schools at a financial loss, to fill the void made by the absence of McGuffey's Readers. One of Cushing's goals was to educate Texas students about Texas matters, and in that spirit the reader contains much Texas specific material, including geography, sociology, and many accounts of the war with Mexico, including the Fall of the Alamo and the battles at Galveston. In the foreword Cushing states, "The 'Texas Reader' is a home production. It is a Southern work, and is called for, not merely from feelings of state pride, but is also demanded by the wants of the country. . . Let us become independent in the means of education, as in everything else. The South has made heroes; let us also make books." Cushing's readers are rare in any condition, particularly given the precarious nature of its manufacture, and the intended audience of the book..