John Graves

Glen Rose | Author

Mr. Graves was an accomplished author based near Glen Rose who wrote fiction and nonfiction works that touched on Texas conservation themes. For instance, his book Goodbye to a River tracked a canoe trip he took down the Brazos River in the days shortly before it was dammed at Possum Kingdom, with observations about the history and nature of the river and its valley that showed its irreplaceable value. In The Water Hustlers, coauthored with Robert Boyles and T.H. Watkins, Mr. Graves discussed the economic and ecological folly, as well as the political machinations of those who seek to dam rivers. His book, Hard Scrabble, turned from Texas waters to a look at the richness and limits of life in the northern end of the Texas Hill Country, where years of cotton farming and livestock grazing damaged the soil and groundcover and posed hard questions about our future and the future of our relationship with nature.