Sam Rayburn: A Bio-Bibliography

One of the nation’s most effective congressional leaders, Sam Rayburn served as Speaker of the House longer than anyone in U.S. history. Although he has been the subject of several biographies and numerous articles, until now no comprehensive analysis of Rayburn has integrated these disparate materials in a single resource. Sam Rayburn: A Bio-Bibliography accomplishes that objective. Designed for scholars interested in the life and historical period of Sam Rayburn, the volume includes a detailed biographical sketch and an extensive annotated bibliography describing the Rayburn resource materials.

The bibliographic entries are divided into three parts: works about Rayburn, Rayburn as author, and archival sources. Because Rayburn wrote little, the inclusion of some 80 oral histories by friends and associates of Rayburn is an especially valuable feature for the researcher. Those papers by Rayburn that do exist are included and fully annotated here. The section covering works about Rayburn includes media coverage of the Congressman, interviews with Rayburn’s colleagues, and memoirs as well as books and articles about Rayburn. A chronology is included for quick reference to major events in Rayburn’s life and a complete index facilitates easy access to the main entries.

ANTHONY CHAMPAGNE is Professor in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. He has published several articles on Sam Rayburn, done over eighty oral histories on Sam Rayburn for the Sam Rayburn Library, and is the author of Congressman Sam Rayburn (1984).