Gary M. Lavergne, Author and Educator -- 1997 Texas Book Festival

Gary M. Lavergne, Featured Author

THE 1997 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL

Governor George W. Bush

Texas Governor George W. Bush welcomes Gary Lavergne and a host of other featured authors to an early morning coffee in the Governor's Mansion on Saturday, November 1, 1997.

The First Lady of Texas and the Honorary Chairman of the Texas Book Festival, Laura Bush, hosted the featured authors and took part in many of the festival's activities. Mrs. Bush is a former librarian and was instrumental in the founding of the Texas Book Festival.

Jim Lehrer, award-winning journalist and host of the PBS newscast Newshour with Jim Lehrer, was one of many featured authors attending an early morning coffee at the Governor's Mansion. He is the author of White Widow.

"The Kinkster," Kinky Friedman, the author of Roadkill, and The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover, traded jokes with Gary, who shared a Cajun quote not fit for this site. Kinky is also well know for a song he wrote and performs entitled "The Ballad of Charles Whitman." A master story teller himself, Kinky has said that "Gary Lavergne is the best true-crime storyteller I've read since Truman Capote."

Larry L. King is the author of True Facts, Tall Tales, and Pure Fiction. He is one of the most prolific of Texas writers and is the author of the hugely successfull play The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He has also written The Kingfish and The Night Hank Williams Died. Larry has written of A Sniper in the Tower that it was "... the first thing I have read to make sense of an insane incident."

Gary Lavergne, author of A Sniper in the Tower, appeared in a session entitled "True Crime" in an auditorium in the Capitol Extension. Moderating the panel discussion was journalist Jack Keever (center). Also appearing was William H. Honan, the author of Treasure Hunt: A New York Times Reporter Tracks the Quedlinburg Hoard.