The Bookmark is an interview program featuring authors published by the Texas A&M University Press and the Texas Book Consortium, produced and hosted each week by Christine Brown. The authors featured have written books in a variety of subjects, including history, nature, travel, art, and music. For more information about any of the books featured on The Bookmark, visit https://tamupress.com.
Originally aired November, 2019
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Adolphe Gouhenant: French Revolutionary, Utopian Leader, and Texas Frontier Photographer
By Paula Selzer and Emmanuel Pecontal
University of North Texas Press
Adolphe Gouhenant tells the story of artist, revolutionary, and early North Texas resident Francois Ignace (Adolphe) Gouhenant (1804-1871). Gouhenant was selected to lead an advance guard from France to settle a utopian colony in North Texas. The community, beset by hardships, ultimately scapegoated Gouhenant and expelled him. He then journeyed first to Fort Worth to teach the federal soldiers French and art, and next to Dallas, where he founded the town’s first arts establishment in the 1850s. His Arts Saloon was the scene of many exhibitions and dances but ultimately became the high stake in a nasty battle among Dallas’s leading citizens, setting legal precedent for Texas homestead law.
Christine Brown is the Executive Producer of The Bookmark and Publicity and Advertising Manager at Texas A&M University Press.
PAULA SELZER is a third great-granddaughter of Adolphe Gouhenant. She has spent twenty-five years working on children’s health policy for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EMMANUEL PÉCONTAL, a French professional astronomer and an historian of astronomy, works at the Centre Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon.
