Sword of San Jacinto: A Life of Sam Houston

Timed to appear on the 200th birthday of Sam Houston (1793-1863), this finely researched biography adopts a more descriptive approach to the ``father of Texas'' than does John Hoyt Williams's Sam Houston (Nonfiction Forecasts, Nov. 30). Where Williams vigorously finds controversies and contradictions in Houston's personal and political conduct, De Bruhl tends to deflate or minimize them, from the frequently sensationalized failure of his brief first marriage (the author speculates simply that Houston's bride was repulsed by his war wounds) to his command of the pivotal battle of San Jacinto. De Bruhl, an editor of the Dictionary of American Biography , evokes his subject's personality, both his pitifulness in his mid-career self-exile and his flashes of humor--when a friend pressed him to reveal the reason for his failed marriage, Houston asked if he could keep a secret; the friend answered, ``Of course I can'' and Houston replied, ``So can I.'' Well-chosen details set the atmosphere surrounding Houston's ascent as the first president of Texas, eventually its senator and, in a futile bid to preserve the Union, its governor. Illustrations not seen by PW. Author tour. (Mar.)