By definition, a maverick is a "lone dissenter" who "takes an
independent stand apart from his or her associates" or "a person
pursuing rebellious, even potentially disruptive policies or ideas." The
word maverick has evolved in the English language from being the term
for an unbranded stray calf to a label given to a nontraditional person
to a more extreme "uncontrollable individualist, iconoclast, unstable
nonconformist." The word has grown into an adjective ("he made a
maverick decision") and become a verb (mavericking or mavericked).
Of all the words that originated in the Old West and survive to the
present day, author Lewis Fisher notes, maverick has been called the
least understood and most corrupted. But where did the word come from?
The word's definition is still such a mystery that Merriam-Webster
lists it in the top 10 percent of its most-looked-up words. All of the
origin stories agree it had something to do with Samuel A. Maverick and
his cattle, but from there things go amok rather quickly. Was Sam
Maverick a cattle thief? A legendary nonconformist who broke the code of
the West by refusing to brand his calves? A Texas rancher who believed
branding cattle was cruelty to animals? A runaway from South Carolina
who branded all the wild cattle he could find and ended up with more
cattle than anyone else in Texas?
Samuel A. Maverick was a notable landholder and public figure in his own
time, but his latter-day fame is based on the legend that he was a
cattle rancher. No amount of truth-telling about maverick seems to
have slowed the tall tales surrounding the word's origination.
Maverick: The American Name That Became a Legend is a whodunit, a
historical telling of the man who unwittingly inspired the term, the
family it's derived from, the cowboys who embraced it as an adjective
meaning rakish and independent, the curious inquirers intrigued by its
narrative, and the appropriators who have borrowed it for political
fame.
Texas historian (and secondhand Maverick by marriage) Lewis Fisher has
combed through Maverick family papers along with cultural memorabilia
and university collections to get at the heart of the truth behind the
far-flung Maverick legends. Maverick follows the history of the word
through the "Maverick gene" all the way to Hollywood and uncovers the
mysteries that shadow one of our country's iconic words. Taken as a
whole, the book is a fascinating portrayal of how we form, use, and
change our language in the course of everyday life, and of the Maverick
family's ongoing relationship to its own contributions, all seen through
the lens of a story featuring cowboys, Texas Longhorns, rustlers,
promoters, movie stars, athletes, novelists, lawyers, mayors,
congressmen, and senators--to say nothing of named maverick brands
ranging from Ford cars and air-to-ground missiles to computer operating
systems, Vermont maple syrup, and Australian wines.
Ironically, given its literal meaning as unbranded, maverick is a
brand name that helped shape the history of the American West and
represents the ideal of being true to oneself.
