Few people who know him or read his Sunday column in the San Antonio
Express-News are neutral about Maury Maverick, Jr., not only one of the
twentieth century's most outspoken iconoclasts but an individualist who
helped shape American constitutional history. Many of Maverick's columns
continue his efforts to achieve civil rights guarantees for the
disadvantaged. They draw heavily on what he learned from his previous
professional careers as a politician, a teacher, and, more
significantly, a successful civil-rights lawyer. The legal issues which
deeply interest Maverick are free speech, due process of law, separation
of church and state, world peace, and preservation of human dignity. But
occasionally Maverick gets tired of politics, and then he writes about
pinto beans, poetry, music, birds, abandoned dogs, and gardening. He has
a special fondness for stray dogs, many of whom he adopts, and Purple
Martin shelters, which he urges people to build. Allan O. Kownslar has
selected Express-News columns to reveal Maverick's views on a variety of
topics, from heroes to the Red Scare, Maverick relatives to war. The
result is a look at important events in history and selected
individuals.
