At 40, The Wittliff Collections Remains a True Texas Treasure

Despite this international reputation, however, many Texans remain unaware of the creative riches safeguarded in this San Marcos institution. “I think everyone should know about The Wittliff, yet I’m always surprised not everybody does,” says Carrie Fountain, The Wittliff’s literary curator and the 2019 State Poet Laureate. “We don’t want to be the best kept secret in Texas.”

Now, thanks to a monumental exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of The Wittliff, a new generation of Texans and travelers can come to know this revered site.

The Spirit of The Wittliff in 40 Objects—on view through 2026—reveals 40 of the archive’s most unique and captivating objects that embody the collections’ storied soul, which originated from its founder and namesake, Bill Wittliff. 

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Forty years ago, the late writer, photographer, and celebrated screenwriter of Lonesome Dove founded the Southwestern Writers Collection with his wife, Sally, after acquiring the literary estate of writer and folklorist J. Frank Dobie, including boxes of his personal papers, diaries, correspondence, and memorabilia, like his desk.

Since donating their Southwestern literary manuscripts to the university in 1986, the archives have expanded to include the Southwestern and Mexican Photography Collection and the Texas Music Collection. Today, it comprises more than 500 collections, with writers like Sandra Cisneros, Larry McMurtry, Taylor Sheridan, Elizabeth Crook, and Stephen Harrigan, and musicians Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson among the many to have their works contained here. 

Visitors to the show, which is free and located adjacent to the Lonesome Dove Gallery, have an opportunity to see wide-ranging memorabilia, from the guitar pick Stevie Ray Vaughan used to play his last concert to the writing desk from Cormac McCarthy’s rural Tennessee home. 

At the exhibition’s entrance, one of Nelson’s trademark bandanas is displayed in a shadowbox and flanked by a 2004 photograph of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. The photo by Wyatt McSpadden depicts the Houston-born singer honoring the outlaw country stalwart by donning her own bandana and braids. For Fountain, framing the entry with these specific mementos was a strategic tribute to The Wittliff’s breadth and depth as a champion of the American Southwest. Like Nelson, “Beyoncé is a Southwestern artist,” Fountain says. “The Southwest is rich, diverse, and changing all the time, and these 40 objects represent the eclectic, dynamic, and ever-growing spirit of the place itself.”

Among the curator’s favorite selections is the third draft of a scene from William Broyles Jr.’s screenplay of the Oscar-nominated film Cast Away. The movie, which stars Tom Hanks as a man stranded on a desert island following a plane crash, posed numerous writing challenges, among them the lack of dialogue. 

“Throughout the archives, there are thousands of examples showing that writing is a process and a practice,” Fountain says. “Sometimes people think of it as dictation from the muse, but it’s never like that. Every writer has to find their voice, and we have the receipts to show it.”

Four decades on, The Wittliff continues to invite generations young and old to learn and be enlightened by the region’s most vibrant voices. On your next visit, as you marvel at the collections and witness the profound artistic legacy that’s safeguarded here, you, too, might feel the magic, and maybe even be inspired on your next creative quest.