Later Than Sooner, Dallas Historical Society Will Rediscover, Reissue Dallas Rediscovered

A few weeks ago, a good Friend of Unfair Park asked to borrow my copy of Dallas Rediscovered: A Photographic Chronicle of Urban Expansion 1870-1925. Needed it for a research project. Half-Price didn't have a copy; dunno 'bout the library. But, sure, I said. Go ahead; just don't lose it. Because copies of the invaluable tome filled with page after page of buildings long ago vanished for progress and parking lots aren't cheap. Amazon has a few hardbacks available, starting at $58.92; a few cheaper copies are available on eBay; Albris's handful of copies go for between $15 and $201.

Published by the Dallas Historical Society in 1978, it went out of print shortly thereafter -- around '80 or '81, says DHS executive director Jack Bunning. I'd called Bunning a few weeks ago to see if DHS ever had plans to reissue the book; he called back only this afternoon and explained that, sorry, he was delayed by the fact the society just this week is moving back into its renovated digs at the Hall of State after a year away and needs to reassess its exhibits accordingly. But, yes, he says, the DHS does indeed have plays to reissue the book -- as well as 1982's When Dallas Became a City: Letters of John Milton McCoy, 1870-1881.

"They are on what I call our big to-do list," Bunning tells Unfair Park. "But we need to review the copy in the book, and I can't give you any time frame. Both those books are on the big hit list of updating the copy and getting them reprinted. Both were very popular, as I understand it." He's thinking next year. Good enough.