Edwin "Bud" Shrake, the Fort Worth native and former Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Morning News sportswriter, died this morning in Austin at the age of 77. He wrote a lot of essential books, including the best-selling sports tome of all time, but longtime fans will fondly recall his Willie Nelson and Barry Switzer bios and Songwriter screenplay his Fort Worth Press writing, some of which is collected in this must-read. Here, he spoke with Texas Monthly bossman Evan Smith about his life and career, envied by most every Texas-born writer I've ever known or been.