Holy crap. I would venture to say that I have read more Texas literature, Texas history, Texas culture than anybody on this board. You absolutely MUST read Goodbye to a River. It is in the rarified pantheon of greatest Texas works of literature ever. Top five all time.
As for Don Graham, I have stories for miles. It was he who invited me, a lowly undergraduate, to hang out with the Mad Dogs at the chili parlor. That's where I met Shrake, Cartwright, Pete Gent, Eddie Wilson, William Goyen and others, and that is why when I hear Guy Clark's Dublin Blues I sigh wistfully. Mad Dog margaritas are the best.
Graham was fabulously encouraging to me, though I really had accomplished nothing. But, after I started Traces of Texas, he sent me several emails and direct messages that I still treasure. Being that it was 30 years later, and I was a grown middle aged man, I asked him why he had been so encouraging back then. He said, "Because I knew there was something in you beyond that which you thought was beyond you." I almost cried. Along with Roger Louis, he was the best professor I ever had at UT. When I heard that he died, I cursed myself for not going to see him when I had the chance. He really was something special.