Fort Worth
More than 80 years ago a novel sent shockwaves through Fort Worth for its portrayal of the city’s elites.
A then 25-year-old James Young Phillips, under his pseudonym “Philip Atlee,” wrote about the very people he rubbed shoulders with, including those at the River Crest Country Club. The novel followed two aimless young men as they drank and slept their way through a world of privilege as offspring of wealthy magnates.
The scathing social critique of the so-called “dollar aristocracy” was met with near immediate scandal in Cowtown.
Copies were bought in bulk, either destroyed or kept under lock and key. Public libraries weren’t safe either, as books were banned from shelves.
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The book is called “The Inheritors.” It published in 1940.
Now 86 years later, it’s finally back on shelves.
“It’s a book of its time, but it’s also a book for all times, especially in this country,” author and journalist E.R. Bills said. “It’s a book for right now.”
‘The Inheritors’ is back
TCU Press is behind the reissue of “The Inheritors,” which released on Sept. 15.
It’s been about a two-year process to put the book back out in the world, TCU Press director Dan Williams said. The school’s special collections had a copy and was able to digitally scan the book without damaging it, which is always a risk during that process.
Williams said the university was quite fortunate in this, since he’s seen copies online sell for up to $2,000.
“The book collectors are going to kill us, because we’re destroying that market,” he said.
The proverbial foot in the door between TCU Press and the Phillips family came a few years ago, when literary agent Jim Donovan contacted the department about an unpublished memoir on the author.
Given Phillips’ Fort Worth ties and his lengthy career, Williams said TCU Press was immediately interested and published “No Fixed Abode” last year. “The Inheritors” felt like a natural continuation, since it’s a major point in Fort Worth’s literary history that has not been widely available for decades, beyond when it was republished as a paperback in 1954 under the title “The Naked Year.”
Phillips was likened to some of the other major modernist writers from that period such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and John O’Hara. But he was most likened to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and one can draw a line from the decadence depicted in “The Great Gatsby” to “The Inheritors,” Williams said.
The books might not be a one-to-one, but Phillips wrote about the high life around him as his own family finances floundered in the shadow of the Great Depression. Perhaps that’s why the book was successfully stifled not only in Fort Worth but across the country, Williams said.
It’s been proposed, and likely accurate, that letters threatening litigation were sent to the publisher — The Dial Press — about promoting the book.
“I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but the book suddenly appeared, and then it equally suddenly disappeared,” Williams said.
“The Inheritors” originally published in 1940. Courtesy of TCU Press A family affair
Phillips’ sons, Liam and Shawn, believe that their father left Fort Worth because of the backlash to the book.
They both don’t recall their father talking much about how the book impacted his life, but they know that he was crushed by the response. He came from an era of tough guys like John Wayne and Robert Mitchum, who kept everything buttoned underneath, and in Phillips case, at the bottom of a bottle.
The brothers didn’t even have a copy of “The Inheritors” until after Phillips died in 1991.
“He didn’t want to be around it,” Liam said. “I didn’t even know about it until I was probably in my early teens.”
Both Liam and Shawn have read “The Inheritors” a few times now and still find it to be profound, especially since their father was just a few years into his 20s.
Phillips was able to absorb his surroundings and translate those sights and sounds into words that now 80 years later feel relevant as ever, Liam said. There’s a whole swath of youth today that put on a facade for social media and flaunt their wealth as so-called influence.
“The Inheritors” is a book about young people and the choices they make. That will never go out of style.
“When I read it this time, I was just knocked out,” Liam said. “I get where he was coming from, and maybe I had to grow old enough and have enough life experience to glom it.”
Phillips went on to have a lengthy writing career primarily in spy novels, but Liam and Shawn wonder what his lifework would have looked like if “The Inheritors” was able to find an audience.
As for what their father would think about the book’s reissue, the brothers believe he would be happy but quick to say, “It’s good, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” He was known to have a limiter on his joy, Liam said.
The brothers think it would be interesting if the relatives of the Fort Worth folks depicted in the book were able to look at the text with some objectivity. Maybe now they can see the book for what it is, as opposed to whatever scandal or firestorm it may have caused back in the day.
“That’s in the past,” Liam said. “Now we’re looking at it for a different reason.”
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Brayden Garcia is the entertainment reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he mainly writes about how the film and TV industry impacts North Texas, from Taylor Sheridan shows to the Fort Worth Film Commission and everything in between.