It\u2019s been about a two-year process to put the book back out in the world, TCU Press director Dan Williams said. The school\u2019s special collections had a copy and was able to digitally scan the book without damaging it, which is always a risk during that process.<\/p>\n
Williams said the university was quite fortunate in this, since he\u2019s seen copies online sell for up to $2,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe book collectors are going to kill us, because we\u2019re destroying that market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The proverbial foot in the door between TCU Press and the Phillips family came a few years ago, when literary agent Jim Donovan<\/a> contacted the department about an unpublished memoir on the author.<\/p>\n Given Phillips\u2019 Fort Worth ties and his lengthy career, Williams said TCU Press was immediately interested and published \u201cNo Fixed Abode\u201d<\/a> last year. \u201cThe Inheritors\u201d felt like a natural continuation, since it\u2019s a major point in Fort Worth\u2019s literary history that has not been widely available for decades, beyond when it was republished as a paperback in 1954 under the title \u201cThe Naked Year.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips was likened to some of the other major modernist writers from that period such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and John O\u2019Hara. But he was most likened to F. Scott Fitzgerald, and one can draw a line from the decadence depicted in \u201cThe Great Gatsby\u201d to \u201cThe Inheritors,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s why the book was successfully stifled not only in Fort Worth but across the country, Williams said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been proposed, and likely accurate, that letters threatening litigation were sent to the publisher \u2014 The Dial Press \u2014 about promoting the book.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if that has anything to do with it, but the book suddenly appeared, and then it equally suddenly disappeared,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n Phillips\u2019 sons, Liam and Shawn, believe that their father left Fort Worth because of the backlash to the book.<\/p>\n They both don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n The brothers didn\u2019t even have a copy of \u201cThe Inheritors\u201d until after Phillips died in 1991.<\/p>\n “He didn\u2019t want to be around it,\u201d Liam said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know about it until I was probably in my early teens.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Liam and Shawn have read \u201cThe Inheritors\u201d a few times now and still find it to be profound, especially since their father was just a few years into his 20s.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s a whole swath of youth today that put on a facade for social media and flaunt their wealth as so-called influence.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Inheritors\u201d is a book about young people and the choices they make. That will never go out of style.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I read it this time, I was just knocked out,\u201d Liam said. \u201cI get where he was coming from, and maybe I had to grow old enough and have enough life experience to glom it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cThe Inheritors\u201d was able to find an audience.<\/p>\n As for what their father would think about the book\u2019s reissue, the brothers believe he would be happy but quick to say, \u201cIt\u2019s good, but let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves.\u201d He was known to have a limiter on his joy, Liam said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s in the past,\u201d Liam said. \u201cNow we\u2019re looking at it for a different reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n![\"\u201cThe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/9780875659695_FC.jpg\" "\\"9780875659695_FC.jpg\\"")
\u201cThe Inheritors\u201d originally published in 1940. Courtesy of TCU Press A family affair<\/p>\n
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