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<\/p>\nThe Inheritors took a scathing look at Fort Worth’s elite in the 1940s. More than 80 years later, the author’s children say the novel takes on a new resonance. <\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 A part of North Texas history, long suppressed by power and time, is back in print.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Inheritors, a novel written in 1940 by James Young Phillips, chronicled the excesses and bad behavior of Fort Worth’s elite families, who responded to the book’s publication with outrage and suppression. Despite being praised by national reviewers, who compared the author to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, the book was pulled from local shelves and became a victim of the passage of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This month, TCU Press will restore the book to print with a new introduction from Texas historian E.R. Bills. Phillip’s family, who published the book under the pen name Philip Atlee, says the book is just as relevant today as it was in the 1940s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The novel coins the term “virus of the dollar aristocracy,” which diagnoses the children of the extremely wealthy with an obsession with money that leads to moral decay.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The book is a mirror held up to society,” Shawn Phillips, the eldest son of the author, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James Phillips was just 25 years old when the book was published, according to information provided by the TCU Press. The novel’s examination of Fort Worth’s wealthiest families, all members of the River Crest Country Club, came from the perspective of a man born into the same privilege.\u00a0<\/p>\n
James Phillip’s father was a prominent lawyer for the wealthy oil families who were members of the club, before a series of misfortunes would send his family into economic ruin. After James Phillip’s father died from pneumonia, the 1929 stock market crash wiped out the family’s savings; this experience no doubt shaped James Phillip and set him on a path to questioning the ethics of the city’s wealthiest families and their children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the debut novel was published, it was received well from national reviewers but panned locally. Sermons were preached against it, and copies were made impossible to find, according to TCU Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even though James Phillip’s family never knew about the publication of his debut novel, or the reception it received, they say his brutally honest portrayal of the culture he was born into isn’t surprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There was a Philip’s family motto, which is “the truth, if it kills,” and that’s what he was living by,” Liam Phillips, the author’s youngest son, said. ” I didn’t understand that he was castigated and basically blackballed into his own hometown. And he lived there for several years afterwards, and he, you know, endured it. But I think ultimately when he left for good, it’s because it was uncomfortable.”<\/p>\n
James Phillips went on to become a flight dispatcher, Marine, Broadway publicist, and Hollywood screenwriter, according to TCU Press. He also wrote a long-running series of spy and espionage novels under the same pen name, Phillip Atlee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reissue of The Inheritors in 2026 marks it as one of the longest gaps between publication and reissue of all suppressed American novels, according to TCU Press. It’s been brought back into public consciousness by historians such as E.R. Bills, who wrote the introduction to the reissued book. It couldn’t have come at a better time, his sons said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When you read that in the current context, in the contemporary environment, you see that the problem is it was there, and it’s still here,” Liam Phillip said. “I think it’s cause for reflection on society and self-reflection. It’s like, you know, look at what your own values are, and as Sean said, it’s a mirror on society.”<\/p>\n
The book is available for purchase through TCU Press and at book retailers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Inheritors took a scathing look at Fort Worth’s elite in the 1940s. More than 80 years later,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-450851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}