Bob Kleberg And The King Ranch

This absorbing biography, written by Kleberg's top assistant of many years, captures both the life of the man and the spirit of the kingdom he ruled, offering a rare, insider's view of life on a fabled Texas ranch.

“Combines a biography of Kleberg . . . with the story of the postwar boom years that changed the King Ranch . . . into an international corporate agribusiness.” —Houston Chronicle Ranching on the vast scale that Texas is famous for actually happened at King Ranch, a sea of grass that ultimately spread its pastures to countries around the globe under the fifty-year leadership of Bob Kleberg. This absorbing biography, written by Kleberg's top assistant of many years, captures both the life of the man and the spirit of the kingdom he ruled, offering a rare, insider's view of life on a fabled Texas ranch. John Cypher spent forty years (1948–1988) on King Ranch. In these pages, he melds highlights of Kleberg’s life with memories of his own experiences as the “right hand” who implemented many of Kleberg's grand designs. In a lively story laced with fascinating anecdotes, Cypher both recounts his worldwide travels with Kleberg as the ranch expanded its holdings around the world, and describes timeless, traditional tasks such as roundup at the home ranch in Kingsville. Chronicling Kleberg’s accomplishments as well as his legendary lifestyle, which included friendships not merely with the rich and famous but also with Queen Elizabeth, who shared his love of horse racing, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in ranching and one of its most famous practitioners. “Cypher[‘s] easy conversational style makes life on a working ranch, the care and feeding of visiting celebrities and the field of international agribusiness both understandable and entertaining.” —San Antonio Express-News “Probably the best of what will ever be known of the inner Bob Kleberg.” —East Texas Historical Journal

King Ranch. The name is embroidered in the tapestry of Texas, rising from the sunbaked coastal plains in the infancy of the state itself. King Ranch is the inspiration of legends and speculation, tradition and history. Rawhide-tough through drought, Indian attacks, Civil War, and the Great Depression, among other trials, King Ranch is the star of Texas. Now the memoirs of Helen King Kleberg Alexander-Groves, the only child of Bob and Helen Kleberg, give a personal glimpse of life on the storied ranch of the Kings and the Klebergs. This intimate and compelling book chronicles not only the history of the ranch but also the life of Bob and Helen Kleberg, the first family of cattle ranching. From the Santa Gertrudis, the first cattle breed developed in America and the first breed recognized worldwide in over a century, to the Triple Crown–winning Thoroughbred Assault, Bob and Helen Kleberg changed the ranching industry. The memoirs of “Helenita” open the door to the romance of Southwest cattle ranching, as well as the grit, glory, and inner workings of King Ranch in Texas and its ranches around the world. With over 200 photographs, some by Toni Frissell and many by her close friend and fellow photographer Helen Kleberg herself, this lavishly illustrated portrait includes accounts of the Klebergs’ famous hospitality, extended not only to the celebrities who were entertained regularly but also to the Kineños, the loyal ranch hands first brought to King Ranch by Captain King. Hemingwayesque photos depict hunting adventures in the Texas brush country—for which the ranch is still famous. Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch is a view from the center of the King Ranch legacy, perpetuated now for some 150 years. Bob and Helen Kleberg of King Ranch is a requisite addition to the library of any ranching, history, or Texana aficionado.

Waiting for Daylight consists of photographs taken while working cattle from horseback on the King Ranches in South Texas, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. The photographs capture an era when people lived out their lives on lands that were often inhospitable with great herds of red cattle and fine cow horses. These beautiful, historic images communicate a feeling of constant renewal combined with the sense of suspended time.

In the summer of 1881, Robert Justus Kleberg rode across the hot, dusty South Texas brush country to the palatial home of Capt. Richard King to consult with the cattle baron about attending to his legal affairs. On that same journey, the young lawyer also first laid eyes on Alice King, “Princess of the Wild Horse Desert.” Neither of their lives would ever be the same. Published for the first time in this book, the love letters written by Kleberg to Alice Gertrudis King provide a glimpse of the lives of two of the most influential people in Texas history. Editors Jane Clements Monday and Frances Brannen Vick have also provided generous documentation and annotation of these important primary documents from the Special Collections at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, affording historians and interested readers an insider’s view of one of the world’s greatest ranching empires as it transitioned from its founders to the next generation. Letters to Alice: Birth of the Kleberg-King-Ranch Dynasty represents the only existing collection of letters between any of the great Texas cattle barons and their wives. Although a great deal is already known about the ranch and its development, Monday and Vick present for the first time Robert Justus Kleberg’s personal perspective on his first meeting with Alice King, their early courtship, the difficulties obtaining her parents’ permission to marry, and the poignant time surrounding Captain King’s death.

In this tribute to a pioneer conservationist, Duane M. Leach celebrates the life of an exceptional ranch manager on a legendary Texas ranch, a visionary for wildlife and modern ranch management, and an extraordinarily dedicated and generous man. Caesar Kleberg went to work on the King Ranch in 1900. For almost thirty years he oversaw the operations of the sprawling Norias division, a vast acreage in South Texas where he came to appreciate the importance of rangeland not only for cattle but also for wildlife. Creating a wildlife management and conservation initiative far ahead of its time, Kleberg established strict hunting rules and a program of enlightened habitat restoration. Because of his efforts and foresight, by his death in 1946 there were more white-tailed deer, wild turkey, bobwhite quail, javelinas, and mourning dove on the King Ranch than in the rest of the state. Kleberg’s legacy lives on at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville, where a research program he helped found has gained recognition far beyond the pastures of Norias.

Praise for KINGS OF TEXAS "Kings of Texas is a fresh and very welcome history of the great King Ranch. It's concise but thorough, crisply written, meticulous, and very readable. It should find a wide audience." -Larry McMurtry, author of Sin Killer and the Pulitzer Prize--winning Lonesome Dove "This book is about the King Ranch, but it is about much more than that. A compelling chronicle of war, peace, love, betrayal, birth, and death in the region where the Texas-Mexico border blurs in the haze of the Wild Horse Desert, it is also an intriguing detective story with links to the present-and a first-rate read." -H.W. Brands, author of The Age of Gold and the bestselling Pulitzer Prize finalist The First American