Legendary Ladies of Texas is a series of vignettes edited by Francis Edward Abernethy. Abernethy has extensive experience in folklore: He is a member of the American Folklore Society, Texas Folklore Society, East Texas Historical Association, and many others. His other publications include Tales From the Big Thicket, Observations and Reflections on Texas Folklore, and The Folklore of Texas Cultures, just to name a few. Despite being a self-professed male chauvinist, Abernethy believes it was "necessary that the Texas Folklore Society produce this book" because women have been an "active, energetic, and influential part of Texas history since the first one crossed its borders," and it is time their stories are told (Abernethy x and xii).

This collection of vignettes detailing the lives of women from colonial Texas to modern society has one connecting quality: These women have become legends to succeeding generations. These extraordinary women come from various time periods, various racial and ethnic backgrounds, various social and economic classes, and even various sides of the law. Abernethy relates the lives of Native American, African American, Mexican American, and European American women. The Legendary Ladies of Texas are composed of nuns, prostitutes, politicians, thieves, bank robbers, murderers, actresses, singers, sculptresses, socialites, athletes, adulteresses, bigamists, circus performers, slaves, and spies. These women have become legends because they refused to accept the limitations imposed upon them by contemporary society. Instead, they followed their own hearts and minds to live the life they chose.

Most of these women defied the social convention of male dominance over women. Elisabet Ney resisted marriage to the man she loved. Although she finally capitulated, she did so only under the condition she retain her name, and that the marriage be kept secret always. Martha McWhirter shocked polite society by asserting ownership of her body when she refused to share a bed with her husband any longer due to her religious convictions. Mollie Bailey, at age fourteen, defied her father by eloping with the man she loved. Belle Starr forced her lover, Jim July, to change his name to hers, and he became Jim Starr.

These women have become legends to succeeding generations because their unconventional lifestyles have produced many stories and rumors about them. These rumors create an aura of mystery and intrigue surrounding them. In the case of Adah Isaacs Menken, she deliberately courted intrigue by telling many different stories of her origins, family, upbringing, and other episodes of her life. Because of this, we cannot have a black and white picture of these women. For example, it is hard to reconcile the bank robber Bonnie Parker who shot down police officers to the waitress Bonnie Parker who "sometimes forgot to ask for payment for food she