The Tall Tales and Truths of Texas : UNKNOWN TEXAS <i> edited by Jonathan Eisen and Harold Straughn (Macmillan: $22.95, cloth; Collier Books: $12.95, paper; 416 pp.) </i>

‘Unknown Texas” presents an extensive if not intensive view of that interesting state beginning with the writing of the castaway Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in the 16th Century, through the founding of the Republic of Texas in 1836, and into the 20th Century.

Given the wide scope of the history and the mythology of Texas, the editors’ choice of fiction and nonfiction is a wise one. In this regard, however, the casual reader may have trouble distinguishing between the two.

As is generally known, no state has enjoyed the ambiguity of its own history more than Texas has, and none has been the subject of so much self-serving prose as well as ridicule and scrutiny. The biographical sketches that begin each selection are not always helpful, and this is a shortcoming. Another is the absence of any mention of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.

To present the 44 entries, the editors have selected Texans and such non-Texans as the late U.S. Supreme Justice William O. Douglas; Frederick Law Olmstead, one of America’s foremost landscape architects of the 19th Century; legendary folksinger-composer Woody Guthrie; contemporary historian Robert Caro, and novelist James Michener. Among the Texas expatriates are Larry L. King of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” fame, Dan Rather of CBS News, and William Humphrey, whose novel “Home From the Hill” was made into a movie some years ago.

The majority of contributors, though, are Texans, living and dead.

Among the dead: Texas’ most famous writer, Katherine Anne Porter; and among those writing today: Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize winner for “Lonesome Dove.”

Some of the other Texas writers may not be well-known outside of the state, but their number and the general high quality of the writing attests to the importance and high interest Texans pay to their state.

As varied as the writing is, many of the pieces are engaging and make for fine and enjoyable reading. For instance, Cabeza de Vaca’s work on his adventures in Texas presents a taut, lean prose of high literary quality. Justice Douglas’ arguments for the preservation of the Texas Big Thicket is forceful and convincing.

And, aside from Porter’s contribution, two earlier women writers, Mary Austin Holley and Sallie Reynolds Matthews, present a clear-eyed vision of the rough-and-ready nature of the state and the hardiness of the women who lived through Indian raids, droughts, and sand, wind and heat. By far, the most serious writing in this work comes from the women writers.

The inclusion of Stephen Crane’s celebrated “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” is no surprise. Much more surprising is a narrative by Sam Houston’s former slave. There is also some political writing, such as Robert Caro’s “The Sad Irons,” which forms part of his three-volume work on Lyndon Johnson, and a selection from “The Gay Place” by Billy Brammer, which is a fiction piece based on a tough Texas politician who greatly resembles L.B.J.

A piece of whimsy, William C. Gruben’s “The Last History Ever of Fatigue in Texas” is as good and as funny as any of its type. Unfortunately, there are also some weak pieces included, one suspects, only because of the recognizability of the contributor, notably Dan Rather. And there are false notes here and there as in Lila Scobey’s “Just as I Am: Willie Nelson, Country Outlaw,” which reads more like flack than nonfiction.

Still, there is more to recommend than to censure, and it is always gratifying to have Texans speak of their state, its frailties and weaknesses, as only people who love a place can do. There is some tomfoolery too, in a glossary called “Speaking Texan.” One can skip that and read what down-to-earth Texans such as John Graves and A. C. Greene say about their state. In this vein, Hughes Rudd’s “The Fishers: 1932,” a harrowing short story set in the midst of the Great Depression in a repressive, small Texas town.

One inescapable fact about the state, Hollywood movies notwithstanding, is that Texas is and remains a Southern state in many ways: It was a member of the slaveholding Confederacy; it was a one-party state up to a few years ago, and its Klan membership was among the highest of any state. These writers, Texans and non-Texans alike, do not gloss over the racism, nor do they attempt to ignore it or pretend it has never existed. And, as in most good writing, they show its efforts instead of talking it away.