Goodbye to a River

"Goodbye to a River" is a book by John Graves, published in 1960. It is a "semi-historical" account of a canoe trip made by the author during the Fall of 1957 down a stretch of the Brazos River in North Central Texas, between Possum Kingdom Dam and Lake Whitney. The book contains both the author's account of the trip itself and numerous stories about the history and settlement of the area around the river and of North Central Texas. The title refers to Graves's childhood association with the river and the country surrounding it, and his fear of the "drowning" effect that a proposed series of flood-control dams (most notably, Lake Granbury) would have on the river.

Only three of the dams were ever built on the river, though, at one time, up to thirteen were proposed at various locations along its course to the Gulf of Mexico. The success of "Goodbye to a River" is often cited as a major reason that the proposed dams were never built.

The book is acclaimed as a work of both conservationism and history and is often compared to "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau.Fact|date=September 2007

For the 2007-2008 academic year, Texas State University-San Marcos selected "Goodbye to a River" as the core text for its University Seminar, a course required of all first-year students.Fact|date=September 2007