An X-ray study of the texture produced by wire drawing of pure copper indicated that a double <100> + <111> texture is always found. At a deformation temperature of 293K, the predominance of the <111> texture is ascribed to the dominance of recovery over recrystallization processes, thereby maintaining the <111> deformation texture. At deformation temperatures of 373K and 473K, the <100> texture steadily increases and the <111> texture progressively decreases. This change is ascribed to the growing dominance of recrystallization into the cube orientation over recovery. Anisotropy of elastic moduli is used to explain the preference for the cube orientation to form during recrystallization. The perfection of formation of the two texture components was investigated as a function of both deformation and depth below the wire surface.