Mary Austin and the American West / Edition 1

by Susan Goodman, Carl Dawson

Overview

Mary Austin (1868-1934)—eccentric, independent, and unstoppable—was twenty years old when her mother moved the family west. Austin's first look at her new home, glimpsed from California's Tejon Pass, reset the course of her life, “changed her horizons and marked the beginning of her understanding, not only about who she was, but where she needed to be.” At a time when Frederick Jackson Turner had announced the closing of the frontier, Mary Austin became the voice of the American West. In 1903, she published her first book, The Land of Little Rain, a wholly original look at the West's desert and its ethnically diverse peoples. Defined in a sense by the places she lived, Austin also defined the places themselves, whether Bishop, in the Sierra Nevada, Carmel, with its itinerant community of western writers, or Santa Fe, where she lived the last ten years of her life. By the time of her death in 1934, Austin had published over thirty books and counted as friends the leading literary and artistic lights of her day.

In this rich new biography, Susan Goodman and Carl Dawson explore Austin's life and achievement with unprecedented resonance, depth, and understanding. By focusing on one extraordinary woman's life, Mary Austin and the American West tells the larger story of the emerging importance of California and the Southwest to the American consciousness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520246355
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	01/07/2009
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	9.24(w) x 6.26(h) x 1.17(d)

About the Author

Susan Goodman is the H. Fletcher Brown Chair of Humanities Professor of English at the University of Delaware. Carl Dawson is Professor of English at the University of Delaware. Goodman and Dawson are the coauthors of William Dean Howells: A Writer's Life (UC Press).

Table of Contents

preface / i x
chronology of mary austin’s life and work / x i i i

1 / Desert Places: 1868–1892 / 1
2 / Owens Valley: 1892–1900 / 1 4
3 / Independence: 1900–1905 / 4 8
4 / Carmel: 1904–1907 / 6 9
5 / In Italy and England: 1907–1910 / 9 3
6 / New York: 1911–1914 / 1 1 9
7 / The Village: 1914–1920 / 1 4 5
8 / The Call of the West: 1920–1924 / 1 7 2
9 / Santa Fe: 1924–1929 / 1 9 8
10 / Indian Detours and Spanish Arts / 2 1 8
11 / Last Years: 1929–1934 / 2 3 9
12 / The Accounting / 2 6 4

notes / 2 7 3
index / 0 0 0

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This rich, engaging biography explores the complexity of Austin's life in all the detail it so richly deserves."—New Mexico Magazine

"A much needed reconsideration of the vagabond life and influential achievements of Mary Austin."—Booklist

"Goodman and Dawson's judicious biography makes a worthy contribution to our understanding of the literary West."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This well-researched book is recommended."—Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

A much needed reconsideration of the vagabond life and influential achievements of Mary Austin.

Booklist - Donna Seaman

This rich, engaging biography explores the complexity of Austin’s life in all the detail it so richly deserves.

New Mexico Magazine - Ashley M. Biggers

Goodman and Dawson's judicious biography makes a worthy contribution to our understanding of the literary West.

Los Angeles Times Book Review - Peter Richardson

Mary Austin was an American writer who spent her life primarily in California and later in New Mexico. Best known for her novel The Land of Little Rain, which at the time raised a new consciousness about the desert, Austin wrote over 30 books and published many poems. Goodman and Dawson, English professors at the University of Delaware and coauthors of William Dean Howells, here focus on Austin's adulthood, spent in the American Southwest, Europe, and New York City's Greenwich Village among friends including Jack London, Ansel Adams, Willa Cather, and Herbert Hoover. The authors detail how the Southwest greatly influenced Austin's writings; her interactions with people from a variety of backgrounds, including Native Americans, Mexicans, and Chinese immigrants, inspired her to depict these cultures in her works. She championed Native American rights at a time when few others did. Her life was marked with much sadness from a divorce and a special-needs child whom Austin outlived. This well-researched book is recommended for larger academic libraries and collections on Southwestern American history and culture.
—Erica Swenson Danowitz

Library Journal