The Opal Desert

by Wild, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780292791299
• ISBN10: 0292791291
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"This is the book I would recommend to anybody interested in finding out about the literature of the American desert lands. . . . I enjoyed reading The Opal Desert as I would a good novel-I had a hard time putting it aside." -John P. O'Grady, author of Grave Goods and Pilgrims to the Wild The opalescent deserts of the American Southwest have become romantic icons in the public imagination through the words of writers, the images of artists and photographers, and the visual storytelling of filmmakers. In this spirited, personal, beautifully written book, Peter Wild explores the lives and works of sixteen writers whose words have shaped our visions of the opal desert. Wild begins with Cabeza de Vaca, whose Relacioacute;n of his desert wanderings sent treasure-hungry Spaniards searching for cities of gold. He goes on to discuss the works of both widely read and lesser-known nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors, including such luminaries as Mary Austin, Joseph Wood Krutch, Edward Abbey, Ann Zwinger, and Charles Bowden. He links all the writers as explorers of one kind or another, searching for tangible or intangible treasures, some finding and some losing their dreams in the opal desert. One of the foremost poets of the American West, Peter Wild has published over sixty volumes of history, literature, and poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize nominee Cochise. He is Professor of English at the University of Arizona. Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
Flaming Entrails, Burning Trees	5	(14)
Cabeza De Vaca
The Classic Account of Deserta Horribilis	19	(16)
William L. Manly
Happy Travelers through Lost Lands	35	(13)
J. Ross Browne
Samuel W. Cozzens
The Showman with the Shining Right Hand	48	(13)
Charles F. Lummis
Beauty, Madness, Death, and God	61	(14)
Mary Austin
The Desert Aestheticians	75	(13)
John C. Van Dyke
The Happy Travelers---Part 2	88	(14)
William T. Hornaday
God Smiles on the Irrigationists	102	(14)
John Wesley Powell
William E. Smythe
Our Araby	116	(15)
J. Smeaton Chase
The Pronuba Moth and the Modern Dilemma	131	(15)
Joseph Wood Krutch
Ned Ludd Arrives on the Desert	146	(17)
Edward Abbey
Pondering These Things in Her Heart; Tacitus Flips Out	163	(14)
Ann Zwinger
Charles Bowden
Wheeled Voyeur from Overseas	177	(14)
Peter Reyner Banham
Epilogue The Mountain, a Beetle, and the Thief in the Night	191	(4)
Notes	195	(8)
Bibliography	203	(10)
Index	213