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The Land of Little Rain Mary Austin E Boyd Smith T M Pearce Books

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The Land of Little Rain Mary Austin E Boyd Smith T M Pearce Books

I recently read Karen Surina Mulford's Trailblazers: Twenty Amazing Western Women (Great American Women Series) which provided brief biographical sketches of the lives of twenty women of the American West. Regrettably, more than half I had never heard of before. And one was Mary Hunter Austin. Mulford's sketch contained profuse praise for Austin's classic historical, environmental and ethnological work, "The Land of Little Rain." The work is a result of Austin's insatiable curiosity and keen observations made during almost two decades of life in Independence, California, which is still a very small town of under a 1000 people. It is located in the Owens Valley, and lies between the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, and the very lowlands of Death Valley. As the title implies, it doesn't rain much there.

Austin's work was first published in 1903, and Penguin deserves kudos for keeping it in print. In part, it recalls the naturalist observations of Thoreau's Walden, but in a desert setting. She doesn't really say how she does it, or in what company, if any, but it was obvious that she did substantial hiking, long before the days of well-marked trails (or accurate weather forecasts). Thus we learn of the "streets of the mountains" written before the advent of the motor car. Her vocabulary is rich and dense, with the names of the plants and animals... and I did wonder how she learned them, prior to guide books. I still have difficulty knowing what a clematis is; it was simply different paths of knowledge in those pre-electronic days.

Of the 14 essays, several are devoted to the human inhabitants of this area. There were two impressive ones on the American Indians. It was tough to be a "medicine man" in the Paiutes tribe. If three patients died, the "medicine man" would be executed. The very real paperwork travails of modern day doctors pale into insignificance by comparison. In her essay entitled "The Basket Maker" Austin described how Seyavi, of the Paiutes, made baskets that were so tight that one could cook in them... by dropping in heated rocks. Another excellent essay, "The Pocket Hunter" was on one of the (white) miners/prospectors that provided the initial impetus for the settlement of California. The "pocket" being the "sweet spot" in an ore vein that contained the most concentrated amount of the mineral sought.

A few of her thoughts that resonated: she was into the "travel light" mode before it was popularized - "And here is a hint if you would attempt the stateliest approaches; travel light, and as much as possible live off the land. Mulligatwany soup and tinned lobster will not bring you the favor of the woodlanders." Observing the natural world: "What one has to get used to in flowers at high altitudes is he bleaching of the sun. Hardly do they hold their virgin color for a day, and this early fading before their function is performed gives them a pitiful appearance not according with their hardihood." In terms of settling the often contentious battles over water "rights," Austin reaches back to the classics: "Jesus Montana...walked into five of Judson's bullets and his eternal possession on the same occasion. That was the Homeric age of settlement and passed into tradition."

Today the small village of Independence is just a spot on US 385 through which so many residents of Los Angeles have to slow down a bit in, as they race up towards Mammoth Lakes, the Muir Wilderness and the "back door" to Yosemite, and such more "scenic" places. A read of Austin's classic work might convince the traveler that they had arrived at their destination before they reached the more "scenic" ones. 5-stars.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Land of Little Rain (9780826303585): Mary Austin, E. Boyd Smith, T. M. Pearce: Books,Mary Austin, E. Boyd Smith, T. M. Pearce,The Land of Little Rain,University of New Mexico Press,0826303587,General,California;Description and travel.,Natural history;California.,California,Description and travel,Essays,Fiction,Fiction General,General & Literary Fiction,Literary Criticism American General,Modern fiction,Natural history,Nature

The Land of Little Rain Mary Austin E Boyd Smith T M Pearce Books Reviews

Found a reference to this book in the book Pilgrims to the Wild....ordered this little gem published in 1903...14 short sketches,,,book is only 75 pages..the prose is wonderful, Austin writes like writers are suppose to write,,,the book is to be savored not crashed through...
If you love California history and natural history, particularly of dry places (of which Wright Morris wrote so beautifully, "where men [and women)begin to dream...") you will love this little gem.

I purchased it on a whim after hearing about Mary Austin, its author. The edition I read was dated 1971 and never mentioned that the book was actually written in 1903. Mary Austin, a magical writer and keen observer, was then apparently one of the denizens of a tiny, now vanished settlement called Kearsarge in the Owens Valley, and the book is a beautifully written portrait of that place on the edge of the desert on the eastern side of the California's southernish Sierras.

With great love, poetry, and intimate first-hand knowledge and lore she explores the terrain of the mountain foot and desert, the web of nature around her, the remnant survival of the Paiute Indians and their ways, the anglo-ish citizenry of the area (mostly lonesome or hermit silver prospectors), the Mexican-American community as well, and how life goes on in a place where life was and basically never will be easy until American "civilization" destroys it.
The language was a little too archaic for my taste and the author seems to have gone to great lengths to obscure the locations she writes about in her essays. Still there were at least some of her descriptions/scenes that rang true if one is interested in the western US at the beginning of the 20th century. It doesn't take long to read.
I read this because of its positive reviews and a personal interest in natural history. It can take a while to get into the book, written in an archaic and sometimes convoluted style. (The excellent preface prepares you for this.) Once you learn to ride the waves and rhythms of her writing, she introduces you to the depth of what we would now call "the ecosystem."
The author is a brilliant observer of nature, and the parade of essays in this book introduces you the varieties of flora and fauna found in the late 19th Century in the southern Central California and lower eastern Sierra Nevada regions. Also of interest is her experience of the native peoples of the area. A good read.
Neither of the boxes labeled "Predictable', "Some twists" and "Full of surprises" is applicable to this book. There is no plot, therefore no development. The book, written in the early 1900's, is a love poem of the deserts and mountains of the West--the "Land of Little Rain". It is a beautiful, poetic description of the land, flora, fauna, and people of the region in which Mrs. Austin lived and traveled. The places are fictitious,and probably the people, but this does not detract from the beauty of the descriptions, the love of the land she exudes, or the love and respect of the people she knew and met. A wonderful love-song to the land, animals, plants and people and to a time gone by. If you have ever visited such regions of the West, it will mean even more.

+
...you cannot go so far that life and death are not before you." Short, poignant book with descriptive phrases about a region I sorely want to visit one day, but absent the wonderful illustrations by E Boyd Smith that helped bring this book to life. Happy enough to own this portable copy on my kindle tho can also be read online free of charge with illustrations included by doing a title search preceded by the word "archive". Good book and I did enjoy.
I recently read Karen Surina Mulford's Trailblazers Twenty Amazing Western Women (Great American Women Series) which provided brief biographical sketches of the lives of twenty women of the American West. Regrettably, more than half I had never heard of before. And one was Mary Hunter Austin. Mulford's sketch contained profuse praise for Austin's classic historical, environmental and ethnological work, "The Land of Little Rain." The work is a result of Austin's insatiable curiosity and keen observations made during almost two decades of life in Independence, California, which is still a very small town of under a 1000 people. It is located in the Owens Valley, and lies between the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, and the very lowlands of Death Valley. As the title implies, it doesn't rain much there.

Austin's work was first published in 1903, and Penguin deserves kudos for keeping it in print. In part, it recalls the naturalist observations of Thoreau's Walden, but in a desert setting. She doesn't really say how she does it, or in what company, if any, but it was obvious that she did substantial hiking, long before the days of well-marked trails (or accurate weather forecasts). Thus we learn of the "streets of the mountains" written before the advent of the motor car. Her vocabulary is rich and dense, with the names of the plants and animals... and I did wonder how she learned them, prior to guide books. I still have difficulty knowing what a clematis is; it was simply different paths of knowledge in those pre-electronic days.

Of the 14 essays, several are devoted to the human inhabitants of this area. There were two impressive ones on the American Indians. It was tough to be a "medicine man" in the Paiutes tribe. If three patients died, the "medicine man" would be executed. The very real paperwork travails of modern day doctors pale into insignificance by comparison. In her essay entitled "The Basket Maker" Austin described how Seyavi, of the Paiutes, made baskets that were so tight that one could cook in them... by dropping in heated rocks. Another excellent essay, "The Pocket Hunter" was on one of the (white) miners/prospectors that provided the initial impetus for the settlement of California. The "pocket" being the "sweet spot" in an ore vein that contained the most concentrated amount of the mineral sought.

A few of her thoughts that resonated she was into the "travel light" mode before it was popularized - "And here is a hint if you would attempt the stateliest approaches; travel light, and as much as possible live off the land. Mulligatwany soup and tinned lobster will not bring you the favor of the woodlanders." Observing the natural world "What one has to get used to in flowers at high altitudes is he bleaching of the sun. Hardly do they hold their virgin color for a day, and this early fading before their function is performed gives them a pitiful appearance not according with their hardihood." In terms of settling the often contentious battles over water "rights," Austin reaches back to the classics "Jesus Montana...walked into five of Judson's bullets and his eternal possession on the same occasion. That was the Homeric age of settlement and passed into tradition."

Today the small village of Independence is just a spot on US 385 through which so many residents of Los Angeles have to slow down a bit in, as they race up towards Mammoth Lakes, the Muir Wilderness and the "back door" to Yosemite, and such more "scenic" places. A read of Austin's classic work might convince the traveler that they had arrived at their destination before they reached the more "scenic" ones. 5-stars.