Synopses & Reviews
A stunning tribute to the savage beauty of the area known as Death Valley. To most travelers it is a parched, empty territory, unwelcoming and forgiving. In a collection of essays that date back almost a century, naturalist and writer Mary Austin (1868-1934) breathes life into the desert landscape, describing its savage beauty, its plants and animals, and the occasional human visitor.*
Review
"In The Land of Little Rain, Mary Austin invested the land with magic, and yet looked at it with level eyes, relying upon history and science in her descriptions of her desert and celebrating its human nature with an eloquence which was also analytical." Carl Van Doren
Review
"The Land of Little Rain was a book well worth awaiting....a collection of essays about the Southwest, beautifully written." Bethany, Oklahoma Tribune-Review
Synopsis
Between the high Sierras south from Yosemite east and south over a very great assemblage of broken ranges beyond Death Valley, and on illimitably into the Mojave Desert is the territory that Mary Austin calls the Land of Little Rain. In this classic collection of meditations on the wonders of this region, Austin generously shares such news of the land, of its trails and what is astir in them, as one lover of it can give to another. Her vivid writings capture the landscape from burnt hills to sun-baked mesas as well as the rich variety of plant and animal life, and the few human beings who inhabit the land, including cattlemen, miners, and Paiute Indians.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators."
Table of Contents
Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams
THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN
The Land of Little Rain
Water Trails of the Ceriso
The Scavengers
The Pocket Hunter
Shoshone Land
Jimville - A Bret Harte Town
My Neighbor's Field
The Mesa Trail
The Basket Maker
The Streets of the Mountains
Water Borders
Other Water Borders
Nurslings of the Sky
The Little Town of the Grape Vines