Description

Book Synopsis
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 opalescent deserts of the American Southwest.

Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • 1. Cabeza de Vaca: Flaming Entrails, Burning Trees
  • 2. William L. Manly: The Classic Account of Deserta Horribilis
  • 3. J. Ross Browne and Samuel W. Cozzens: Happy Travelers through Lost Lands
  • 4. Charles F. Lummis: The Showman with the Shining Right Hand
  • 5. Mary Austin: Beauty, Madness, Death, and God
  • 6. John C. Van Dyke and the Desert Aestheticians
  • 7. William T. Hornaday: The Happy Travelers--Part 2
  • 8. John Wesley Powell and William E. Smythe: God Smiles on the Irrigationists
  • 9. J. Smeaton Chase: Our Araby
  • 10. Joseph Wood Krutch: The Pronuba Moth and the Modern Dilemma
  • 11. Edward Abbey: Ned Ludd Arrives on the Desert
  • 12. Ann Zwinger and Charles Bowden: Pondering These Things in Her Heart; Tacitus Flips Out
  • 13. Peter Reyner Banham: Wheeled Voyeur from Overseas
  • Epilogue
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

The Opal Desert

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    A Paperback / softback by Peter Wild

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      Publisher: University of Texas Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 01/11/1999
      ISBN13: 9780292791299, 978-0292791299
      ISBN10: 0292791291

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      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 opalescent deserts of the American Southwest.

      Table of Contents
      • Acknowledgments
      • Introduction
      • 1. Cabeza de Vaca: Flaming Entrails, Burning Trees
      • 2. William L. Manly: The Classic Account of Deserta Horribilis
      • 3. J. Ross Browne and Samuel W. Cozzens: Happy Travelers through Lost Lands
      • 4. Charles F. Lummis: The Showman with the Shining Right Hand
      • 5. Mary Austin: Beauty, Madness, Death, and God
      • 6. John C. Van Dyke and the Desert Aestheticians
      • 7. William T. Hornaday: The Happy Travelers--Part 2
      • 8. John Wesley Powell and William E. Smythe: God Smiles on the Irrigationists
      • 9. J. Smeaton Chase: Our Araby
      • 10. Joseph Wood Krutch: The Pronuba Moth and the Modern Dilemma
      • 11. Edward Abbey: Ned Ludd Arrives on the Desert
      • 12. Ann Zwinger and Charles Bowden: Pondering These Things in Her Heart; Tacitus Flips Out
      • 13. Peter Reyner Banham: Wheeled Voyeur from Overseas
      • Epilogue
      • Notes
      • Bibliography
      • Index

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