Description:
Part nature essay, personal essay, folk legend, and local history of the California Sierras, this enduring American classic chronicles Mary Austin's lyrical observations on the flora and fauna of the area and the people she befriended there.
Brief description: Mary Austin (1868-1934) was a prolific American novelist, playwright, essayist, and critic. Her best-known work, The Land of Little Rain, was an immediate success upon publication and launched Austin's thirty-year writing career. In addition to making a special study of life in the Mojave Desert, Austin was also an early advocate of women's rights, a protector of the environment, and a champion of Native American and Mexican American rights. In all, she produced more than thirty books and two hundred and fifty articles by the time of her death in 1934.
Review Quotes:
"Mary Austin is a 'future' person-one who will a century from now appear as a writer of major stature in the complex matrix of American culture." -Ansel Adams
"She made the land a permanent part of herself and, in this small, tender, old-fashioned, and engaging book, a part of the basic literature of American nature writing." -Edward Abbey