In the Shadow of Los Alamos: Selected Writings of Edith Warner

by Edith Warner, Patrick Burns (Editor)

Edith Warner (1893-1951), who lived by the Rio Grande at the Otowi Switch in northern New Mexico, has become a legendary figure owing largely to her portrayal in two books: "The Woman at Otowi Crossing," by Frank Waters, and "The House at Otowi Bridge," by Peggy Pond Church. Because she is famous for her tearoom, where she entertained scientists from the Manhattan Project, few people realize that Edith Warner was a serious writer. Here for the first time she is allowed to speak for herself.

The book's title is taken from an autobiographical fragment published here for the first time. Also included are letters, essays published and unpublished, and journal entries (salvaged by various friends from the original, which was burned after Warner's death at her request). The editor provides a useful introduction outlining Edith Warner's life and sets it in local and historical context, along with a wonderful collection of period photographs and a facsimile of Edith's famous chocolate cake recipe.

Thousands of readers have been fascinated by this modest woman whose friendships with Pueblo Indians and atomic scientists seem to epitomize the paradoxes of life in New Mexico. To read this book is to hear her own quiet voice, describing pueblo ceremonials, detailing the difficulties of life during the war years, and above all recording her own spiritual relationship with the New Mexico landscape. For Edith Warner her work in the world--building a house, running a restaurant, writing it all down--was a kind of meditation. People still come to New Mexico for the reasons that drew her here eighty years ago, and her response to New Mexico can now take its rightful place in the state's cultural heritage.

Genres: Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published September 7, 2001

Reviews

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautiful book, In the Shadow of Los Alamos: Selected Writings of Edith Warner has been tucked away in my library for many years after one of our sojourns to Taos and Santa Fe. Although I have taken it from the shelf to read portions and enjoy the photographs included in the text, this time I read the entire book edited by Patrick Burns, a singer, songwriter, and music teacher in northern New Mexico.

In 1928, Edith Warner at the age of thirty-five moved from her home in Pennsylvania to northern New Mexico where she found a home “in the shadow of Los Alamos.” Warner’s neighbors soon made regular visits to “her tearoom,” getting acquainted, introducing her to their world and culture. These friends included the San Ildefonso Indians, and later, in the 1940s, the scientists who arrived to work at the nearby top-secret Los Alamos Labs, including Robert Oppenheimer and Neils Bohr.

J.Robert Oppenheimer wrote: I first knew the Pajarito Plateau in the summer of 1922, when we took a pack trip up from the Frijoles Canyon and into the Valle Grande. We came back to it often. In the summer of 1937 I first stopped at Edith Warner’s tearoom. I was on a pack trip with my brother and sister-in-law, but came on ahead of them because one of the horses got away and I had to go after him. We had tea and chocolate cake and talk; it was my first unforgettable meeting.”

Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves, now in charge of the Manhattan Project, stopped by Otowi for some cake in 1942. The goal of this top-secret project was, through the combined rushed efforts of several laboratories, universities and production facilities, to produce the first atomic bomb before Germany. Groves chose Oppenheimer to direct the activities at the heart of the project. The two men were on their way to inspect the Los Alamos Ranch School as a possible site. On their visit, both men agreed that they had found the ideal place.

“The final word has come at last and the Los Alamos [Ranch School] closes Jan. 22nd with the whole place evacuated by Feb. 8th [1943]. . . . I still can’t believe it and wake in the middle of the night thinking I’ve dreamed it. Practically, the whole countryside seems [to be] leaving the mesas—and here am I. . . . My friend Oppenheimer stopped by one day with some other scientists. . . . It is all very secret. . . . I feel as though a volcano were grumbling beneath me. . . . So keep it under whatever little gadget you wear on your head.” — Edith Warner, letter to Peter Miller

Patrick Burns does an admirable job in including details never made public before including her handwritten recipe for Edith Warner’s famous and beloved chocolate cake written in longhand. There are also interspersed in the book, beautiful black and white photographs depicting Warner and her friends from San Ildefonso Pueblo. Burns presents a beautiful introduction as well as Warner’s letters, journals and her incomplete autobiography. Her writings give a unique look at life in a traditional Native-American world and at the edge of the modern era, represented by the Manhattan Project. But what shines through is the love that Edith Warner had for the people and their sacred and beautiful land in the shadow of Los Alamos by the Otowi Bridge.

[Catherine Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had previously read Peggy Pond Church's HOUSE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, based on Edith Warner's life, in my book group. This year, the group read IN THE SHADOW OF LOS ALAMOS, which is what the editor believes to be the definitive collection of Edith Warner's writings. It also includes a brief biographical introduction, and quite a lot of photographs. While Edith's writing about her adobe home in the mountains of New Mexico is often beautiful and evocative, there is a lot of writing (especially in her collected letters) that is difficult to follow. The letters are not presented in any kind of time sequence, and references are made to people and events that are not explained in any way.

It is hard not to admire Edith and the life she made for herself in the decades between her first arrival in NM in the early 1920s, and her death in 1951. She developed close, familial relationships with the natives living at San Ildefonso Pueblo, and also with many scientists from Los Alamos (including Niels Bohr and Robert Oppenheimer), and introduced the groups to each other. She lived close to the earth--raising and growing her own food, and living fully off the grid. Yet her life was often a difficult one--she worked very hard and was frequently tired and in poor health.

As books go, I think the Peggy Pond Church work is a better story, but this book deepens and adds to its perspective.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected more and was disappointed.