Lost Borders: Rural Life in the American West of Long Ago

by Mary Hunter Austin

This outstanding chronicle of desert communities in the remote parts of the American West is vibrant for its sensitive and spirited descriptions of lifestyles and customs now lost to time. Following Mary Hunter Austin's distinctive style, we find within a number of vignettes describing rural life in a variety of California desert counties. The harsh, arid lands form a stark backdrop to the people who lead life there. This was a time before electricity and running water, before highways and the numerous luxuries of modern living. The people who lived out in the wilderness were tough in body and spirit, yet - as Austin demonstrates - many preserved both tender humanity and their spiritual side. Austin was born and educated in Illinois, but decided to move with her family to California as a young graduate. There she embarked on a study of the Mojave Desert; her vibrant writings and observations of people in the local communities - be they white settlers or Native Americans - met with praise and renown. She spent decades traversing the American West, her writing sitting at the crossroads of social history, storytelling and catalogues of nature. She remains popular as a chronicler and beacon for times, places and lives now departed.

Genres: Fiction

94 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1909

About the author

Mary Hunter Austin was a prolific novelist, poet, critic, and playwright, as well as an early feminist, conservationist, and defender of Native American and Spanish-American rights and culture.

After graduating from Blackburn College in 1888, she moved with her family to California and established a homestead in the San Joaquin Valley. She married Stafford Wallace Austin In 1891 and they lived in various towns in California’s Owens Valley before separating in 1905.

One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her popular book The Land of Little Rain (1903) describes the fauna, flora and people of the region between the High Sierra and the Mojave Desert of southern California. She said, "I was only a month writing ... but I spent 12 years peeking and prying before I began it."

After visiting Santa Fe in 1918, Austin settled there in 1924. She helped establish The Santa Fe Little Theatre (still operating today as The Santa Fe Playhouse). She was also active in preserving the local culture of New Mexico, establishing the Spanish Colonial Arts Society in 1925.

In 1929, she co-authored a book, Taos Pueblo, with photographer Ansel Adams. It was printed in 1930 in a limited edition of only 108 copies. It is now quite rare because it included actual photographs made by Adams rather than reproductions.

She is best known for her nature classic Land of Little Rain (1903) and her play The Arrow Maker (1911).

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unexpected and memorable group of stories in a time and place far removed from here and now.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

The land --2
The hoodoo of the Minnietta --
A case of conscience --
The ploughed lands --
The return of Mr. Wills --3
*The last antelope --
Aqua Dulce --
The woman at the Eighteen-mile --
*The fakir --
The pocket-hunter's story --2
The readjustment --3
Bitterness of women --
The house of offence --
The walking woman --3
***
The basket maker --2
Jimville, a Bret Harte town --2
The land of little rain --
Papago Kid --3
Papago wedding --3