The Flock

by Mary Hunter Austin

This classic novel, first published in 1906 and based on Mary Austin's own experiences, captures the way of life of shepherds in the Sierra. Austin blends natural history, politics, and allegory in a genre-blurring narrative, championing local shepherds in their losing battle against the quickly developing tourist business in the Western Sierra during the nineteenth century. Austin had met many shepherds while visiting the Tejon ranches of Edward Beale and Henry Miller, and cultivated relationships with men others often thought of as ignorant, unambitious, and dirty, listening closely to their stories. Her neighbors were scandalized, but Austin respected the shepherds’ ways of thinking. Rather than portray these shepherds’ lives as part of a romantic bygone era, in this novel, she instead positions them as exemplifying potentially radical ways of living in and thinking about the world. Afterword by Barney Nelson.

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

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

[Adrienne Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, oh man, oh man. This book took me months. Mainly due to my lack of time and by the time I picked it up each night I would get through about 1-2 pages before being sleepy. But wow, this book, ALL of her books. I am currently in love with Mary Austin. I love her raw, honest, not-frilly language in describing nature. She somehow sheds light on its beauty by using all the right words without TRYING (or so it seems). Her descriptive talents are amazing, each of her books seems like a time-machine back to the early 1900s when the land was still open and pasture for these sheep. I adore this book. I love that it can be a bit slower, because I wanted to savor it all. Every shepherd, all of their fashions, their old -time ways, and best of all, toward the end- the ones with the WILD in their souls. Who go so far and deep out into the great open land and spend so much time with those sheep that they become indifferent, new, distant to regular society. And yet still Austin was able to get their tales of bears, of coyotes, of great storms, and other incidents of the meadows and mountains that only a shepherd would know.

I love her. I loved this book.

[Stephany Wilkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a sheep shearer and a knitter, I am over the moon at Austin's descriptions of my shearing forebears in 1800s California. Austin's writing just absolutely charms me every time I read one of her books.

Austin infuses shepherding and shearing with the romance that I, ate least, feel it deserves. There is, for example: "Thereward the trail of the wool wagon bears evenly and white. Over it, preceded by the smell of cigarettes, go the shearing crews of swarthy men with good manners and the air of opera pirates." And: "Shearing weather is a derelict from the time of Admetus; gladness comes out of the earth and exhales light."