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Lost Borders
Excerpt from Lost Borders
Let's have done with stranger faces, let's be quit of staring eyes,
Let's go back across Mohave where the hills of Inyo rise.
There's a word we've lost between us we shall never hear again
In the mindless clang of engines where they bray the hearts of men.
Let's go seek it east of Kearsarge where the seven-mile shadows run,
From the great gray bulk of Williamson heaved up against the sun.
Let's go look for Hassayampa, with your arm across my shoulders,
Through the canons of lost rivers by the bone-white bleaching bowlders,
Through the scented glooming hollows where the gray wolf shadows flee -
Where from Sur to Ubhebe only you and I shall be;
And the Word - cannot name it, but we'll learn its sweetest use
In the moonlit sandy reaches when the desert wind is loose.
Let's have done with stranger faces, let's be quit of staring eyes,
Let's go back across Mohave where the hills of Inyo rise.
There's a word we've lost between us we shall never hear again
In the mindless clang of engines where they bray the hearts of men.
Let's go seek it east of Kearsarge where the seven-mile shadows run,
From the great gray bulk of Williamson heaved up against the sun.
Let's go look for Hassayampa, with your arm across my shoulders,
Through the canons of lost rivers by the bone-white bleaching bowlders,
Through the scented glooming hollows where the gray wolf shadows flee -
Where from Sur to Ubhebe only you and I shall be;
And the Word - cannot name it, but we'll learn its sweetest use
In the moonlit sandy reaches when the desert wind is loose.
- GenresFiction
241 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1909
7 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Mary Hunter Austin
99 books80 followersMary 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 19, 2021
An unexpected and memorable group of stories in a time and place far removed from here and now.
Want to read
May 28, 2025Read 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
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
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews