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A New Mexico Memoir #3
On the Mesa
For the first time in paperback with a new foreword by the author, On the Mesa is an autobiographical celebration of life in a fragile and marginal place. On the deserted sagebrush plain just west of his home in Taos, New Mexico, John Nichols finds a healing serenity and an astonishing variety of life and mood that casual observers rarely notice. With On the Mesa, Nichols takes his place with the great nature writers of the West.
- GenresMemoir
193 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
11 people are currently reading
119 people want to read
About the author
John Nichols
32 books113 followersJohn Nichols is the author of the New Mexico trilogy, a series about the complex relationship between history, race and ethnicity, and land and water rights in the fictional Chamisaville County, New Mexico. The trilogy consists of The Milagro Beanfield War (which was adapted into the film The Milagro Beanfield War directed by Robert Redford), The Magic Journey, and The Nirvana Blues.
Two of his other novels have been made into films. The Wizard of Loneliness was published in 1966 and the film version with Lukas Haas was made in 1988. Another successful movie adaptation was of The Sterile Cuckoo, which was published in 1965 and was filmed by Alan J. Pakula in 1969.
Nichols has also written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa. John Nichols has lived in Taos, New Mexico for many years.
Two of his other novels have been made into films. The Wizard of Loneliness was published in 1966 and the film version with Lukas Haas was made in 1988. Another successful movie adaptation was of The Sterile Cuckoo, which was published in 1965 and was filmed by Alan J. Pakula in 1969.
Nichols has also written non-fiction, including the trilogy If Mountains Die, The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn and On the Mesa. John Nichols has lived in Taos, New Mexico for many years.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 15, 2013
This is another book I learned about in High Country News. Their recommendations are usually pretty good. It was written by the author of The Milagro Beanfield War and is his personal account of his attachment to an out-of-the-way mesa near Taos, New Mexico and his efforts to save it from real estate developers and invasion by power transmission lines. While the story itself is rather unremarkable and not unlike other efforts to save places that are unique and special, it is the author's prose that made the book enjoyable for me. His descriptions of the physical and biological environments were especially moving for me and he made the overgrazed mesa and dried up stock pond seem like they were the most special places on earth. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of how the area changed with the seasons, time of day, and weather patterns. The author's verbal descriptions evoked memories of the musical images contained in the Grand Canyon Suite by Grofe.
The author also talks about the history of the area and the people who have made their living from the land. He does this with a great deal of compassion and humor.
The author also talks about the history of the area and the people who have made their living from the land. He does this with a great deal of compassion and humor.
October 31, 2025
John Nichols passed away a few months ago at the end of 2023. He is most well known for writing the book The Milagros Beanfield War, a water rights protest story adapted to film by Robert Redford. Nichols was not thrilled that his fans only remember him for this one book as three of his books were made into films including The Sterile Cuckoo. He did not enjoy that the Spanish word milagro became a buzzword and every place started being Milagro this or Milagro that. In Santa Fe where I currently live there is a Milagro Middle School. I had just finished reading that book when Nichols passed so I felt very touched by his death. He lived in Taos NM, one of my favorite towns to visit here. I picked up this collection of essays that he wrote and it helped me to learn more about him as a person. The essays are about how he copes with the changes in the world that are against his moral beliefs. He was environmentalist and served on a committee to protect the Taos Mesa. He spent a lot of his time traveling to write screenplays for the film industry, but he decompressed by hiking in the Northern New Mexico wilderness. This is a strategy I share with him as I have visited many of the hiking trails this past year. He was a compassionate radical writer who was ahead of his time, and we need more writers like him. Vayas con Dios, John.
January 12, 2019
This is a product of the times, whether Nichols is referring to environmental concerns (the same ones we worry about today) or using words like 'groovy.' It took me back to my college days and my youthful dreams.
Like all people who are passionate about the natural world, Nichols has a favorite location, a place that 'speaks to his soul.' And as is so often the case, that place is threatened by developers. It's painful and depressing to read, especially when he encounters people who are out to destroy, whether it's with a gun or the tools of a surveyor.
Like all people who are passionate about the natural world, Nichols has a favorite location, a place that 'speaks to his soul.' And as is so often the case, that place is threatened by developers. It's painful and depressing to read, especially when he encounters people who are out to destroy, whether it's with a gun or the tools of a surveyor.
November 19, 2023
This is an account of the writers’ attachment to a large mesa, and its stock watering pond (?), near his home in Taos, New Mexico. The mesa is threatened by development pressures (power lines?). It’s a loose story line, scaffolding for his ruminations on this and that, punctuated here and there with trips to L.A. and other urban centers that contrast well (in a negative sense) with his experiences on the mesa.
In a way, the book might be regarded as one in the same vein as Thoreau’s Walden, or Austin’s Land of Little Rain, or Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, which are about particular places that are set within a larger, articulated context. But I didn’t read Nichols’ book that way. It was a book, yes, but I can’t say it was much more than that.
The book lacked a seasoned self-perspective. For example, Nichols laments that the moon astronauts were not overtly emotional in describing their time on the moon: “It greatly disappoints me today,” he writes, “that our men who touched the moon were not much given to flights of fancy, or to emotional outbursts. Technology they have revealed, says I…but not the human soul.” Well, well, Nichols wanted poets to fly these crafts to the moon? And, oh, who’s to say that the astronauts, steely technical competence aside, did not see the utter magnificence of the moon close up or the same, say, as with the earthrise photo from the perspective of the moon, as captured by Anders' 1968 Xmas eve photo from Apollo 8, which was perhaps one of the most influential photos ever. So, what does Nichols think about all of this? He asserts himself where he doesn’t belong, claiming some sort of false equivalency, when he writes about what he would have done had he “been chosen to land on the moon.”
Or, Nichols and his companion, after love-making on the mesa, were startled by a military jet and Nichols’ first reaction was that it was a “strafing run, I can’t duck for cover as the F-16 or the F-111 or whatever it is screams onward….then, with a deafening screech the plane is a half-mile past us and already veering up in a northwest looping curve to swing back again…its wake flattens the blankets, blows up our hair, and rattles hotly against our naked bodies.” He takes out his .22 as the plane “is bearing down on its second attack…thus our placid mesa now bears witness to the confrontation between a naked little fellow (with a hard on and a .22 pistol) and several tons of screaming airborne metal (toting all the latest accouterments of destruction) traveling faster than the speed of sound. I pull back the hammer and take aim, but by the time I fire the plane is already fifty yards beyond my bullet.” His companion asks, “Did you hit it?” to which he responds, “Hell no….I was only trying to scare him.” This is writing school writing stuff. I don’t understand why he seriously thought this was a strafing run against him or the mesa and what he was doing actually shooting at the plane (later, in his story about a guy seeking assistance from him, Nichols for some reason thought it was ok to pull out his .22, and then mentions that it’s perhaps not a good thing for him to carry around that pistol). And, who’s to say that the pilot was not experiencing his own “emotional outburst,” flying so close over the top of the wide-open mesa where beauty and joy abounds.
In a way, the book might be regarded as one in the same vein as Thoreau’s Walden, or Austin’s Land of Little Rain, or Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, which are about particular places that are set within a larger, articulated context. But I didn’t read Nichols’ book that way. It was a book, yes, but I can’t say it was much more than that.
The book lacked a seasoned self-perspective. For example, Nichols laments that the moon astronauts were not overtly emotional in describing their time on the moon: “It greatly disappoints me today,” he writes, “that our men who touched the moon were not much given to flights of fancy, or to emotional outbursts. Technology they have revealed, says I…but not the human soul.” Well, well, Nichols wanted poets to fly these crafts to the moon? And, oh, who’s to say that the astronauts, steely technical competence aside, did not see the utter magnificence of the moon close up or the same, say, as with the earthrise photo from the perspective of the moon, as captured by Anders' 1968 Xmas eve photo from Apollo 8, which was perhaps one of the most influential photos ever. So, what does Nichols think about all of this? He asserts himself where he doesn’t belong, claiming some sort of false equivalency, when he writes about what he would have done had he “been chosen to land on the moon.”
Or, Nichols and his companion, after love-making on the mesa, were startled by a military jet and Nichols’ first reaction was that it was a “strafing run, I can’t duck for cover as the F-16 or the F-111 or whatever it is screams onward….then, with a deafening screech the plane is a half-mile past us and already veering up in a northwest looping curve to swing back again…its wake flattens the blankets, blows up our hair, and rattles hotly against our naked bodies.” He takes out his .22 as the plane “is bearing down on its second attack…thus our placid mesa now bears witness to the confrontation between a naked little fellow (with a hard on and a .22 pistol) and several tons of screaming airborne metal (toting all the latest accouterments of destruction) traveling faster than the speed of sound. I pull back the hammer and take aim, but by the time I fire the plane is already fifty yards beyond my bullet.” His companion asks, “Did you hit it?” to which he responds, “Hell no….I was only trying to scare him.” This is writing school writing stuff. I don’t understand why he seriously thought this was a strafing run against him or the mesa and what he was doing actually shooting at the plane (later, in his story about a guy seeking assistance from him, Nichols for some reason thought it was ok to pull out his .22, and then mentions that it’s perhaps not a good thing for him to carry around that pistol). And, who’s to say that the pilot was not experiencing his own “emotional outburst,” flying so close over the top of the wide-open mesa where beauty and joy abounds.
January 23, 2020
"On the Mesa" is John Nichols third memoir recounting his first 15 years in northern New Mexico after moving from New York City and Long Island. In this book, Nichols laments the growing development pressure on the desert mesa located just west of Taos, New Mexico and the Rio Grange National Wild and Scenic River. The development pressure threatens to affect both the sparse, impoverished human population as well as the desert ecosystem. This book contains some of Nichols' best nature writing; it is lyrical and heartfelt. I read all three books of Nichols' "Taos trilogy" in quick succession (the first two were "If Mountains Die" and "The Last Beautiful Days of Autumn"; I liked and appreciated this book best.
Upon finishing he book, I wished for an update about the current status of the mesa.
Upon finishing he book, I wished for an update about the current status of the mesa.
September 7, 2022
I liked the book very much. Because of the detail Mr Nichols goes to describing the flora and fauna his excursions around the mesa uncover, the reading can drag a little. But it's all fascinating. I particularly like his encounters with the witch of the mesa. His descriptions of the people living on and associated with the mesa are wonderful. And his fight to organize the people and resist development keeps my attention anytime. A wonderful read for anyone with an interest in our great Southwest.
March 19, 2022
Love Taos Mesa, Love this book! A great meditation on nature and.a special place. At first, I thought it was just naturalism, but then a bit of a plot developed. Mostly about a place. Sand County Almanac-esque.
March 7, 2019
Another good NM book.
July 29, 2007
I am from New mexico and have my own memories from the mesa. This book is making me ache for the mountains and the beauty of New Mexico. The author's descriptions of the landscapes are amazing and it is driving me nuts becasue I am stuck in Houston.
December 9, 2008
I've never been to New Mexico, but John Nichols makes me ache for it none the less. And if you like the occasional steamy sex scene admist the desert, then this book is for you (winkwink)!
February 21, 2014
If you like this sort of self indulgent monologue and lonely places, you'll love this one.
March 12, 2014
good story and real perspective of a man whose fiction I love. nice to get insight into the person and mind. thanks for that exposure Mr Nichols.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews