pickThis author‘s work is reminiscent of that other western historian, Richard White, and more generally both of these were perhaps forerunners of the Howard Zinn style of historical narrative with a focus on the experience of the people who lived it instead of the deeds of conquering Europeans and later US officials. One of the great tasks of this book is to dispel the mythical western imagery from film and literature that became historical stand-in.
so-soPublished in 1901, The Desert is one of the first books that wrote about, and espoused the beauties of, (you called it) the desert. Traveling through the American Southwest, and specifically the Mojave, (an experience that probably augmented his post as art advisor to industrialist Andrew Carnegie), Van Dyke points out the vivid and stark beauty of his surroundings, or what he calls “the sublimity of the waste.”
Right after college I worked for the English Dept and one of the profs gave me this book! I loved it and it got me back into reading after being in school! #giftedtome #aboutabook
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
Finished these two this weekend!
pickAnother book finished in the hammock this evening! This book‘s taken me a long time to read, partly because I haven‘t had much print reading time and partly because it wasn‘t that compelling. I enjoyed it but never felt I just had to keep reading. Ben Sippy is a dime novelist from Philadelphia who decides to actually see the Wild West he‘s written about. He befriends the boy who will become Billy the Kid and tells his version of the story.
I love this author so I just bought this book based on that fact and it's the 1st in a series. Now I have opened it for May #bookspin and see there are no chapters, tiny type, filled top to bottom of page with very few breaks. May take a minute😁
@TheAromaofBooks
