Happy to share. If listers are interested in the American SW and, more particularly, in the Hispanic SW and its relationships and partial amalgamation with the SW Pueblo tribes, 3 other books might interest them:
1. Great River, Paul Horgan's massive classic on the history of the peoples who have lived along the Rio Grande, the Indians, then the 16th century Spanish colonists, then the Anglos. It's available in a 3-in-1 format for relatively cheap, used, on Amazon. Horgan was an academic and his style is more ponderous than Dana's, but it's still very readable. https://www.amazon.com/Great-River-American-History-Indians/dp/0819562513 2. Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather, the Pulitzer Prize winner. I don't find Cather scintillating, but she is eminently readable, and this book well describes in particular the NM Hispanic culture, very different from other Hispanic cultures, and this do to what the book also well describes, what one might depending on one's point of view call the desolate isolation of NM until the end of the 19th century. https://www.amazon.com/Death-Comes-Archbishop-Vintage-Classics/dp/0679728899/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1QDQI9UNWWEGS&keywords=death+comes+to+the+archbishop+by+willa+cather&qid=1561405041&s=books&sprefix=death+comes+to+the%2Cstripbooks%2C186&sr=1-1-spons&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/Willa-Cather-Complete-Archbishop-Pioneers-ebook/dp/B07N2PF7NM/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Willa+Cather&qid=1561405098&s=gateway&sr=8-2 3. Red Sky at Morning, Richard Bradford. This 1968 novel is what nowadays would be called a book for "young adults." My parents bought it for me in 1969 (I recall reading it in a stereotypical, old-fashioned provincial hotel in Chartres on home leave; perhaps it was given me to distract me from fighting with my younger brother), but I recalled it so fondly that I recently bought it again on Kindle. It was worth the $. Rising HS senior moves with family to Corazon Sagrado, composite Northern Rio Grande Valley Hispanic town far from civilization (= Anglos and capitalism), for the duration when the father, owner of a Mobile, AL small boat shipyard, decides on middle-aged whim to sign up for WWII US Navy, leaving boy and aging southern belle mother isolated among the natives, who are an amusingly if hyperbolically depicted set of oddballs. The plot plays off the differences among the Anglo*, Hispanic, and Indian cultures. But the point of the book is it's pretty accurate depiction of Northern RG Valley NM Hispano culture before paved roads, mass media, and chain stores (let alone internet). I like it. * The differences are described in an early chapter. Suffice it to say that the HS's sole black student falls solidly into the "Anglo" class. I will add that the town is probably too far north to include a 4th and entirely distinct NM ethnic and cultural category,"Texan." https://www.amazon.com/Red-Sky-Morning-Perennial-Classics/dp/0060931906 On Mon, Jun 24, 2019 at 9:25 AM Mark Anderson <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for the recommendation Patrick. > > The book (and thousands of others) is also available for free for Kindle > and in other formats from Project Gutenberg, the community of volunteers > Amazon almost gives credit to for producing the E-book they distribute. > > https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4277 > > On Monday, June 17, 2019 at 1:13:48 AM UTC-6, Patrick Moore wrote: >> >> And one that fits right in with Rivendell, IMO. >> >> *Two Years Before The Mast *by Richard Henry Dana. >> >> I'm re-reading this after many years. It's the account of a 19-year-old >> Boston college student who, in 1834, dropped out of college to sign up as >> an ordinary seaman (whence "before the mast:" the crew who were neither >> officers nor specialists lived together in the forwardmost part of the ship >> -- this was inferior real estate because it leaked and rolled more -- while >> officers and carpenters and stewards and such lived aft) on a merchant ship >> on the pre-Gold Rush California cowhide trade -- bringing in trade goods, >> picking up -- in this case -- 40,000 dried hides plus 30,000 horns plus >> tallow to bring back east. The trip required sailing around South America. >> >> Among other interesting bits: the utter poverty and viciously hard and >> dangerous work required of the crew: sailing around the Horn in a violent >> winter gale, climbing to reef topsails on iced-over spars in inadequate >> clothing without gloves; -- at night. The 40,000 hides were processed and >> loaded by hand, of course. >> >> The presence of many Kanakas (what Hawaiians, or Sandwich Islanders, >> called themselves) on ship and on beach; apparently there was a steady >> trade between coastal California and Hawaii. >> >> And in particular: What is said to be the best description of pre-Gold >> rush, Mexico-territory coastal California and its Californio and Indian >> populations. What an almost paradisal primeval wilderness the California >> coast must have been then! >> >> Dana's description of the Californio Hispanic people is both sympathetic >> and amusing; typical was a very Spanish disdain for manual labor combined >> with great desire for "honor" even at the expense of bankrupting oneself to >> maintain appearances in extreme poverty. Frankly, I find it more appealing >> than the Yankee obsession with "business." >> >> Hana writes in a surprisingly "modern" way, that is, simply and free of >> ornament; though modern writing is certainly not guaranteed to be clear >> even if devoid of ornament. He *is* very clear and direct, and his >> direct style is even eloquent at times. Certainly his prose lacks the >> overwrought complexity and, especially, the sentimentality typical of the >> time (though there are different sorts of sentimentality). And, the author >> is a sympathetic character -- that's not an essential requirement for very >> readable travel prose; Paul Theroux writes entertainingly and with >> perception, but his books are diminished by his very obvious misanthropy >> and willful "quirkiness." OTOH, many travel books -- and bicycle >> travelogues sin often in this regard -- fail to interest simply because >> they are unimaginative and dull. Hana is neither misanthrope nor poser nor >> dullard. >> >> Available for Kindle for free at Amazon (you can pay more and get >> chapters and nice cover, possibly illustrations): >> >> >> https://www.amazon.com/Years-Before-Mast-Richard-Henry-ebook/dp/B0082XP72S/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3Q5DOX7IZUYWQ&keywords=two+years+before+the+mast&qid=1560753976&s=gateway&sprefix=two+years+b%2Caps%2C192&sr=8-4 >> >> -- >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgsAnHFOEwHkP46t4MaB%3DP%2BXuT7h3%2B3vbkA6XxnzWMNTgA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
