The Land of Little Rain (Classic, Nature, Penguin)

Book Description

Beautiful, poetic study of the Southwestern desert. Fourteen sketches describe plants, animals, mountains, birds, skies, Indians, prospectors, towns, other features in serene, beautifully modulated prose. Desert seen as a place of rare, austere beauty that weaves a lasting spell over its inhabitants. Preface.

Customer Reviews:

Land of Little Rain.......2007-05-10

This book was about the desert and desert people which Austin knows well. Her language is beautiful. I purchased as a gift book for people who love the Southwest and the people.

Overlooked Masterpiece of Nature Writing.......2007-03-23

Mary Austin's work is roughly contemporary with John Muir's, although "The Land of Little Rain" comes after the publication of Muir's best work. It's been said that Mary Austin's work is the finest nature writing between John Muir's and Aldo Leopold's. I dearly love John Muir's writing, but Mary Austin is the better writer. There is a haunting, mystical quality in this book. At times it reads like beautifully stark poetry, like the landscape she describes. For me it reads like music. I read this after visiting Owens Valley, Death Valley and the valleys and mountains between. For me it was an affirmation of what I felt and sensed there. If you let it, the landscape has a way of burning itself into you, and she describes that very well.

Ho Hum.......2006-02-05

Land of Little Interest would be a better title; it looks like even old Cactus Ed didn't read beyond the first chapter. All the references he makes in his introduction are from the beginning of the book, and he seems to ignore the rest of the book, as I wish I had. Boring, unless you want to know about what grows next to irrigating ditches. And I still don't know what the hell a "campoodie" is (a term used over and over), but, who cares?

Makes me want to go to Death Valley.......2005-10-07

It's pretty easy to write a book that makes people want to go somewhere that already looks appealing to them--Manhattan, Yellowstone, other places where tourists flock to--but to write a book that makes one of the most desolate, bleak, inhospitable places on the entire planet seem like somewhere you have to see for yourself as soon as possible...well, that takes some skill.
That's what Mary Austin has done however, in "The Land of Little Rain." This book examines the wildlife, plants, terrain, weather, and people of Death Valley and the surrounding area, and it does so with the eye and the pen of a true poet.
Mary Austin lavishes her words on this area in sparse, measured prose, and distills the essence of this harsh California desert into sentences and paragraphs. She finds a handful of words that perfectly suit this terrain and the life it supports--words like white, slant, tilt, sessile, and winey--and bends and twists these words every way possible to serve her every purpose.
As a result, the land she describes comes across vividly. She writes of how the desert and the wilderness "uncramps our souls," of "the days too hot and white," of slant-winged scavengers," of wandering hopelessly through the desert trodding on vultures' shadows, of "the westering sun," "the late slant light," of "a stream that knows its purpose and reflects the sky," and of the sun dancing up the slope of a mountain.
Her prose is KILLER.
She also tells firsthand accounts of Death Valley's craziest miners, of little towns that could (kind of, sometimes), and of such sad sights as a cougar lamenting the destruction of its lair and family that had been destroyed by a torrential rainstorm, "crying a very human woe." In another such rainstorm she talks of "a bobcat mother mouthing her drowned kittens in the ruined lair built in the wash...."
I highly recommend this book. It's very brief, and is plotless, but the insights and descriptions are invaluable. I've never been to Death Valley, but I'm already planning on going there.
If the book has faults though, it's in some of the generalizations it makes about the area's people (All Spanish people dance and sing every evening? Really?), and in how abruptly it ends. It's a bit like taking a long, beautiful scenic drive and then ending up in a parking lot.
"This is so great, look at that--oh. Oh, we're there."

Intimate & Beautiful Appraisal of Life In a Harsh Land.......2005-04-11

The famous American-West landscape photographer, Ansel Adams and friend of M.H.A., said of The Land of Little Rain: "The sharp beauty of The Land of Little Rain is finely etched in the distinguished prose of Mary Austin. Many books and articles have probed the factual aspects of this amazing land, but no writing to my knowledge conveys so much of the spirit of earth and sky, of plants and people, of storm and the desolation of majestic wastes, of tender, intimate beauty, as does The Land of Little Rain." (Re: "A Note on the Land and on the Photographs", from "The Land of Little Rain"- Houghton-Mifflin Co. 1950).

Indeed, M.H.A. displayed an uncanny sensitivity and understanding of the desert lands in the Owens Valley, California. Death Valley is, indeed, harsh and unforgiving, but to the astute observer who has learned how to live within the limits of sparse resources, it is an unequaled Paradise. She writes so eloquently and poetically of how the desert people and flora/fauna survive. The interaction of desert botany, biology, hydrology, geography, meteorology, and ecology come across vividly and often humorously with such lines as:

"Once at Red Rock, in a year of green pasture (a wet year), which is a bad time for the scavengers, we saw two buzzards, five ravens, and a coyote feeding on the same carrion, and only the coyote seemed ashamed of the company". (chapter 3- "The Scavengers")

M.H.A. studied the land, the flora/fauna, the weather (her "2" basic desert seasons- summer and winter) and she learned from her neighbors the Shoshone and Paiute Indians (she preferred to call the American Indians "Amerinds") , the Mexicans, the white settlers, and many colorful desert loners such as the "Pocket Hunter" (for seeker of pockets of gold)- her name for an old prospector friend. She learned much wisdom and practical knowledge from her Indian friends like "The Basket Maker", Seyavi, whose life story is so eloquently told. The Indians shared with her their survival knowledge of how to find water from signs displayed by plants, how to read the activities of animals for food, how to "know" which plants are medicinal and/or edible and which plants to stay away from:

"Live long enough with an Indian, and he or the wild things will show you a use for everything that grows in these borders". (Chapter- "Shoshone Land")

This beautiful little book finishes with: "Come away, you who are obsessed with your own importance in the scheme of things, and have got nothing you did not sweat for, come away by the brown valleys and full-bosomed hills to the even-breathing days, to the kindliness, earthliness, ease of Pueblo de Las Uvas."

According to Ansel Adam's notes, Las Uvas is Grape Canyon or Creek and is part of the Tejon area south of Bakersfield, Ca.

After reading this fine book, one will come to understand why so many people have referred to M.H.A. as the "Henry David Thoreau
of the American West". Thoreau is the author of the renown classic, "Walden".

There are many different publications of The Land of Little Rain and many have variations from the original format, ie., different introductions, preface, illustrations, etc. The text is all that really matters, of course, but I have checked-out a few of the different copies from regional libraries so I could copy the intros by such notables as "Cactus Ed" (Edward Abbey- "The Monkey Wrench Gang", et al.). Abbey's Forward is in the 1988 Penguin Books edition. My copy is a reproduction of the original 1903 edition complete with line drawings by E. Boyd Smith who knew M.H.A. and the regions she wrote about.

Ansel Adams teamed-up with Houghton-Mifflin Co. in 1950 to give tribute to this outstanding classic by publishing a version her book with 48 of his photos taken in the Owens Valley, California region where the book was written and M.H.A. lived for sometime.

In describing the various areas and geographical locations in her book, M.H.A. cloaked many of the popular modern regional names with original Indian or old nicknames known only to a few to protect the privacy of those she wrote about. Adams and the editors used several resources to decipher the pseudonyms so he could match them to his photographs with the current regional names for accurate descriptions. They published an interesting glossary of all the names that could be deciphered in this 1950 edition.

More information including photographs of M.H.A. and her life can be seen at the Owens Valley Historical Society website:
www.owensvalleyhistory.com/mary_austin/page49.html

The Land of Little Rain (Modern Library Classics)

Average customer rating:

The Land of Little Rain (Modern Library Classics)
Mary Austin
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Desert Solitaire

ASIN: 0812968522
Release Date: 2003-07-08

Book Description

“Between the high Sierras south from Yosemite—east and south over a very great assemblage of broken ranges beyond Death Valley, and on illimitably into the Mojave Desert” is the territory that Mary Austin calls the Land of Little Rain. In this classic collection of meditations on the wonders of this region, Austin generously shares “such news of the land, of its trails and what is astir in them, as one lover of it can give to another.” Her vivid writings capture the landscape—from burnt hills to sun-baked mesas—as well as the rich variety of plant and animal life, and the few human beings who inhabit the land, including cattlemen, miners, and Paiute Indians. This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the original 1903 edition.

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The Land Of Little Rain
Mary Hunter Austin
Manufacturer: Echo Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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An account of life and geography in the desert areas that lie 'between the high Sierras south from Yosemite'

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Whatever goes up or comes down the streets of the mountains, water has the right of way; it takes the lowest ground and the shortest passage. Where the rifts are narrow, and some of the Sierra canons are not a stone's throw from wall to wall, the best trail for foot or horse winds considerably above the watercourses; but in a country of cone-bearers there is usually a good strip of swardy sod along the canon floor.

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Intimate & Beautiful Appraisal of Life In a Harsh Land

The Land of Little Rain

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000CMI5K8

Customer Reviews:

Intimate & Beautiful Appraisal of Life In a Harsh Land.......2006-11-10

The famous American-West landscape photographer, Ansel Adams and friend of M.H.A., said of The Land of Little Rain: "The sharp beauty of The Land of Little Rain is finely etched in the distinguished prose of Mary Austin. Many books and articles have probed the factual aspects of this amazing land, but no writing to my knowledge conveys so much of the spirit of earth and sky, of plants and people, of storm and the desolation of majestic wastes, of tender, intimate beauty, as does The Land of Little Rain." (Re: "A Note on the Land and on the Photographs", from "The Land of Little Rain"- Houghton-Mifflin Co. 1950).

Indeed, M.H.A. displayed an uncanny sensitivity and understanding of the desert lands in the Owens Valley, California. Death Valley is, indeed, harsh and unforgiving, but to the astute observer who has learned how to live within the limits of sparse resources, it is an unequaled Paradise. She writes so eloquently and poetically of how the desert people and flora/fauna survive. The interaction of desert botany, biology, hydrology, geography, meteorology, and ecology come across vividly and often humorously with such lines as:

"Once at Red Rock, in a year of green pasture [a wet year], which is a bad time for the scavengers, we saw two buzzards, five ravens, and a coyote feeding on the same carrion, and only the coyote seemed ashamed of the company". (chapter- "The Scavengers")

M.H.A. studied the land, the flora/fauna, the weather (her "2" basic desert seasons- summer and winter) and she learned from her neighbors the Shoshone and Paiute Indians (she preferred to call the American Indians "Amerinds") , the Mexicans, the white settlers, and many colorful desert loners such as the "Pocket Hunter" (for seeker of pockets of gold)- her name for an old prospector friend. She learned much wisdom and practical knowledge from her Indian friends like "The Basket Maker", Seyavi, whose life story is so eloquently told. The Indians shared with her their survival knowledge of how to find water from signs displayed by plants, how to read the activities of animals for food, how to "know" which plants are medicinal and/or edible and which plants to stay away from:

"Live long enough with an Indian, and he or the wild things will show you a use for everything that grows in these borders". (Chapter- "Shoshone Land")

This beautiful little book finishes with: "Come away, you who are obsessed with your own importance in the scheme of things, and have got nothing you did not sweat for, come away by the brown valleys and full-bosomed hills to the even-breathing days, to the kindliness, earthliness, ease of Pueblo de Las Uvas."

After reading this fine book, one will come to understand why so many people have referred to M.H.A. as the "Henry David Thoreau of the American West" ("Walden").

There are many different publications of The Land of Little Rain and many have variations from the original format, ie., different introductions, preface, illustrations, etc. The text is all that really matters, of course, but I have checked-out a few of the different copies from regional libraries so I could copy the intros by such notables as "Cactus Ed" (Edward Abbey- "The Monkey Wrench Gang", et al.). Abbey's Forward is in the 1988 Penguin Books edition. My copies are a reproduction of the original 1903 edition complete with line drawings by E. Boyd Smith who knew M.H.A. and the regions she wrote about and this 1950 Ansel Adams edition.

Ansel Adams teamed-up with Houghton-Mifflin Co. in 1950 to give tribute to this outstanding classic by M.H.A. by publishing a version her book with 48 of his photos taken in the Owens Valley, California region where the book was written and M.H.A. lived for sometime.

In describing the various areas and geographical locations in her book, M.H.A. cloaked many of the popular modern regional names with original Indian or old nicknames known only to a few to protect the privacy of those she wrote about. Adams and the editors used several resources to decipher the pseudonyms so he could match them to his photographs with the current regional names for accurate descriptions. They published an interesting glossary of all the names that could be deciphered in this 1950 edition.

More information including photographs of M.H.A. and her life can be seen at the Owens Valley Historical Society website (google it)

Average customer rating:

The Land of Little Rain
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How to Go Almost Anywhere for Almost Nothing
Average customer rating:

Misleading but worth it

Not a how to as much as a general list of hotels by city

best travel tips

Not a good travel book ...

Not your typical travel book.

How to Go Almost Anywhere for Almost Nothing
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Book Description

Unimpressed with the few packaged tours that she experienced, the author launched upon the research of worldwide independent travel that would ultimately lead to the publication of How to Go Almost Anywhere for Nothing and to a new career as a writer on travel, consumer and women’s issues. She has traveled extensively in Asia, Europe, North Africa and America.

--from the Introduction

I began a quest for information on REALLY cheap travel. I researched an extraordinary amount of published material and then embarked upon many years of travel and research in the United States and abroad. I have now traveled extensively and at very little expense in Asia, North America, Europe and a bit in Africa. The scope of this particular volume will necessarily focus on areas with which I have the greatest familiarity. Southeast Asia remains a favorite because of the low ground costs, and the most detailed information will cover Asian ports of call such as Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, with some reference to specific destinations within Europe and the United States. My latest major trip was to Morocco, and that country is covered in this edition.

In the United States, the largest port of entry cities will get the most attention, not only because three of my favorite cities fall into this category, but for the benefit of visitors from other lands. The principles outlined herein should pertain to travel almost everywhere and you will be able to apply them with just a little bit of courage and imagination.

Customer Reviews:

Misleading but worth it.......2007-08-07

I found this book to be very disorganized and jumpy. The author doesn't stick to one idea for more than a couple pages which leads to a lack of full information on what could be very good travel advice.
Also, the book's main focus and most of the information is for traveling to Asia and a few cities in the US.
I think the tips in this book have saved me enough money to cover its price, but there are probably better books out there.

Not a how to as much as a general list of hotels by city.......2006-05-09

This book is a sample of European destinations and what appear to be hostels for travelers in their twenties. Its spread very thin because it covers traveling in alot of countries. I found it to be like a sampler plate in a restaurant, a little bit of lots of things. If you are looking for a book that tells you how to travel cheaply, reduce airfare, rental car costs, as well as where and how to look for lodging, don't buy this book.

best travel tips.......2004-07-13

This is one of the most valuable travel buys I have ever made. I learned more ways to save on travel in this book than I imagined possible. The author shared little-known tips and humorous experiences on the road that I will treasure as I try to emulate her. By all means, buy this book. It will enrich your life.

Not a good travel book ..........2002-10-12

This book has a number of serious problems that lead me to rate it as very poor.

First, it is unbelievable that a publisher would allow a book to be released that contains dozens of grammatical errors. It is an English teacher's dream book. There are a number of run-on and awkward sentences, a couple of fragments and a perpetual confusion of when to use "its" and "it's".

Second, the book is completely unorganized. One minute, she is talking about University housing and then, starts a travelogue on Portland, OR. There is no transition or a page break. The book could have been much stonger had the author taken the time to organize it in a logical way.

Third, the formatting of the text of bizarre. For example, on page 57, she is talking about moderate accommodations in San Francisco and the next paragraph deals with Los Angeles. There are no headings or transactions whatsoever. In Appendix A, there is a chart of air couriers where the text and numbers all run together.

Fourth, a number of the references that she quotes at the end have been out of publication for almost eight years like the Budget Lodging Guide. Their website clearly states that the book ceased publication in 1996 and would not be reissued.

Fifth, there is far too much "third party" data which indicates that the author has not been to a place that she is recommending. In numerous cases, she uses "I have been told that ...". I would rather that she stick to places that she has personal knowledge of.

Sixth, she directs the reader to places in some fairly rough neighborhoods without a mention that the area is crime-ridden. For example, she recommends a hostel in Harlem without a mention of the crime. While I am reluctant to steer folks away from certain parts of various cities, crine issues should be disclosed.

There are a lot of great budget travel books that are well written. I recommend the Moon Guides and the Lonely Planet guides as books that are far better than this one.

Not your typical travel book........2000-11-28

A travel book for the rest of us, How to Go Almost Anywhere for Almost Nothing is a genuine "how to" guide to travel the world--yes, you. Better yet, it shows how to see the soul of places, not the tourist traps. (If you want glitz, ALSO buy one of those destination-specific travel guides.) The book is divided into three sections. The first part is the best. Memorize it. That's where you'll find the real tricks of travel, such as how to fly as low as. . .well, free. Room and board can be as low as $10 a night, and also free, sometimes. What can I say, this book delivers! There are also hints to avoid scams. The second part of the book is written letter-style, in which you "accompany" the author as you read, with anticipation for each succeeding adventure. The third part gives great advice on packing, monetary matters, security, and even what to do if you get sick mid-trip. Packed with specifics, but written with a warm and light touch, this book made this guy who has hardly ever left the city limits want to go Almost Everywhere, Almost Now-and believe that I can. Now, that's really saying something.

How to go almost anywhere for almost nothing: A guide for the economically challenged traveller

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How to go almost anywhere for almost nothing: A guide for the economically challenged traveller
Maureen A Hennessy
Manufacturer: s.n.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QDYRO

Book Description

This original timeline treats each subject as a visual thread and makes any history lesson memorable. Children can't resist following along to find out what happens. Visual Timelines: Inventions is an invaluable resource that provides unbeatable material for any student.

Customer Reviews:

A mesmerizing reference book.......1997-07-08

I checked this out from the library originally. Had to purchase it after seeing how it enthralled my children. We home school and intend to use this as a guideline for history and science projects- projects will be based on the inventions

Book Description

Examples of the best recent developments in the realm of sports equipment are shown in a volume that gives readers in-depth information about a very specialized area of product design. From footballs to skating helmets, dozens of items seen on playing fields around the world are presented, with the focus placed on how they were made and the materials and methods of construction employed. Diagrams and illustrations complete the interesting story told about each item.

Mel Byars, the author of The Design Encyclopedia and five other design books, is a design historian and professor at the Pratt Institute in New York.

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