Earth Thunder had fled the ruins of a Mayan temple-school in Yucatan, survivor of a hideous massacre of learned priestesses who had fought to defend their freedom from the white man's church rule. All her life she had journeyed north in search of people who wanted to know Mother Earth and her interlocking Circles of Life.
From a bustling city in Europe, a noblewoman sent her family across the ocean, to renew a spiritual link with the Native American people. To her thirteen-year-old grandniece Helle she entrusted a tiny globe, symbol of Freia, as her own ancestors had called the Earth.
In her quest to honor Life, and share her knowledge, Earth Thunder freed a slave girl who would become her apprentice, River Singing. Golden-haired Helle also became Earth Thunder's apprentice. Together, the two young women helped build a new temple-school in the Deer Lodge Valley of Montana. There they put into action the old count that teaches of Life: One is the Sun, Two is the Earth . . . Five is humanity, self and spirit.
And, when danger threatened -- from a marauding highwayman and a hellfire preacher -- one of the last centers of ancient learning and healing in the West would fight bravely, and leave its mark in Time . . . .
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Plot and character development take a backseat to morals and metaphysics in Warren's ( The Front Runner ) ponderous work set primarily in the American West during the mid-19th century. It follows a medicine woman named Earth Thunder, her devoted student and helper River Singing, and a group of Indians who gather around the wise woman as she builds a stet caps/it's capped in book/pk Medicine Wheel in Montana's Deer Lodge Valley. Their community is joined by six Germans who have traveled from Bavaria on a "noble and dangerous quest" to find "the learned peoples . . . who loved the Goddess as well as the God." Earth Thunder's teachings advance that women should be strong and independent, and she explains how they should behave toward one another. (For example: share your knowledge with other women and don't compete for the attention of men.) Unfortunately, these well-intentioned arguments are offered in stilted prose and in a tone didactic to the point of condescension that likely will try the patience of adult readers. However, the book's uncomplicated lessons and elements of Indian mysticism may lend it some appeal among younger readers. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Inside Flap
Earth Thunder had fled the ruins of a Mayan temple-school in Yucatan, survivor of a hideous massacre of learned priestesses who had fought to defend their freedom from the white man's church rule. All her life she had journeyed north in search of people who wanted to know Mother Earth and her interlocking Circles of Life.
From a bustling city in Europe, a noblewoman sent her family across the ocean, to renew a spiritual link with the Native American people. To her thirteen-year-old grandniece Helle she entrusted a tiny globe, symbol of Freia, as her own ancestors had called the Earth.
In her quest to honor Life, and share her knowledge, Earth Thunder freed a slave girl who would become her apprentice, River Singing. Golden-haired Helle also became Earth Thunder's apprentice. Together, the two young women helped build a new temple-school in the Deer Lodge Valley of Montana. There they put into action the old count that teaches of Life: One is the Sun, Two is the Earth . . . Five is humanity, self and spirit.
And, when danger threatened -- from a marauding highwayman and a hellfire preacher -- one of the last centers of ancient learning and healing in the West would fight bravely, and leave its mark in Time . . . .
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Patricia Nell Warren has written and published professionally since 1954, at age 18. In 54 years, her subjects have ranged from women and Goddess Earth to human rights, from gay life and mixed-blood people in American history to wildlife, the environment and current events.
Now 73 years old, she was born in 1936 and raised on a Montana ranch. She worked as a Reader's Digest book editor for 15 years, on both the magazine staff and the Condensed Book Club.
Today Warren lives in Los Angeles, where she co-owns an independent book-publishing and media company, Wildcat International, in partnership with media specialist/writer Tyler St. Mark.
Fiction
Since 1971 Warren has published eight novels -- several with mainstream publishers (Morrow, Bantam, Ballantine, Dial Press, Penguin) and several under her own independent imprint, Wildcat Press. The Front Runner, Harlan's Race and Billy's Boy are a landmark series that follows an evolving family through 20 years of gay life. Her most recent gay-themed novel is The Wild Man, a bestseller that came out in 2001.
She also published two mainstream novels, The Last Centennial (1971) and One Is the Sun (1991), as well as four books of Ukrainian poetry.
Warren's best-known fiction work, The Front Runner, was first published by William Morrow in 1974, and became the most popular gay love story of all time. The book has sold an estimated 10 million copies worldwide and been translated into ten languages, the most recent being Italian.
Film rights of The Front Runner have been in development for some years, and recently received a great deal attention as one of "Hollywood's unmade gay films" during Brokeback Mountain's run-up for the Academy Awards.
Currently Warren is working on a new novel titled Wrong Side of the Tracks.
Nonfiction
Warren's newest title is her first nonfiction book. It's titled The Lavender Locker Room, an anthology of nonfiction articles about gay pioneers in sports history, that appeared on Outsports.com. Published in 2006, it was an Amazon history topseller, won the Independent Publisher Gold Medal in the gay-lesbian category, and was a finalist in the Benjamin Franklin Awards.
Warren's articles and op-eds have appeared in a variety of mainstream publications, including Atlantic Monthly, Los Angeles Times, Reader's Digest, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Modern Maturity, Persimmon Hill, New York Press, Des Moines Register, Mythosphere, Corporate Africa. She has also published in various leading gay publications.
For A & U Magazine she writes a monthly column on the politics of AIDS and public health. Online, she blogs at The Bilerico Project, the most popular and politically vociferous glbt blog on the Web, as well as the Huffington Post.
She is also writing further sports profiles for Outsports.com and Lavender Locker Room II.
Film Development
As a result of interest in movies based on her novels, Warren has moved into active development herself as an executive producer, in partnership with Greg Zanfardino of Moniker Entertainment.
At present, she has several docudrama projects on her slate, including an Australian group's novel search for the wreck site of Amelia Earhart's aircraft in Papua New Guinea.
Activism and Politics
Warren's political activism started during the 1960s, with efforts -- while still a Reader's Digest editor -- to have American media recognize the individuality of Ukrainians and other ethnic groups in the USSR.
In the 1970s Warren was the plaintiffs' spokesperson for Susan Smith v. Reader's Digest, a landmark lawsuit that resulted in a class-action victory for women. As a former amateur athlete, Warren helped lead a group of women distance runners who forced the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union, the then governing body of amateur sports in the U.S.) to change discriminatory rules in the mid-70s.
More recently, in the free-speech realm, Warren has been a named plaintiff in both federal lawsuits over Internet censorship -- namely ACLU v. Reno (which went to the U.S. Supreme Court and resulted in a victory for the plaintiffs) and the more recent ACLU lawsuit over the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which was also struck down as unconstitutional.
Her most recent political step was her first time out as a candidate in 2007. She ran for city council in West Hollywood, CA, on a platform that included a goal of WeHo being the first in the country to offer universal single-payer healthcare to its residents. She lost to an incumbent, but ran a creditable campaign and got 23 percent of the vote.
As recognition for her activism and contribution to public, Warren has won a number of awards, including New York City's Public Advocate Award and the Barry Goldwater Award.
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More information on Warren can be found at : www.wildcatpress.com and www.patricianellwarren.com.
"One Is the Sun" by Patricia Nell Warren is not a beach book, nor is it something for a winter evening after the slopes by the fireplace with a tankard of mulled wine at your favorite Vale resort. And, it's not for the waiting room at your doctor's office. "One Is the Sun" is a serious read, chuck full of history, legend, and the magic of Native American medicine in mid-nineteenth century America. The story is that of an extraordinary journey peopled by a large cast of travelers, indigenous peoples; western Europeans; and resident traders of livestock and hardware; as well as eastern European immigrants. Each of these historic and ethnic groups bring distinct language, culture, and social custom to the journey. Noted author, Patricia Nell Warren juggles all those many facets masterfully and throws into the mix linguistic turns of phrase to add the "feel" of authenticity. In addition, author Warren's knowledge of the period and place is awesome.
The basic story is a journey (a grandiose tale in the mode of the classic Odyssey, the Search for the Golden Fleece, or the Holy Grail) of a medicine woman, Earth Thunder, and her servant-acolyte, River Singing, and the people they meet along the way. There are, of course, subplots connected with the individuals in each of the itinerant groups. In "One Is the Sun" you'll meet a great variety of cultures, everything from a band of women warriors to men whose greatest pleasure comes from murder. Only an author as deft as Warren could deal with the great range of personal differences and retain the "ability to suspend incredulity" in this manuscript.
It is also not possible to talk about Patricia Nell Warren's book without calling attention to the "writerly" qualities she brings to her craft. As but one example of many: "The dark shape of the steamboat Nellie Belle cut along the dazzling glitter of the Missouri's wake as the boat thrashed her way steadily upstream."
Historical fiction buffs are sure to love this book, but those not so addicted may find the devotion to historical explanation and a tendency toward didactic reasons violates the "don't tell -- show" rule of fiction. This may well be true in the long Introduction as well as in the comumunication between Earth Thunder and River Singing. We look for that in non-fiction, of course, but may find it distances us from the characters and slows the plotline in fiction. Finally those faults may well be overlooked, however, in a book that serves your collection as a non-fiction reference as well as fictionalized true story.
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I read this book years ago, and am glad to see it is being reissued. I loaned my copy out to one too many friends, and am pleased to know I can order a new copy . A MUST read for anyone interested in the history of what (may have) really happened in the West.
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This book is an amazing and powerful story about women and the Native American Culture. Anyone wanting to read a positive up-lifting story about women should read this incredible book! I have shared this book with many of my friends who have in turn shared it with their friends. A definite must read!
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