Customer Reviews

Santa Fe and Taos: The Writer's Era 1916-1941

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Writers have come to Santa Fe for decades en masse, for well over a century in a handful of cases, and for many hundreds of years if you include the fragments of myths and history hinted at through rock-pecked petroglyphs.

It was not until 1916, however, that enough writers began moving to Santa Fe that people began to refer to them all as a writers' colony. It was in 1916 that poet Alice Corbin Henderson first moved to the city, desperately hoping that New Mexico's desert climate would help to dry the tuberculosis from her lungs. As Corbin Henderson recovered, she began inviting her friends to come to visit her from other states. Many of these friends were poets and writers, and many found themselves strongly influenced by the worlds of the Western desert, the exotic mix of cultures, and the ancient past that Santa Fe had suddenly shown to them. Years went by, a spirited rivalry with the writers of Taos evolved, and writers continued to discover Santa Fe for themselves.

Some stayed for years, such as Mary Austin, author of the classic 1903 "Land of Little Rain"; and poet Witter Bynner, a man perhaps less well-known today for such books as "An Ode to Harvard and Other Poems," than for being openly homosexual in the 1920s, and for pouring a glass of beer over the head of visiting poet Robert Frost, in 1935.

Others, such as Willa Cather---who found in Santa Fe the inspiration and setting for her controversial classic, Death Comes for the Archbishop--stayed merely long enough to get an idea, get motivated, or be inspired.

Marta Weigle--a Santa Fe writer herself--is undoubtedly one of New Mexico's best historical writers, and this is one of my favorite books of hers. It's co-written with Kyle Fiore. The book details the dramatic histories of both the Santa Fe and Taos writers' colonies, and does so clearly and entertainingly, drawing effectively from the authors' rich knowlegdge of New Mexico history in general. It's full of terrific photographs, and well worth whatever you pay for it.

Highly recommended, and an excellent companion to Lynn Cline's "Literary Pilgrims," and Barbara Harrelson's "Walks in Literary Santa Fe."