Customer Reviews

Walks In Literary Sante Fe: A Guide to Landmarks, Legends and Lore

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Barbara Harrelson writes: "Today Santa Fe is called the 'City Different', but New Mexico writer Erna Fergusson called it the 'City Incongruous'. In the 1928 Santa Fe Fiesta Program, she told visitors that 'Santa Fe's welcome to you includes this cordial invitation: to have your kind of a good time. Be yourself, even if it includes synthetic cowboy clothes, motor goggles, and a camera.'

"Incongruous Santa Fe invites you to walk its historic streets, browsing in its shops, galleries, and museums. It is best to explore Santa Fe in comfortable walking shoes -- carrying water to drink -- with map and guidebook, watching out for old streets with uneven sidewalks (or no sidewalks). It's no wonder that Santa Fe is one of the top walking cities in the country."

Harrelson leads walks for visitors, writes regular columns for local and national publications, and has put together this excellent guide filled with factoids about the many writers and poets that found Santa Fe fascinating. A few of the many personalities include D. H. Lawrence, Willa Cather, Robert Frost, Thornton Wilder, Carl Sandburg, John Galsworthy, Sinclair Lewis, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Alice Corbin Henderson, Witter Bynner, Spud Johnson, Mary Austin, Haniel Long and Oliver La Farge. Harrelson estimates that over a hundred authors and poets live full or part time in Santa Fe today.

Two other books deal with authors who found homes or inspiration in Santa Fe. Santa Fe and Taos: The Writer's Era, 1916-1941 (Southwest Heritage Series), according to Mike Smith's Review here on Amazon, "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 knowledge of New Mexico history in general. It's full of terrific photographs, and well worth whatever you pay for it."

Mike Smith also gives Literary Pilgrims: The Santa Fe and Taos Writers' Colonies, 1917-1950 by Lynn Cline five stars: "Everyone from Mary Austin to Willa Cather is explored here, as are D.H. Lawrence and Frank Waters. Among my recent research on the many writers of Santa Fe, this was certainly among the best books I discovered on the subject."

Walks In Literary Sante Fe is portable, clearly written and very useful to visitor and resident alike.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Barbara Harrelson has put together a wonderful way to explore the very interesting city of Santa Fe. More than just a guide book to Santa Fe, it is more like a knowledgible friend taking you by the hand and leading you on adventures both historical and modern.

For example. How many of us know that the English writer D. H. Lawrence owned a ranch a few miles from Taos, New Mexico, and his wife Frieda lived out the rest of her life there after D. H. died. They are both buried on the ranch.

Have this book in hand when you explore Santa Fe and the surrouning area, or when you just want to curl up in a comfortable chair in your home to learn something about the history of the Southwest.

Santa Fe is home to an amazing abundance of well-known and talented authors--literally dozens of them--and this little book is an amazing guide to the city's incredible literary history.

The book is divided into two easy walking tours--one in the plaza area and one around Canyon Road--and using those two tours to give the book a structure, this very readable little volume gives a concise and clearly written crash course in the city's literary past. What's even cooler is that you can't really tell such a history without incorporating facts from the city's broader history, so by the time you reach the last page, you're guaranteed to know the City Different much better than you ever did. It'll make you see the place differently, for sure.

This is one of three great books about literary Santa Fe (that I know of), and certainly the fastest read of the bunch. For anyone who lives in New Mexico, and especially for anyone who lives in or visits Santa Fe, I couldn't recommend it more highly.

The author also gives actual walking tours of the city (which inspired this book), and if you ever get a chance to take one, you really should. They're as good as the book--except you'll need to find a place to park.