Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
25
5
THE SOUTHWEST IN TOPICS,
FILMS & MUSIC
BOOKS
FICTION
Many well-known writers
made their homes in the Southwest. In the
1920s, the most celebrated were
D. H.
Lawrence
and
Willa Cather,
both short-
term Taos residents. Lawrence's
Mornings
in Mexico
and
Etruscan Places
capture the
flavor of the region. Inspired by her stay in
the region, Cather, a Pulitzer Prize winner
famous for her depictions of the pioneer
spirit, penned
Death Comes for the Arch-
bishop.
It's a fictionalized account of the
19th-century Santa Fe bishop Jean Bap-
tiste Lamy.
Many contemporary authors also live in
and write about the region. John Nichols,
of Taos, whose
Milagro Beanfield War
(Henry Holt, 2000) was made into a Rob-
ert Redford movie in 1987, writes insight-
fully about the problems of poor Hispanic
farming communities. For the past 2
decades, Albuquerque's Tony Hillerman
has woven mysteries around Navajo tribal
police in books such as
Listening Woman
(HarperCollins, 1990) and
A Thief of Time
(HarperCollins, 2004). Of the desert envi-
ronment and politics, no one wrote better
than the late Edward Abbey;
The Monkey
Wrench Gang
(HarperPerennial, 2000)
tells of an unlikely gang of ecoterrorists,
and helped inspire the founding of the
radical Earth First! movement. Zane Grey
fans should pick up a copy of
Riders of the
Purple Sage
(Pocket Books, 1974). Set in
southern Utah toward the end of the 19th
century, it explores polygamy and the
restraints it placed on women.
NONFICTION
Marshall Trimble and
Joe Beeler's
Roadside History of Arizona
(Mountain Press Publishing, 1986) is an
ideal book to take along on a driving tour
of the Grand Canyon State. For general
histories of New Mexico, try Myra Ellen
Jenkins and Albert H. Schroeder's
A Brief
History of New Mexico
(University of New
Mexico Press, 1974), and Marc Simmons's
New Mexico: An Interpretive History
(Uni-
versity of New Mexico Press, 1988). If you
like road trips to small towns, check out
King of the Road
(New Mexico Magazine
Press, 2007), by Frommer's author Lesley
S. King. It's a compilation of articles and
photographs from her monthly column in
New Mexico Magazine.
Get some Colo-
rado history from the short, easy-to-read
Colorado:
Bicentennial and History Guide
(W.W. Norton, 1996), by Marshall
Sprague. John Wesley Powell's 1869 diary,
the first account of travels through the
Grand Canyon, offers an exciting view-
point of the canyon. You can read a recent
republication of it, titled
The Exploration
of the Colorado River and Its Canyons
(Pen-
guin, 1997), with an introduction by Wal-
lace Stegner. For an interesting account of
the recent human history of the canyon,
read Stephen J. Pyne's
How the Canyon
Became Grand
(Viking Penguin, 1999).
To catch the mood of southern Utah,
read Abbey's
Desert Solitaire
(New York:
Ballantine, 1968), a nonfiction work based
on time Abbey spent in Arches National
Monument, before it gained national park
status.
MOVIES
Hundreds of movies have been filmed in
the region. One of the most notable clas-
sics is director John Ford's
Stagecoach
(1939), filmed in Monument Valley. The
valley has also shown up in such non-
Western films as
2001: A Space Odyssey,
Thelma and Louise,
and
Forrest Gump.
Many films have been made in Tucson at
what's now called Old Tucson Studios,
including
Arizona,
Tombstone,
John Wayne's
Rio Lobo,
Clint Eastwood's
The Outlaw
Josey Wales,
Kirk Douglas's
Gunfight at the
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