Mary Hunter Austin
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her classic The Land of Little Rain
The Land of Little Rain
The Land of Little Rain is a book written by American writer Mary Hunter Austin. First published in 1903, it contains a series of interrelated lyrical essays about the inhabitants of the American Southwest, both human and otherwise.-Publication history:...
(1903) describes the fauna, flora and people – as well as evoking the mysticism and spirituality – of the region between the High Sierra
High Sierra
High Sierra is an early heist film and film noir written by W.R. Burnett and John Huston from the novel by Burnett. The movie features Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart and was directed by Raoul Walsh on location at Whitney Portal, halfway up Mount Whitney.The screenplay was co-written by Bogart's...
and the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
of southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
Biography
Austin was born Mary Hunter on September 9, 1868 in Carlinville, IllinoisCarlinville, Illinois
Carlinville is a city in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 5,685, and 5,912 at a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Macoupin County, and so it is an outlying part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St...
(the fourth of six children) to George and Susannah (Graham) Hunter. She graduated from Blackburn College in 1888. Her family moved to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the same year and established a homestead in the San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
. Mary married Stafford Wallace Austin on May 18, 1891 in Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
. He was from Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
For 17 years Austin made a special study of Indian
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
life in the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
, and her publications set forth the intimate knowledge she thus acquired. She was a prolific novelist, poet, critic, and playwright, as well as an early feminist and defender of Native American and Spanish-American rights. She is best known for her tribute to the deserts of California, The Land of Little Rain (1903). Her play, The Arrow Maker
The Arrow Maker
The Arrow Maker is a play by Mary Hunter Austin meant to reflect American Indian life, especially of the Paiutes, in the Sierra Nevada mountains of the United States.-Motivation and history:...
, dealing with Indian life, was produced at the New Theatre
Century Theatre
The Century Theatre, originally the New Theatre, was a theater located at 62nd Street and Central Park West in New York City. Opened on November 6, 1909, it was noted for its fine architecture but due to poor acoustics and an inconvenient location it was financially unsuccessful...
, (New York) in 1911.
Austin and her husband were involved in the local California Water Wars
California Water Wars
The California Water Wars were a series of conflicts between the city of Los Angeles, farmers and ranchers in the Owens Valley of Eastern California, and environmentalists. As Los Angeles grew in the late 1800s, it started to outgrow its water supply. Fred Eaton, mayor of Los Angeles, realized that...
, in which the water of Owens Valley
Owens Valley
Owens Valley is the arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin section...
was eventually drained to supply Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. When their battle was lost, he moved to Death Valley, California, and she moved to Carmel, California. There, she was part of a social circle that included Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
, and George Sterling
George Sterling
George Sterling was an American poet based in California who, during his time, was celebrated in Northern California as one of the greatest American poets, although he never gained much fame in the rest of the United States.-Biography:Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York, the...
and was one of the founders of the Forest Theater
Forest Theater
Founded in 1910, the Forest Theater, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, was one of the earliest outdoor proscenium theaters west of the Rockies. Actor/director Herbert Heron is generally cited as the founder and driving force, and poet/novelist Mary Austin is often credited with suggesting the...
.
In 1929, while living in New Mexico, Austin co-authored a book with photographer Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
. Published a year later, the book, Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo (book)
Taos Pueblo is a book by Ansel Adams and Mary Hunter Austin. Originally published in 1930, it is the first book of Adams' photographs. A seminal work in his career, it marks the beginning of a transition from his earlier pictorialist style to his signature sharp-focused images of the Western...
, was printed in a limited edition of only 108 copies. It is now quite rare because it included actual photographs made by Adams rather than reproductions.
Austin died August 13, 1934 in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. Mount Mary Austin
Mount Mary Austin
Mount Mary Austin is a mountain east of the Sierra Crest and west of Independence, California. It is named in honor of Mary Hunter Austin, the author of The Land of Little Rain, who lived in Independence. The mountain is in the John Muir Wilderness...
, in the Sierra Nevada, was named in her honor. It is located 8.5 miles west of her longtime home in Independence, California
Independence, California
Independence is the county seat of Inyo County, California. Independence is located south-southeast of Bishop, at an elevation of 3930 feet . The population of this census-designated place was 669 at the 2010 census, up from 574 at the 2000 census....
. A biography was published in 1939.
Legacy
- A 1950 edition of The Land of Little Rain and a 1977 edition of Taos Pueblo each included photographs by Ansel AdamsAnsel AdamsAnsel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
. - The Austins' home in Independence, CaliforniaIndependence, CaliforniaIndependence is the county seat of Inyo County, California. Independence is located south-southeast of Bishop, at an elevation of 3930 feet . The population of this census-designated place was 669 at the 2010 census, up from 574 at the 2000 census....
is now a historical landmark. It was designed and built by the couple. - A teleplayTeleplayA teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
of The Land of Little Rain was written by Doris Baizley and presented on American PlayhouseAmerican PlayhouseAmerican Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart...
in 1989. It starred Helen HuntHelen HuntHelen Elizabeth Hunt is an American actress, film director, and screenwriter. She starred in the sitcom Mad About You for seven years, before being cast in the romantic comedy As Good as It Gets...
.
Works
- The Land of Little RainThe Land of Little RainThe Land of Little Rain is a book written by American writer Mary Hunter Austin. First published in 1903, it contains a series of interrelated lyrical essays about the inhabitants of the American Southwest, both human and otherwise.-Publication history:...
(1903), an account of the California Desert. full-text edition (Google Books) - The Basket Woman (1904), a book of Indian myths and fanciful tales for children.
- Isidro (book) (1905), a romance of Mission days.
- The Flock (1906), an account of the shepherdShepherdA shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
industry of California. - Santa LuciaSanta LuciaSanta Lucia is a traditional Neapolitan song. It was transcribed by Teodoro Cottrau and published by the Cottrau firm, as a "barcarolla", at Naples in 1849. Cottrau translated it from Napuletano into Italian during the first stage of the Risorgimento, the first Neapolitan song to be given Italian...
(1908), a novel. - Lost Borders, the people of the desert (1909).
- The Arrow Maker - A Drama in Three ActsThe Arrow MakerThe Arrow Maker is a play by Mary Hunter Austin meant to reflect American Indian life, especially of the Paiutes, in the Sierra Nevada mountains of the United States.-Motivation and history:...
(1911). - A Woman of Genius (1912).
- The Ford (1917).
- The Trail Book (1918).
- The American Rhythm (1923).
- The Land of Journeys' Ending (1924).
- Everyman's Genius (1925).
- Lands of the Sun (1927).
- Taos PuebloTaos PuebloTaos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA...
(1930). - Experiences Facing Death (1931).
- Starry Adventure (1931).
- Earth Horizon (1932), autobiography.
- Can Prayer Be Answered? (1934).
- One-Smoke Stories (1934).
- One Hundred Miles on Horseback (1887, 1963) (first published essay 1887, re-published posthumously).
- Cactus Thorn (1927, 1988) (written ca. 1927, the novella was published posthumously).
- From Greenwich Village to Taos (2008).
External links
- The Austins' house, now California Historical Landmark 229
- Mary Austin page, with links to works and reviews.
- Mary Austin at Find-A-Grave
- The Land of Little Rain at the Library of Congress (scanned images and text)
- Mary Hunter Austin Collection at the Autry National Center
- Eleven short readings from Austin's work at California Legacy ProjectCalifornia Legacy ProjectThe California Legacy Project began in 2000 as a project at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA and later partnered with Heyday Books in Berkeley, CA. The project uses a research team of SCU interns to create radio scripts for the radio anthology "Your California Legacy" on KAZU 90.3 FM,...
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