Utah Books

The New Desert Reader is a 384-page collection of informed and informative writings about the American Southwest that show how perceptions of the great American deserts have changed over time. First Dreamers is a chapter that explores ancient legends of the Tohono O'Odham Indians,; it is followed by Two Dreams Meet, taken from a narrative by Cabeza de Vaca. Among additional authors whose writings are included are, Dean and Lucille Saxton, William L. Manley, Horace Greeley, John Wesley Powell, Clarence E. Dutton, Mary Austin, D. H. Lawrence, Aldo Leopold, Wallace Stegner, Ann Zwinger, Tony Hillerman, and Peter Wild himself. All share a viewpoint and an experience of the desert, and those thoughts its aridity causes to flower. The shift in attitude is really more of a circle, a coming home to the notion that the desert is perhaps a type of sacred space to be cultivated and respected, rather than a despicable environment to be used and abused. The desert is a great teacher, perhaps, is one conclusion, if we are ready for the lesson, and if we survive it. A number of black and white pen drawing illustrations enrich the text. They are taken from a variety of historical sources acknowledged in the book. As an example of the later writers, Joseph Wood Krutch writes in "God's Hand in the Sky:" ""If what I find in the desert is no example to be imitated, it suggests a metaphor...it is .. the kind of thing I learn from an essay by Emerson or a poem by Emily Dickinson... I shall not forget its lesson: much can be lacking in the midst of plenty; on the other hand, where some things are scarce others, no less desirable, may abound (pages 232-233)." The New Desert Reader brings together diverse writers' thoughts about the desert over time. Like a prism, it yields a rainbow of experiences to be distilled by the reader.

A collaborative effort by Beverly Crum, Earl Crum, and Jon P. Dayly, Newe Hupia: Shoshoni Poetry Songs is a unique and seminal collection of poetry and songs both in the Native American Shoshoni language and in English translation. An introduction and commentary about the poems, as well as a vast glossary of Shoshoni terms and their English meanings offers meaningful context for these timeless and eternal verses of the heart and soul. Newe Hupia also comes with an audio CD containing superbly recorded performances of the songs by Earl and Beverly Crum, resulting in a unique literary and audio experience that is very highly recommended, ground breaking contribution to Native American Studies music and cultural reference collections.

The collaborative editorial work of Edward Leo Lyman, Susan Ward Payne, and the late S. George Ellsworth, No Place To Call Home: The 1807-1857 Life Writings Of Caroline Barnes Crosby, Chronicler Of Outlying Mormon Communities is the seventh volume in the unique "Life Writings of Frontier Women" series published by the Utah State University Press. Enhanced with a profusion of maps and illustrations, this is a chronologically organized collection of a Mormon pioneer woman's memoirs and journal entries that include her marriage to Jonathan Crosby in 1834, to her conversion to the infant Mormon Church, to her move to from Canada to the new church in Kirtland, Ohio, to her coming to Nauvoo in 1842, to her emigration to the Salt Lake valley in 1848 less than two years before Brigham Young sent Caroline and her husband on a church mission to the Society and Austral Islands in the South Pacific. Late in 1852 the Crosbys returned to California where she recorded the post-Gold Rush life of San Francisco, and the new Mormon village of San Bernardino in southern California. Then in 1857, returning to Utah in response to a call from Brigham Young where she resided for the remainder of her life. No Place To Call Home is a superb and very highly recommended contribution to academic library American History original documents collections and supplemental reading lists portraying pioneer life in mid-nineteenth century America in general, and the Mormon experience in particular.

Robert McPherson's The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900: Expansion Through Adversity is an amazing and informative examination of how the Navajos successfully defended and expanded their territory in an era when most Native Americans lost their lands. Focusing on the northern frontier borderlands and the "aggressive defensive" used to hold on to them, largely without making war, The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900 is a revealing look at how it is possible for a people to survive even when they are outnumbered and outgunned. The scholarly, college-level text is meticulously researched and preoccupied with truly understanding what was truly happening on the Northern Navajo Frontier and why during the specified period of 40 years. A most fascinating and thought-provoking study, The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900 is an impressive and welcome addition to Native American history reading lists and reference collections.

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Hosea Stout was, of course, a big VIP in the early days of the LDS Church. His diaries have proven to be of great import to scholars because of his important positions and copious and daily record. Especially noteworthy may be his entries during his time spent in the Utah legislature--for some time as the speaker. But most interestingly to me (being a student of literature more than history), is the pathos he expresses in the moments of tragedy--so common in the terrible years of Mormon persecutions.

I paid $85 dollars for my copy and consider it a fantastic deal. They're worth whatever you may find them for. Consider them recommended.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in what the life of a true pioneer was like. It is a great read about a great man.

The southern Utah town of Orderville operated as communal project from 1875 to 1885. Hundreds of "United Orders" were started in Mormon colonies, but Orderville's was among the longest lasting, the least capitalist, and the most famous of these. Leonard Arrington's short history of it is superb. The work is well-researched, very well-written, and efficient. Some of the content of this book reappears in Chapter 11 of Dr. Arrington's Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900, New Edition.

Effie Marquess Carmack (1885-1973) grew up in the tobacco-growing region of southern Kentucky known as the Black Patch. She married at an early age and, because of economic necessity and religious commitments, moved with her husband to Utah, back to Kentucky, then to Arizona, and finally to California. Along the way she became committed to preserving the rural, southern folkways she had experienced as a child. She became a folk poet and self-taught artist. In the 1940s she began writing her autobiography. Effie's story is a charming memoir of her spirited childhood on a poor tobacco farm. She describes a wide variety of folk practices from healing and crafts to children's games. A convert to the Mormon Church, her account of southern Mormon missions contributes to the little-known record of the Mormon church's attempts to establish a presence in the South. Out Of The Black Patch is a fascinating, engaging, candid, informative autobiography.

I enjoy reading diaries of the pioneers and explorers of the American West and this book is one of the best I've read. After each diary entry the editor provides additional information to clarify. I especially enjoyed the appendix which provides a brief biography and a picture of each member of the expedition. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the old west.

The book is filled with fascinating quotes, photographs, and history of the lovely small town of Park City, Utah. Reynolds did a magnificent job of capturing the town in a book.