Seventeen essays by Mary Hunter Austin (18681934), author of the western classic "The Land of Little Rain "(1903), demonstrate her wide-ranging interests and equally varied writing styles.

Although she was born in Carlinville, Illinois, and graduated from Blackburn College, Mary Austin spent most of her writing career in California, New York, and finally Sante Fe, New Mexico. A well-known, popular, and prolific writer, Austin published thirty-three books and three plays and was closely associated with many important literary figures of her time, including H. G. Wells, George Bernard...