Description
This is the first book-length collection of essays on Mary Austin's work that covers the range of her writing in varied genres. Austin is revealed as a writer wrestling with issues that continue to challenge us today, including water in the arid West, social and environmental justice as it relates to indigenous peoples, women, and the working class, and the consequences of rigidly hierarchical thinking for western lands and people.

Reviews
“In a combination of vibrant prose and inclusive commentary, Temple succeeds in conveying what the whole collection fast accomplishes: presenting the remarkable diversity of a larger-than-life figure in all her contradictions and complexity. . . . Exploring Lost Borders is an important addition to Austin studies and sets a high standard for forthcoming criticism.” —Ann Merrill Ingram, Legacy, 2000

“In this collection, Mary Austin emerges as a writer who examines water issues in the arid West, treats social and environmental justice as it relates to indigenous peoples, women, and the working class, and considers the consequences of rigidly hierarchical thinking for western lands and people. . . . a deeply engaged and generally well-informed social critic who analyzes many of the issues that vex her original audience and that continue to challenge us today. . . . Exploring Lost Borders represents an ideal for essay collections, especially

Contents
Contents
Introduction
At Cross Purposes: Church, State, and Sex in Mary Austin's Isidro
Approaching the Imperialist Mirage: Mary Austin's Lost Borders
Mary Austin's "Indian-ness" and the Fight for Native Rights in the Southwest
Ritual Drama/Dramatic Ritual: Austin's "Indian Plays"
Singing Like the Indians Do: Mary Austin's Poetry
Serving Suspended Sentences: Mary Austin's Compositions and Explanations
Between Worlds, Crossing Borders: Mary Austin, Liminality, and the Dilemma of Women's Creativity
A Taste for Center Stage: Consumption and Feminism in A Woman of Genius
Can the Subalter-Ego Speak? Experiences Representing 'Mary Austin' on the Chautuaqua Circuit
Revision on the Horizon
Mary Austin's Land of the Little Rain: Remembering the Coyote
The Flock: An Ecocritical Look at Mary Austin's Sheep and John Muir's Hoofed Locusts
The Land's Water: The Ford and Mary Austin's Ecofeminist Vision
Walking Off an Illness? Don't Go West, Young Man
Bibliography
Index