Santa Lucia. A Common Story

When Mary Austin was 18, she moved with her family from Illinois to the edge of the Mojave Desert. So began her lifelong fascination with the desert and Indian culture, leading to such works as The Basket Woman (1904) and The Children Sing in the Far West (1928). A mystical experience at age five (brought on, perhaps, by a childhood of neglect) later flowered into The Lovely Lady (1913) and Outland (1919). Other works explored issues of social reform.