DESERT COUNTRY by Edwin Corle [SOLD]

DESERT COUNTRY by Edwin Corle

Publisher: Duell, Sloan, & Pearce, New York

First edition Hardback, red fabric cover over board, 1941, second printing, 357 pages

Condition: very good condition

Book Review

Edwin Corle relates the tales and legends of the desert country of Nevada, Arizona, western Utah, and southeastern California. The story of the early explorations of Mitchell Caverns under the Providence Mountains in the Mojave Desert, Death Valley tales, reports of the Mormons in Deseret, yarns concerning various Indian tribes of the southwest, and of course mining adventures are all rounded up and revealed to the reader in the most casual, entertaining fashion. Historical fact is at the root of most of what's in this book, but only as a guidepost. Although the story lines are informative, it is their value as amusement and escapade that merits their inclusion here. Corle is an excellent writer, a captivating storyteller. A dramatic story about a herpetologist who gets bitten by a sidewinder after capturing a rare red diamondback rattler is a fitting conclusion to this totally enjoyable book.

Review by Bomojaz

CONTENTS

Mojave is Mojave

            Grand Opening Sat. Nite

            Oasis

            Calico Days

            Rhyolite

            Twenty-nine Palms

            Can You Name the Days of the Week?

            Old Woman of the Mountain

Where She Danced

            Salome

            The Town of Little Garlic

            Walnuts to Mr. Isaacs

            Old Pueblo

            Mr. Wickenburg and the Vulture

Land of the Talking God

            Yuma

            Mojave

            Apache

            Havasupai

            Qahatika

            Papago

            Hopi

Strange Virgin

            Deseret

            Long-lost Lamanites

            Messianic Complex

            Mountain Meadows Massacre

            Deseret Comes of Age

Fourth Estate

            The Tombstone Epitaph

            The Reese River Reveille

            The Coachella Valley Submarine

            The Panamint News

            The Victor Press

Legendry

            The Oyster Man of Bicycle Lake

            The Thing They Found in a Cave

            The Women Who Married Stars

            The Man Who Was Buried Standing Up

Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

            “Pioneers! O Pioneers!”

            Who Built the Furnace at Furnace Creek?

            The Marx Brothers of 1875

            A Youngster Twelve Million Years Old

            Twenty-mule Team and Old Harmony

            Twenty-three Skidoo

            Death Valley Scotty

. . . As Long as Space is Time

            The River in Red

            If You Don’t Get Excited—

            Aboriginal Gallery

            There is No End