Overview

"By embracing the full storytelling and archetypal potential of the American Southwest, Frank Waters wrote some of the finest literature of the 20th century. Through his 28 volumes of fiction and non-fiction, including Book of the Hopi and The Man Who Killed the Deer, Waters' achievement as both a novelist and a philosopher is comparable to Hermann Hesse, John Steinbeck, and Terry Tempest Williams, a rare accomplishment in the literary world. As James Thomas, editor of Best of the West, states: ""Waters is now ... on the cutting edge of just about everything we take seriously in this country: the natural environment, our socio-psychological environment ..., our political relationship with the past, and our political, ecological, and spiritual relationship with the future."" The Emergence of Frank Waters: A Critical Reader serves as an essential introduction to Frank Waters' life, work, and sociocultural contexts for scholars and general readers alike. In its 23 essays, this volume thoroughly explores Waters's visionary novels and non-fiction books, writings that are vital to understanding our transformational times. Born on July 25th, 1902, in Colorado Springs, Frank Waters began his twenty-eight book career in 1930 with The Lizard Woman, a novel set on the Mexican border. For the next six decades, he would go on to write many classics of fiction and non-fiction, including The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942), Masked Gods (1950), Book of the Hopi (1963), Pike's Peak (1971), and Mountain Dialogues (1981). Along the way, Waters engineered the first phone lines across the Mojave, wrote film scripts for Hollywood, edited a bilingual newspaper in New Mexico, penned public relations releases for Nevada's nuclear test range, and taught university level creative writing classes in Colorado. Waters received numerous honors in his lifetime, including the New Mexico Arts Commission Award for Achievement and Excellence in Literature, seven honorary doctorates, and the declaration of ""Frank Waters Day"" by New Mexico Governor Bruce King in 1993. Frank Waters died in his home in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico on June 3,"

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9781515417316

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Reviews

This compendium of Frank Waters visionary literary legacy by a stellar selection of writers, scholars and critics, joyously explores the work of the man who has been called the godfather of Southwestern writing. Often hailed as the greatest unknown writer in America--despite numerous nominations for the Nobel Prize--this appreciation should go a long way toward advancing the recognition of his place in the pantheon of the world's great writers. --Alan Louis Kishbaugh Author of DEEP WATERS Frank Waters Remembered in Letters and Commentary In this world of profound contradiction and dualism, where we seem to live in the realms of either extinction or salvation, Frank Waters' novels and nonfiction are prescient explorations into the nobility of the human spirit -- what poet Gregory Corso referred to as heirlooms for the future, that is, sacred objects or writings of special value handed down from one generation to another. The Man Who Killed the Deer and Masked Gods are justifiably revered for that reason. Alex Blackburn and fellow writer John Nizalowski are inspired guiding lights for this remarkable American journey. John Macker, author of Atlas of Wolves Put aside Hemingway and Fitzgerald in Paris, and look instead to the modernisms of the American West--Neihardt at Pine Ridge, Jeffers in California, Austin in New Mexico. None captured the taste and meaning of the Southwest better than Frank Waters, who went further and deeper than his peers. Philip J. Deloria Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University Author of Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract

Author Information

Alexander Blackburn was born in Durham, N. C., in 1929 and carried a passion for writing across his academic training at Yale and Cambridge and his teaching of creative writing at Pennsylvania and Colorado/Colorado Springs. For his work as educator, novelist, critic and editor he has received the prestigious Frank Waters Award for Excellence in Literature. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Dr. Inés Dölz-Blackburn, Chilean-born author and Professor of Spanish and Latin American Languages and Literature. John Nizalowski is the author of five books of poetry and prose. His two volumes of essays, Land of Cinnamon Sun and Chronicles of the Forbidden are widely read and also used in college college classrooms. John teaches mythology, creative writing and composition at Colorado Mesa University.

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