Of Chiles, Cacti, and Fighting Cocks: Notes on the American West

This is about the REAL Southwest, neither the Tex-Mexified version east of the Rockies, nor the touristy version of Santa Fe, nor the mythical version of the OK Corral. Most of this book deals with the largest U.S. desert -- the Great Basin desert. A land of rugged climatic extremes and even more rugged geography, it has largely bent men to its will rather than the other way around. Beginning with his own childhood reading and first trips to this area, Turner paints a portrait of the Southwest's natural and social history while also describing how he, too, has been shaped by this land.

A wonderful new edition of this lovely book has recently been done by Fulcrum Publishing. The ISBN is 1-55591-486-1. It includes new essays, including one on Gerogia O'Keefe that looks at the west from an artist's perspective that I thought was particularly special.

As of this writing, this well written collection of essays seems to be out of print, and it shouldn't be. Turner has a sharp eye for detail and an ability to craft personal experience and an encyclopedic scale of information into engaging reading on subjects as varied as saguaro cactuses, chili con carne (with a recipe for Basic Texas Red), management of wild horse herds, Billy the Kid, Basque sheepherders in the Great Basin, and a Czech festival each autum in Deming, New Mexico. Especially interesting for this reader is his essay on the lives of two early 20th-century writers who turned their own frontier experiences into best-sellers that shaped American awareness of the West: James Willard Schultz ("My Life as an Indian," 1907) and Will James ("Lone Cowboy," 1930). Based in Santa Fe, Turner roams over the southern arid states where inhabitants set their clocks to Mountain Time. And his essays are fine examples of travel writing that appreciates both landscape and centuries of human history. This is an excellent addition to any bookshelf of nonfiction Western literature.